Dr. Rémi Torrenta - Birds Canada/Oiseaux Canada - 18 August 2022
Focusing mostly on breeding populations in Ontario and Québec, we found important differences between populations of the St. Lawrence Lowlands, located at the inner core of the species’ Canadian breeding range, and populations of the Canadian Shield, located at the edge of its Canadian breeding range. The population in the core was surprisingly stable despite high rates of forest loss and fragmentation. At the edge of its range, Wood Thrush populations may be more at risk of local extinction due to a combination of factors: lower habitat quality and prey availability, but also fewer new birds moving into these areas (i.e., lower immigration) ... the first important thing to mention is that those forest fragments have a dense understory layer, which has been very favorable to the Wood Thrush, especially following regeneration after the 1998 ice storm. The other thing we found is that young birds moving into these fragments from larger forests (i.e., natal dispersal) may compensate for the low number of young produced within these fragments, thus “subsidizing” this fragile population.
Links/Liens: Research paper/Article de recherche,
