Monitoring populations is critical to understanding habitat use, especially for endangered species and is important for determining the effectiveness of land management strategies. The Florida Grasshopper Sparrow (Ammodramus savannarum floridanus) is a critically endangered non-migratory grassland bird that has been monitored since the 1990s. It resides primarily in dry prairie habitat managed by frequent (2–3 years) prescribed fires. Monitoring is confounded by the presence of the migratory and wintering eastern Grasshopper Sparrow (A. s. pratensis), that has vocal and morphological similarities. These similarities could lead to misclassifications and erroneous conclusions about land management. Our goal was to determine the impact of fires on Florida Grasshopper Sparrow habitat use at two spatial scales, 100 m and 400 m buffers surrounding point count locations, while controlling for the presence of the eastern Grasshopper Sparrow. We combined point count data (1996–2011), external sources of data (eBird), and Bayesian dynamic occupancy models that accounted for misclassifications to evaluate habitat use and dynamics in response to prescribed fires. The probability of misclassifying a Florida Grasshopper Sparrow peaked in April and then decreased to near zero after May 1. The probability of persistence at point count stations decreased as years-since-fire (maximum of pixels within 400 m buffer) increased and was greatest for recent burns (< 1 year). Seasonality of the most recent burn (i.e., ordinal date of burn for pixels within 100 m buffer) also influenced probability of persistence with Florida Grasshopper Sparrows having greater-than-average persistence when burns occurred during January and July, peaking in early April. The probability of colonization peaked approximately two months after a fire and rapidly decreased to negligible values. This is the first long-term study to examine the effect of prescribed burn on Florida Grasshopper Sparrow occupancy that accounts for the presence of eastern Grasshopper Sparrows. This modeling framework may also provide utility for other species and subspecies that are difficult to distinguish during surveys.

The post Accounting for misclassification of subspecies provides insights about habitat use and dynamics of the Florida Grasshopper Sparrow in response to fire first appeared on Avian Conservation and Ecology.

监测种群对于了解栖息地的利用至关重要，特别是对于濒临灭绝的物种，并且对于确定土地管理策略的有效性也很重要。佛罗里达蚱蜢麻雀 ( Ammodramus savannarum floridanus ) 是一种极度濒危的非迁徙草原鸟类，自 20 世纪 90 年代以来一直受到监测。它主要栖息在经常（2-3 年）规定火灾管理的干燥草原栖息地。监测结果因迁徙和越冬东部蚱蜢麻雀 ( A. s. pratensis ) 的存在而混淆，它们的声音和形态相似。这些相似之处可能会导致有关土地管理的错误分类和错误结论。我们的目标是在两个空间尺度（点计数位置周围 100 m 和 400 m 缓冲区）确定火灾对佛罗里达蚱蜢麻雀栖息地使用的影响，同时控制东部蚱蜢麻雀的存在。我们结合了点计数数据（1996-2011）、外部数据源（eBird）和贝叶斯动态占用模型，这些模型解释了错误分类，以评估栖息地的利用和动态，以响应规定的火灾。错误分类佛罗里达蚱蜢麻雀的概率在 4 月份达到峰值，然后在 5 月 1 日之后下降到接近于零。点计数站的持久性概率随着火灾发生后年数（400 m 缓冲区内的最大像素）的增加而下降，并且在最近烧伤（< 1 年）。最近一次烧伤的季节性（即 100 m 缓冲区内像素的烧伤顺序日期）也影响了持久性的可能性，当 1 月和 7 月发生烧伤时，佛罗里达蚱蜢麻雀的持久性高于平均水平，在 4 月初达到峰值。定植的可能性在火灾后大约两个月达到峰值，并迅速下降到可以忽略不计的值。这是第一项长期研究，旨在研究规定烧伤对佛罗里达蚱蜢麻雀的占用率的影响，从而解释东部蚱蜢麻雀的存在。该建模框架还可以为调查期间难以区分的其他物种和亚种提供实用性。

亚种错误分类的帖子提供了有关佛罗里达蚱蜢麻雀响应火灾的栖息地利用和动态的见解，该帖子首次出现在鸟类保护和生态学上。