Species-Specific Management (SSM)

Songbirds

Most people want many species on their areas. The number of each species needs to be sufficient so that at least a few can be seen each year. Rarely do people want great numbers of any species. That is the assumption for this area.

Management Tactics

Here are the ways to get the birds . . .

1. Mixtures of land use, pastures, ponds, grain fields, cropland, woodlots, forests, fallow areas - all mixed together will produce the greatest bird richness. To add species to a daily list, a bird watcher will go to another type of land use. The more types that there are in a small area, the better for the birds.
2. The number of age classes is more important than types when it comes to positively influencing bird richness.
3. Forest management practices influence faunal spaces of birds by altering stand presence, composition, structure, and understory vegetation. Birds exist in or are said to select for factors that enhance their survival. Available, diverse food in a timely manner, is a critical resource for birds and may influence reproductive success and survival of breeding birds. Deciduous species support a higher abundance and biomass of arthropod food for birds than evergreen species. Where there is no understory light, there will be plant leaves (foliage mass) thus few arthropods. Understory light positively influences presence, abundance, and sugar content of soft mast as bird food.
4. Within the above, the common element is the layer. Management of many populations of song birds in a small area requires many layers. Work to achieve them; work harder to maintain stable volumes of them. Grass, low shrub, tall shrub-sapling, and canopy are four recognized layers in forests. The more layers there are in any area, the more bird species there will be. Fire and grazing reduce the layers; opening the canopy usually adds or maintains layers. Group-selection harvests can be used to work to achieve many layers. Birds are fairly layer-specific. Overstory canopy closure of 50-70 percent is desired for the top layer. The layers are soil (insects, etc.; and hyporheic or under the surface) , ground, shrub, intermediate, and upper. ("Top," or "upper" can be misleading. Number the layers. To achieve them:
   

   1. Keep livestock grazing patchy to maintain breeding or courtship cover, nesting cover (tall grass = 18 inches), brood cover (tall forbs with sparse grass = 18 inches), food (forbs,sparse grass, and woody debris), and protective cover (thermal and escape = tall forbs and grass = 18 inches).
   2. Do not install electric fencing or additional water facilities that contribute to uniform grazing.
   3. Implement patch burning to provide the structural, compositional, and spatial diversity suggested.
   4. Eliminate the regular use of broadcast herbicides that eliminate annual and perennial food sources (both seeds and foraging insects).
   5. Convert patches of introduced forages into native warm season grasses and forbs. Consult the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Ecological Site Guides (located in NCRS county offices) to select the appropriate plant composition.
   6. Native forbs may need to be protected from deer or livestock grazing, late spring burning, and herbicides. Fencing may be useful. They are preferred to cultivated crops. Grain sorghum or alfalfa may be useful substitutes if native forbs are inadequate.Leave 14 inches or more of stubble in cultivated fields that are harvested in agricultural operations. Do not use insecticides on cultivated crops.
   7. Never cut hay meadows twice or cut them late since this has has negative impacts on forage quality, plant species composition, and residual winter cover.
   8. Manage windbreaks and living snow fences. Manage forest edges.

