• Hooper, Sarah T.
  University of Maine Graduate School
  

I investigated the relative influences of distance from streams and vegetation structure on distributions of songbirds in riparian forests of Maine in 1989-1990. I surveyed 24 riparian sites in 1989 and 18 sites in 1990, classifying each site as either upland or floodplain riparian forest. Upland forests (21 sites) were well-drained, coniferous or deciduous forests, adjacent to a stream or river, and were similar in vegetation structure to non-riparian forests. Floodplain forests (8 sites) were poorly drained, deciduous forests, often with standing water. At each site, I censused breeding birds and measured 1"4 vegetation variables along transects at 6 distances from streams: 25 m,75 m, I25 m, 175 m,225 m,275 m. The distributions of songbirds among these 6 distances were compared between upland and floodplain forest types, with the null hypothesis that species richness and numbers of songbirds would not vary with increasing distance from streams (i.e. no "riparian effect").