Leconte’s Sparrows Co-Occur with Yellow Rails

Abstract

The Yellow Rail (Coturnicops noveboracensis) is a small, secretive bird species that within the last decade has been found to winter in southeast Oklahoma in the Red Slough Wildlife Management Area. This bird is a species of conservation concern across its breeding range, but due to its reticent nature it can be difficult to determine if this organism occurs in an area. The objective of this project was to determine if the LeConte's Sparrow (Ammodramus leconteii) could be an indicator species for suitable habitat for the Yellow Rail. During the fall and winter of 2018/2019, we conducted field surveys at Red Slough Wildlife Management Area, Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge, and the Texas Gulf Coast to search for these two species. Using the collected presence data, we created an occupancy model in R using the unmarked library. Our study sites had a 75.9% occupancy rate for LeConte's Sparrows, while the occupancy of Yellow Rails was 53.6%. Our sample size is small, but this suggests that LeConte’s Sparrows may be a useful proxy for the presence of Yellow Rails in a given damp field, although LeConte's Sparrows may potentially occur in areas that are less suitable for Yellow Rails.