Breeding Bird Populations in the Spruce Region of the Central Appalachians

As one step in a program directed toward the quantitative analysis of the birdlife of the eastern United States in relation to its natural environment, the writers spent ten days during June, 1947, investigating conditions in the red-spruce zone of the West Virginia mountains. The Boreal element manifests itself in the central Appalachian Mountains by the development of red-spruce, and associated plant and animal life at elevations above 4,000 feet, or possibly somewhat lower, on the moister western slopes. The present investigations were conducted in the relatively high and connected group of ridges and knobs known as the Cheat Mountains, in Randolph and Pocahontas Counties of West Virginia. The region most intensively covered was that directly to the northwest of Durbin, West Virginia. Exploratory trips were made tQ other sections of this mountain mass, however. The topography and ecology, as well as the general aspect of the birdlife of this area, were adequately described by Brooks ('43) and so need not be gone into in detail here. The higher knobs of the Cheat Miountains are all over 4,000 feet, and some rise to over 4,800 feet. This massif is west of the main backbone of the Alleghenies, and being higher than anything to the west of it, gets the full benefit of precipitation from the moisture-laden, prevailing, southwest winds. The entire uplift is within the zone of over 50 inches of rainfall, and averages between 60 and 70 inches annually, on the western slopes (Brooks, '43). Like all the rest of the northern and middle Appalachian Mountain region, the Cheat Mountains have been almost completely lumbered over so that practically all of the present timber is second-growth of varying ages. The original forest of this region was probably largely spruce above the 4,000-foot contour. Due to the relatively moist climate which has kept fires to a minimum, the spruce has regenerated in many areas, following cutting; whereas in other parts of the Appalachians subject to more frequent fires, which destroyed the moisture-holding qualities of the soil, the spruce has been eliminated. These factors have been very important in preserving the ecological conditions, which present a relatively boreal aspect at the present time, in contrast to surrounding mountain areas in West Virginia and Virginia. The plan for studying the composition and abundance of birdlife in the spruce zone was to select areas of habitat representing stages of succession to and including the climax forest. Through correspondence and consultation with Professor Maurice Brooks, of West Virginia University, Mr. W. H. DeGarmo o, of the Conservation Commission of West Virginia, and Mr. T. J. Hanlon, of the U. S. Forest Service station at Bartow, West Virginia, we were fortunate in locating an excellent example of virgin sprucehardwood forest. We also laid our plots in an area of mature second-growth spruce, and two equivalent stages of young second-growth, one of a deciduous type, indicating the intervention of fire after the original spruce forest was cut, and one of pure spruce, indicating the exclusion of fire. Breeding-bird censuses were made in measured areas of each of these habitats by means of the spot-mapping method, employing a grid-like cruising system along parallel lines 330 feet apart. In censusing along these lines, all birds observed or heard within 165 ft. on either side were recorded. This distance has been used in many different habitats in