“And comes that other fall we name the fall.
He says the highway dust is over all.
The bird would cease and be as other birds
But that he knows in singing not to sing.
The question that he frames in all but words
Is what to make of a diminished thing.”
--Robert
Frost, The Oven Bird
Ovenbirds (Seiurus
aurocapilla) are
LBB’s (little brown birds) that are seen foraging for food on the forest floor across
Canada and the eastern United States. While their breeding range is in the
northern United States, they overwinter in the southern U.S. and Mexico. Ovenbirds
breed and nest in older deciduous or evergreen forests and are rarely found in
urban environments. Except for suburban landscapes.
In a paper entitled “Forest Fragmentation Effects on
Ovenbird Populations in the Urban Region of Eastern Massachusetts, USA”
published in Urban Habitats (2012), authors Morimoto, Frankel, Hersek and
Wasserman found that large residential lots with forest cover can effectively serve
as nesting habitat for these forest birds. The study notes that forest cover
greater than 40% and small woodlots close to larger tracts of forest with high
connectivity reduces edge predators such as cowbirds, which often plague the ovenbird’s
nests.
The study concludes that “urbanization accounts for the
majority of developed land in many areas in the Northeast (e.g., Steel 1999).
Given this trend, it is of critical importance to recognize the value of the
remaining forested habitats in these regions and to manage these landscapes in
ways that will maximize their benefits to natural communities and species of
interest. We recommend that municipal leaders, land managers, and planners take
account of geographic location and regional landscape context when interpreting
and then applying results of scientific studies to the management and
conservation of viable bird populations in urban regions and elsewhere" (Morimoto, Frankel, Hersek, and Wasserman 2012).
