Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Flammulated owl (Otus flammeolus) breeding habitat abundance in ponderosa pine forests of the United States

Informally Refereed

Abstract

Flammulated Owl (Otus flammeolus) inhabits mid-elevation montane forests of ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) and Jeffrey pine (Pinus jeffreyi) across western North America during the breeding season. We employed data from the USDA Forest Service’s Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program to assess historic and current extent of ponderosa and Jeffrey pines comprising the majority of Flammulated Owl habitat within 11 western states of the USA. We cross-referenced breeding habitat characteristics to FIA data attributes; then produced estimates and maps of forest land area and potential habitat abundance from FIA data and made comparisons with other published data. We estimated area of current ponderosa and Jeffrey pine forest types on forest land as 98 633 km2 and 83 000 km2, from FIA and LANDFIRE data, respectively. Area of ponderosa and Jeffrey pine forest types on timberland (a subset of forest land) decreased from 136 200 km2 to 86 827 km2 (36%,) between 1953 and 2007.

Keywords

Flammulated Owl, Otus flammeolus, ponderosa pine, Pinus ponderosa, habitat, forest inventory, FIA

Citation

Nelson, Mark D.; Johnson, David H.; Linkhart, Brian D.; Miles, Patrick D. 2009. Flammulated owl (Otus flammeolus) breeding habitat abundance in ponderosa pine forests of the United States
https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/treesearch/34271