Use of an unmanned aerial vehicle and sound localization to determine bird microhabitat

Abstract

Study of bird microhabitat use is time consuming and labour intensive. Our objective was to present a proof of concept of how emerging, high-resolution bird survey methods can be combined with vegetation data collected via unmanned aerial vehicles to accurately and efficiently quantify bird microhabitat. We used sound localization to determine mourning warbler (Geothlypis philadelphia) song posts, and a hybrid light detection and ranging/digital aerial photogrammetry canopy height model to demonstrate how mourning warblers use regenerating vegetation on reclaimed well sites. We identified differences in vegetation heights at locations used by mourning warblers versus random background locations on a reclaimed well site, with sound localization and the canopy height model both providing measurements with 1-m resolution (t = −3.45, p = 0.002). These technologies have the potential to provide large numbers of accurate bird locations that can be associated with high-resolution, spatially explicit vegetation metrics and used in different ecological niche modeling frameworks.