Studying Bird Populations in Streamside Habitats Over 40 Years

presented by Dave Manuwal

Dave Manuwal

Dr. Dave Manuwal, who has studied birds in the western US for over 60 years, will be the featured speaker at the Monday, November 12 meeting of the Flathead Audubon Society at 7PM in the Gateway Community Room in Kalispell. He received his undergraduate degree from Purdue University and a Master’s degree working with Dick Taber at the University of Montana in 1968. He received a PhD studying marine birds at UCLA in 1972. Dave taught and conducted bird research for 41 years at the University of Washington’s School of Environmental and Forest Sciences. After retiring in 2013 as Emeritus Professor of Wildlife Science, he is now an affiliate professor at UM where he recently resurveyed his bird plots at Lubrecht Experimental Forest from 40 years earlier! He now resides in Kalispell with his wife Naomi.

Dr. Manuwal will talk about his study of birds found along streams in western Montana that was initiated in 1967. Dave mapped the territories of males along three streams and compared the numbers of birds between 1967-68, 1980 and 2008. He also took data on when and where individual males established territories to see if they were responding to specific aspects of the habitat. Focal species were Hammond’s Flycatcher, MacGillivray’s Warbler, American Redstart, and Warbling Vireo. A catastrophic weather event in February 1989 drastically changed the structure of the vegetation. This had some consequences for future birds with territories along the streams. The American Redstart appeared to be the most impacted.

The program is free and open to the public.