Environmental conditions and call-broadcast influence detection of eastern forest owls during standardized surveys

Owls provide ecosystem services and play crucial roles in the environment making them important to monitor and study. However, standardized methods for most species do not exist, and we lack understanding of the effects of many environmental variables and call-broadcast on detection probability of owls. We performed a multispecies occupancy analysis of owl monitoring data collected from 2004 – 2013 across the state of Maine to examine the effects of environmental variables, conspecific and heterospecific call-broadcast, and general survey protocols on detection of three forest owls: Northern Saw-whet Owl (Aegolius acadicus), Barred Owl (Strix varia), and Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus). We found that environmental variables such as cloud cover, precipitation, temperature, time of night, and wind had species-specific effects on detection probability, and ambient noise decreased detection probability for all species. We did not find support for effects of snow cover on detection of an...