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Rufous Hummingbird

Forest condition: Unique Forest Habitat
Habitat Attribute: Nectar-Producing Plants

Habitat Objectives
Sites: Where ecologically appropriate in any forest stage or condition provide >20% of the shrub/herbaceous understory cover as nectar-producing plants (e.g., salmonberry, rhododendron, currant).

Habitat Conservation Strategies

  • Allow unmanaged early-successional habitat to regenerate naturally, particularly where there is the potential for a well-developed deciduous component of flower (nectar) producing plants.
  • Retain and/or plant flower (nectar) producing shrubs and trees such as salmonberry, currant, and snowbrush, and herbaceous plants such as penstemon, columbine, and paintbrush
  • Maintain deciduous vegetation in areas where conifer seedlings are not planted or difficult to establish such as along logging roads and landings: on unstable, steep slopes; and in moist depressions, gullies, and stream courses.
  • Where vegetation management is conducted, use selective control of deciduous vegetation (e.g., immediately adjacent to conifer seedlings) by manual thinning or limited herbicide application.
  • Where vegetation management is being conducted, retain small, untreated patchily distributed plots (e.g., 0.1 ha, Marcot [1984]; 10 x 20 m, Morrison [1982]) of deciduous vegetation throughout the conifer plantation.
  • Discontinue use of herbicides for deciduous tree and shrub control for species associated with early-successional deciduous shrub-layer vegetation.
  • Lengthen time in early-successional condition by planting a lower density of conifers in conjunction with limited or no competing vegetation management.
  • Harvest entries should be carefully designed, and logging systems tailored to site-specific conditions to minimize ground disturbance and site productivity.
  • Beneath transmission powerlines where vegetation is maintained at shrub/sapling heights, selectively retain flower and nectar producing shrubs and trees.

Cited Plan

Altman, B. and J.D. Alexander. 2012. Habitat conservation for landbirds in coniferous forests of western Oregon and Washington. Version 2.0. Oregon-Washington Partners in Flight (www.orwapif.org) and American Bird Conservancy and Klamath Bird Observatory.