Selection of fire-created snags at two spatial scales by cavity-nesting birds

Abstract

We examined the use of snag stands by seven species of cavity-nesting birds from 1994-1998. Selection of snags was studied in logged and unlogged burned forests at two spatial scales: microhabitat (local vegetation characteristics) and landscape (composition and patterning of surrounding vegetation types). We modeled nest occurrence at the landscape scale by using Landsat Thematic Mapper imagery. At both spatial scales, we observed a continuum in habitat use with the extremes represented by black-backed and Lewis’s woodpeckers. A range of habitat conditions characteristic of black-backed and Lewis’s woodpeckers would likely incorporate habitat features necessary for nest occurrence of other members in the cavitynesting bird community.