Land Around Power Lines Could Be Boon to Birds

Transmission lines may be eyesores for most people but for songbirds, the forest around them might just be critical habitat.

A team of researchers want to see if these birds are populating land cleared along the route of a powerline — as well as areas that have been recently logged — in New Hampshire and Maine.

In other parts of the country, the shrubby habitat of these younger forests have been found to offer much-needed protection for the birds from predators, as well as a steady diet of insects and fruit.

Researchers will catch the songbirds starting later this month, band them and then track them over the next two years. They will be focused on 24 transmission line rights of way and 12 areas that been logged in southeastern New Hampshire and southern Maine. The nearly $250,000 study is being funded by the federal Natural Resources Conservation Service as well as the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s New England Forests and Rivers Fund.

Researchers say the study isn’t about finding an upside to transmission lines but rather trying to determine how birds use the forests that emerge after a project is built. The information they get could be critical to policymakers as they work to create more young forests for birds as well as other species like cottontail rabbits.