3.3 Birds
Barn Owls and American Kestrels are two raptor species of open habitats with suspected declines in North Carolina and documented declines elsewhere (Smallwood et al. 2009) . Loss of nesting and foraging habitat has been attributed to development and clean farming prac- tices. Both species have responded to installation of nest boxes in western North Carolina. Understanding of the Golden Eagle’s migration and winter range in the Appalachians has greatly improved with eforts of the Eastern Golden Eagle Working Group. Since 2013, stud- ies of Golden Eagles using camera surveys and GPS tracking have revealed the importance of the North Carolina mountains as overwintering grounds for this species. Te Northern Saw-whet Owl breeds in North Carolina’s spruce–fr and northern hard- wood forests but its population trends are unknown. Te logging boom of the 1880s–1930s reduced North Carolina’s spruce–fr forests by half, and Balsam Woolly Adelgid subse- quently caused extensive mortality of mature Fraser Fir forest. Te species also occurs in Coastal Plain habitats in the winter, but the importance and extent of this area is unknown. Te Bald Eagle continues its recovery after being delisted from the endangered species list by the US Fish and Wildlife Service in 2007. Periodic eforts to monitor populations are con- tinuing to ensure future positive population trends. 3.3.4 Knowledge Gaps Much of our distribution and population trend knowledge gaps stem from those species that are not well-surveyed by traditional road-based methods (i.e., USGS Breeding Bird Surveys, Audubon Christmas Bird Count). In many cases, more research into the life his- tory traits and habitat requirements of species is required to properly inform habitat man- agement practices, identify areas for conservation, and resolve human–animal conficts. Tere have been few studies of the Wilson’s Plover population in North Carolina; thus, the population trend is poorly understood, although survey data have been collected during surveys focusing on other species such as American Oystercatcher and Piping Plover (Ray 2011; DeRose-Wilson et al. 2013) . Other beach-nesting species exhibiting declines, including Common and Gull-billed Terns, have not been studied to identify threats to their nest-site selection and nesting success. Further, although Erwin (2005) and others provide sugges- tions for bufer or set-back distances that reduce impacts of human activities to nesting colonies of terns and skimmers, there have been no studies of this threat in North Carolina; hence, bufer distances are based on studies in other locations and under diferent circumstances.
North Carolina provides foraging grounds for the Red Knot during fall and spring migra- tions, as well as during winter. Tere has been no systematic survey protocol developed to
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2015 NC Wildlife Action Plan
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