5. Have as many types of trees as possible. It is desirable for these to be in stands of 5 acres (2 hectares) or more but birds ofien respond will to groups of 4 to 5 trees of the same species. All-white-pine or all-tulip-poplar forests may be good based on short-term economics, but great bird richness will not result. Studying site conditions and favoring the trees likely to do best on each site will probably be as good for birds as for long-term, lowered-risk forest investors.
6. Have all stand age-classes present in the vicinity. This means a planned rotation with some area-regulation. Age is more important to most species than the forest type.
7. Work to favor those species that are conspicuous for boldness (e.g., chickadees, color (e.g., cardinal), and size(e.g., pileated woodpecker).
8. Some species (e.g., indigo bunting, towhee) need young stands (0- to 5-years old). These probably work best when they are 10-20 acres in size. These same birds can be found along day-lighted roads, powerline strips, and next to farm land.
9. Other species (e.g., downy woodpeckers) need dense young stands (2000 to 8000 stems per acre). (Yes, downy woodpeckers are found elsewhere, but having a sufficient number every year requires at least some good animal space for them.)
10. (We do not use the word "habitat" any more since it has no real meaning. We need to think about a special concept of space (the forest volume . . . above the trees . . . and under the leaves . . . and food . . . and hiding places . . . and protected places (permanent refuges) . . . even animals next to each other (flocks and coveys) . . . all over many years.) We use faunal space.
11. There are not many bird species in the young stage of the forest, but it is essential, and the age class leads to the next.
12. The next needed stage has many dying stems. The canopy is full and a few tree boles have reached the size of pulpwood sticks. Some warblers, thrushes, and the hairy woodpecker show up here.
13. The mature forest is the largest age class and it is where most species of birds occur. They are often difficult to see (in the tall canopy), are poorly known, but represent the real forest bird species richness.
14. There are areas in most forests that are inaccessible, uneconomical, and real trouble. Leave them alone to age. Protect them from fire. They are "for the birds" and can be rich areas for a large number of species, especially the insect eaters such as the pileated woodpecker. Foot and horse trails into these areas can allow the "harvest" of the benefits from birds so abundant there.
15. Each species has different requirements. You can work for species or work for many different areas that will probably match up well with the needs of a species in some year in the future. (The suggestion does not sound very specific, but it is practical, especially viewed over the long run and when funds are limited for species-specific work.)
16. Work for different type stands. All-white-pine or all-tulip-poplar forests may be good based on short term economics, but great bird richness will not result. Studying site conditions and favoring the trees likely to do best on each site will probably be as good for birds as for long-term, lowered-risk forest investors.
17. Food and cover needs to be scattered widely. Many bird species are territorial and occupy large areas (defend against other bird use).
18. If you want to see birds or to obtain large numbers, work for contrasting edges. [A 50-year old white oak stand adjacent to a 30-year old scarlet oak stand produces an edge, but it is not a contrasting edge!] Edges disappear over time (as, for example, when a clear cut changes to a 40-year old stand adjacent to a 80-year old stand).
19. Large stands tend to protect the birds living in the center. Around the edges in a wide zone (200 yards from a contrasting edge) birds are preyed upon by other birds, namely crows, blue jays, and cow birds. Large stands, or large stands with small group-selection-cuts in the center far from the edges, tend to have more birds per acre than small stands. There is a trade off (which is still being studied) between benefits of contrasting forest edges, and the detrimental nest parasitism and predation that occurs there.
20. Group-selection tree harvests produce abundant edge length (per unit of enclosed area).
21. Edges for birds need to be managed to increase length, width of influence, height (related to layers present), and quality (e.g., an edge between a planted wildlife food patch and a 20-year old white pine stand is much better for birds than the same length edge between a laurel thicket and a 100 year old table-mountain-pine stand). The idea of wildlife edge is a volume (length x width x height x quality of this volume for any one species). "Edge" is a species-specific concept for the modern wildlife manager.
22. In patches, cut the tops out of conifer trees to allow them to "hedge out" and thereby prevent the loss of dense cover (in mature conifer stands). They increase wind protection and provide select nesting sites. At 4-8 feet, they contribute to one recognized layer.
23. Openings, like wildlife clearings and road-side daylighted zones, can be managed for birds by cleaning out vegetation and making tepee-shaped brush piles, favoring shrubs like:
    dogwood, viburnum, laurel, hawthorn, crabapple, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, sumac, grape, and other sun-responding food producers
24. These edges and openings need to be dense and function during an early spring snowfall. That is the time for which you need to prepare for the birds.
