The Breeding Ecology of Boreal Chickadees in the Red Lake Wildlife Management Area in Northern Minnesota

Abstract

We examined the impacts of fragmentation on the breeding ecology of the Boreal Chickadee (Poecile hudsonicus) in the Red Lake WMA in Minnesota. Boreal Chickadees are listed as a Species in Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN), with declines attributed to habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation. We used linear mixed-effect models to examine the impacts of fragmentation on Boreal Chickadee food availability, nestling growth rates, body condition and provisioning rates. We modeled nest survival in relation to landscape, patch and nest site scale metrics of fragmentation using the program MCEstimate. We found evidence that fragmentation negatively impacts nest survival, nestling growth rates and food availability. Additionally, we elucidated the diet of nestling Boreal Chickadees by extracting DNA from fecal samples and using DNA metabarcoding techniques. We found that Boreal Chickadee nestlings are primarily being provisioned prey from the orders: Lepidoptera, Aranea and Diptera; and are likely actively selecting for Lepidoptera.