[font face=Serif][font size=5]Restoring Streams Helps Winter Songbirds[/font]

Press Release

Contact:

Mark Dettling, Avian Ecologist,
(734) 812-8441, mdettling@prbo.org
Nat Seavy, Research Director,
(415) 868-0655 ext 311, nseavy@prbo.org
Melissa Pitkin, Education and Outreach Director, (707) 781-2555 ext 307, mpitkin@prbo.org

[font size=4]Restoring streamside forests helps songbirds survive the winter in CA’s Central Valley[/font]

[font size=3]A new study by PRBO Conservation Science (PRBO) and the National Aviary finds that restoring floodplain forests in the Central Valley of California helps songbirds survive through the winter, a finding previously substantiated only for summer nesting birds.

The floodplain of California’s Central Valley is rich with streamside forests of willows, cottonwoods, oaks, and sycamores. Each summer, these forests are alive with the sounds of singing songbirds, but what may be surprising to some is that these same forests help migratory songbirds survive the winter. Birds from Alaska and Canada fly about 2,400 miles each year to winter in the forests of the Central Valley. Their survival is dependent upon having enough healthy habitats available.

“We often focus on the importance of floodplain forests for songbirds that nest in the spring and summer,” said PRBO avian ecologist Mark Dettling, “but this is the first study to show that restored forests also provide habitat for wintering songbirds in the Central Valley.”

The study, published in the journal Conservation Biology, found that songbirds generally prefer restored forests equally to existing older forests. But some species, including Lincoln’s and White-crowned Sparrows, were found in higher numbers in restored forests.

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