25. Try to get 2-4 snags per acre (1 per 1300 feet of stream buffer zone that is 50 feet wide will meet this recommendation). If the snags are not naturally available, use an axe and frill the bark around some poor-form trees and allow them to die. This will also influence the number and density of forest layers -- two benefits from one action.
26. Protect the stream edges, at least 50 feet on each side. Some bird species live only in these zones (e.g., winter wren, water thrush). The shrubs near the average stream support abundant insect bird food. Some birds nest and feed only along stream edges.
27. Prescribed burns can be used carefully. Fires alter forest development and change the plant communities upon which birds feed and use. Depending on species and their feeding behavior, fires produce for them more or less plant (e.g., seeds and soft mast) or animal food and nesting opportunities.
28. Develop (or protect with fencing and other devices) ponds, marshes, and wetlands.
29. Favor springs and seeps. (Stay out of them; do not cut trees in or around them, especially those that cast an afternoon shadow on them.) They are great feeding places for many birds. Most eastern forests have plenty of water, but small ponds or "puddle holes" scooped out nearby roads can benefit many birds. Whether essential for a drink or not, these areas are attractive to birds. The resource manager is interested in see-able birds near roads or trails, not just any or all birds.
30. Nest boxes can be put out for owls and ducks. Even in pole-sized stands they will be used.
31. Bird houses make good handicraft projects and when built to specifications (information available) are often used. Put them up only in the proper places for each species and restore them annually.
32. Dump a truck load of livestock manure near a forested wet spot to "grow earthworms" to attract woodcock and other birds.
33. Feeders will increase birds, especially if they are diverse, well positioned, and maintained. There is a danger that bird diseases may be related to feeders (salmonellosis, aspergillosis, avian pox, and mycoplasmosis). The disease problem can be reduced by keeping them spread out, cleaning up under them (or moved when needed), removing sharp edges or points, cleaning them (dipping occasionally for 3 minutes in 1 to 9 parts Clorox to water), using good food, keeping out rodents, and calling when you see sick birds (more than one or two): National Wildlife Health Center, USGS, Biological Resources Division, 6006 Schroeder Road, Madison, WI 53711-6223 (608-264-5411).
34. Plant an annual bird food patch about 55 feet by 200 feet where soil is good, tractor access is easy, sunlight abundant, and deer not feeding heavily. Use millet, sorghum, lespedeza, clover, and a variety of grasses (minimum or no fescue) with some warm-season grasses.
35. Fence out cattle. (Deer have reduced some bird populations by destroying one or more vegetation layers.)
36. Get rid of house cats in and near the area.
37. Get rid of free-ranging dogs.
38. Avoid mass insecticide applications. Select non-toxic mixtures and make applications and clean-up work so as to minimize probable effects.
39. Use handtools or herbicide to poison individual unwanted plants. Powersaws are most economical for thinning stands.) Be careful about equipment cleanup.
40. Create living "scenes", places of great beauty that will be made more beautiful by the presence of a bird (e.g., a rocky area with hemlock which when covered with snow awaits a cardinal on a branch). These do not have to be "photo opportunities", simply creative landscaping that includes birds.
41. Provide in open areas, clumps of brush, rock outcrops (built up), and even posts to provide viewing and resting sites for birds.
42. In open areas, run a brushhog or large mower around grassed areas to provide diversified vegetation, access to insects, travel lanes, and protection of young birds (poults) leaving the nest.
43. Develop foot trails where birds can be readily seen.
44. Conduct a bird survey in early spring and again near Christmas. Keep a record of the birds to follow your progress and changes. Keep a total list of species seen. Compete with another landowner to see who has the longest list.
45. Some birds are busy in the night. Keep separate records of bird-watching at night, especially as related to moonlight, season, and time since twilight.
46. Consider opportunities for an Avi course, a place for the new sport of bird watching.
47. Consider taking a guided national or international tour to add birds to your life list.
48. Invite people to see your birds. Encourage springtime bird watching. Bring together birds and appreciative people.Get as much use and benefits as possible out of your resource.

See the story behind the Bird Feeding Society

Robert H. Giles, Jr. (1992)

References by Susan B. Horne 1993

Bent, Arthur Cleveland. 1968. Life Histories of North American Cardinals. Grosbeaks. Buntings. Towhees. Finches. Sparrows. and Their Allies. Bulletin of Smithsonian Institute. Washington, D. C. l491-1512.

Greensburg, Russell. 1988. Water as a Habitat Cue for Breeding Swamp and Song Sparrows, The Condor. The Cooper Ornithological Society. 420-427.

Nice, Margaret Morse. 196q. Studies in the Life History of the Song Sparrow. Vol. 1. Dover Publications, Inc. 817,57-60,92-96.

Nice, Margaret Morse. 1964. Studies in the Life History of the Song Sparrow. Vol. 2. Dover Publications, Inc. 151, 209, 266.

Watts, Bryan D. 1990. Cover Use and Predator-related Mortality in Song and Savannah Sparrows. Auk. Vol. 107. 775-778.

This Web site is maintained by R. H. Giles, Jr.
Last revision January 17, 2000.