Alejandra Martinez
Stephen F. Austin State University
Graduate Research Assistant / Master of Science in Forestry / Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture
Temporal assessment of a breeding bird community and an evaluation of avifauna sampling methodologies on the Welder Wildlife Refuge
Growing up in San Antonio, Texas, my exposure to wildlife, hunting, and management was limited. After completing a year of college in Kansas on a running scholarship, I decided to continue my education in something I was truly passionate about. Not knowing much about wildlife management or forestry, I took a leap of faith and began my career in Forestry and Wildlife Management at Stephen F. Austin State University. Beginning in January of 2022, I started my M.S in Forestry, with an emphasis in wildlife. My project is focused on determining the occurrence, composition, and trends in relative abundance of a breeding avian community located within a riparian woodland in South Texas. Utilizing the Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship (MAPS) protocol, I identified trends in relative abundance of individual species across two time periods, i.e., 2007-2009 and 2021-2023. Similarly, I also compared the detection efficiency of four sampling methodologies, i.e., mist netting, visual and aural observations, point count surveys, and ARUs, in detecting a complete avian community. With recent literature reporting worldwide declines in avifauna species, I aimed to identify (1) if these trends were occurring at the local-scale, and (2) which methodology is best suited for surveying breeding avifauna.
