Fire History, Passerine Abundance, and Habitat on a North Dakota Drift Plain Prairie

Authors

Timothy J. Ludwick, University of Pittsburgh - Greensburg
Robert K. Murphy, University of Nebraska at KearneyFollow

Date of this Version

3-2006

Document Type

Article

Citation

The Prairie Naturalist (March 2006) 38(1): 1-11

Comments

United States government work

Abstract

Prescribed fire is among key tools for restoring and managing prairies in the northern Great Plains, yet there are no published reports of its impacts on grassland passerine birds on native prairie in the Drift Plain, a major physiographic subregion. We examined relationships between prescribed fire history and abundance and habitat of breeding passerines in Drift Plain prairie at Des Lacs National Wildlife National Refuge in northwestern North Dakota. In 2003, we used point counts (n = 79 75 m radius plots) to survey bird abundance on 16 management units that had been prescribe-burned one to three times each since 1992. General habitat composition and structure also were measured at each point count plot. We detected 14 passerine species, six of which were common (occurred on greater than 10% of plots). Three endemic, historically common passerine species were rare or absent regardless of fire history. Abundances of common bird species were not influenced strongly by fire history, which contrasts with data from research on the adjacent Missouri Coteau physiographic subregion. Vegetation structure (litter depth and plant height-density) and occurrence of an exotic grass species, smooth brome (Bromus inermis), decreased with fire history. However, we detected no relationships between bird species abundances and these particular vegetation variables, perhaps because smooth brome continued to be a pervasive structural influence on all management units. Our findings indicate a need for better understanding of bird-fire relationships on remnant prairies in the vast Drift Plain.