Eastern Screech-Owls in Urban Environments
Objectives
The Eastern Screech-Owl (EASO; Megascops asio) is the first focal species of our Urban Raptor Project, which seeks to understand raptor habitat use and population dynamics in regions experiencing urbanization and land use change. In rapidly growing regions, obtaining a better understanding of how land use affects species occurrence is critical so that these important predators can persist for generations to come!
At sites in both rural and urban areas, we will use playback surveys to find active EASO territories, where we will study aspects of nest site selection and habitat use. We will also use remote tracking technologies to 1) study how male territory size may change with urbanization, 2) study how juvenile survival may change with urbanization.
Despite ranging across eastern North America, many aspects of EASO life history is unknown, as is the case with most owls.
EASO inhabit many regions with high human input in areas that are suburban or urban. These environments have an effect on the species that persist there and the structure of ecosystems.
The challenges birds like EASO face in urban environments are many and include habitat loss, greater risk of encountering toxins (ie. rodenticide–a ubiquitous problem for raptors), and even presence of competitors/predators that may fare better in proximity to humans.
Raptors are not all affected equally by urbanization–some species do well and some don’t. How the EASO fares is largely not known. Citizen science data from Northwest Arkansas suggests the species may be disappearing from suburban and urban environments in the region.
Using sites located along a gradient of urban to rural land, we will work to understand the factors that affect EASO survival and habitat use. We will accomplish this by using playback surveys and remote tracking to monitor habitat selection, adult territory size, and juvenile dispersal–an important and dangerous period as young owls find their place on the landscape.
Project Map
Many sites with active territories (bird icons) have photos, so be sure to click around and explore!
Site locations are not exact and have been obscured to protect owls and landowners involved in this study.