Several hundred species of birds depend upon habitat in the Central Hardwoods Bird Conservation Region (CHBCR) during critical times of their life cycles. Many breed or over-winter here, while others stop during migration between breeding and wintering grounds. Some species are doing quite well, but populations of others are less stable or are more vulnerable to long-term declines.
Species in the greatest need of conservation attention typically have some combination of relatively small ranges, small population sizes, declining trends, and reliance on threatened or already degraded habitats. The CHJV focuses on these priority bird species. Species that have large percentages of their populations in a particular BCR also are considered priorities, but don’t necessarily warrant immediate conservation action if their populations are stable or increasing.
The tables below list the priority birds for the CHBCR, as derived from species assessment processes developed by the North American bird conservation initiatives. The species are grouped by their associations with four broad habitat types (forest-woodlands, grass-shrublands, grasslands and wetlands); only species in need of conservation action and breeding or wintering in the BCR are noted. For a complete list of priority birds, including transients, please contact us.
For a compilation of information on species’ habitat needs and responses to management practices, visit the Partners in Flight Species Management Synthesis.
Grasslands Birds
Grassland birds are associated with habitats that include native natural communities such as prairies and barrens, as well as pastures and hayfields, although fescue and other non-native grasslands typically are lower quality breeding sites than pastures planted with native grasses and forbs. Many of the Central Hardwoods priority grassland bird species also are “area sensitive” meaning that they are more likely to colonize and have better reproductive success in large fields than smaller ones. While the offspring of some priority grassland bird species will utilize shrub cover after leaving the nest or for protection during winter, long linear fence rows consisting of trees and shrubs can provide travel lanes and entry points for predators that can have negative impacts on survival rates on the birds from the egg stage through adulthood.
Grass-shrublands Birds
Grass-shrubland birds are found in areas with an understory of grasses and forbs, with shrubs and open-grown trees interspersed. Natural communities that provide high quality habitat for this suite of species include savannas, barrens, glade-woodland complexes, open oak and pine-bluestem woodlands, although some species also will colonize clearcuts and oldfields.
Pine-bluestem Woodlands Birds
These woodlands historically occurred on gently dissected plains with sandy soils where there were few natural barriers to fire. There are no surrogates for this habitat type, and the widespread cutting of pine in the late 18th and early 19th century, followed by decades of fire suppression, have nearly caused its demise, although there are efforts underway to restore large acreages in the Ozark Highlands see the Interior Highlands Shortleaf Pine Initiative. The priority species associated with this habitat type include the extirpated Red-cockaded Woodpecker, the nearly extirpated Brown-headed Nuthatch, and the Bachman’s Sparrow that now only occurs sporadically across the region.
Closed-woodlands and Forests Birds
What are typically thought of as “interior forest” birds inhabit a range of natural community types from closed woodlands to true forests. Many of these species can be subject to fairly high nest predation and parasitism rates in landscapes where forests and woodlands are relatively fragmented, with large ratios of edge to forest block size, and where pasture, cropland and/or urban and suburban development are interspersed. Early-successional forests, or forests where younger age classes predominate following cutting, stand-replacing fire, or windthrow by tornados, ice storms or other severe-weather events, can offer high-quality habitat to the offspring of forest birds as they seek to escape from predators and find food to fatten up before their first migrations.
Wetlands Birds
High-priority wetland-dependent species include waterfowl, shorebirds and marshbirds. Many of these species are more dependent upon wetlands in the Central Hardwoods Bird Conservation Region during migration and winter than the breeding season, and use a variety of wetland types from deep water, to shallower pools to the mudflats in both spring and fall. Natural communities include floodplain forests and herbaceous wetlands (marshes) that were associated with the large river systems that traverse the BCR, such as the Cumberland, Ohio, Missouri, Mississippi, and Tennessee, but most were lost or degraded by impoundments in the mid-late 20th century, and now have to be restored where possible.
