Bird Watcher's Digest - May/June 2017

quarter-century. “Our goal has always been to make the endangered species at Fort Hood invisible to the soldier training on the installation. Now, with the help of the Fish and Wildlife Service, the next version of the training maps does exactly that,” said Tim Buchanan, Fort Hood’s chief of natural and cultural resources.

The fort additionally opened itself to scientists from academia and government agencies to conduct research. Thanks to Fort Hood’s cooperative approach, the science available to advance conservation efforts for the warbler and vireo, as well as for many other species found at Fort Hood, has flourished. For instance, the use of miniature video cameras to monitor vireo nests revealed that Texas rat snakes are significant predators of vireos on the nest. Tanks and artillery fire are hard on the land. Managing for healthy, native habitat on the fort is an essential task for terrain that regularly accommodates a high volume of military exercises.

“The service greatly values
our partnership with Fort Hood.

They have gone above and
beyond to work with us and to
address the conservation needs
of the golden-cheeked warbler
and black-capped vireo,” said
Omar Bocanegra, a biologist with
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser-
vice. “Thanks to the cooperative
relationship between the service
shrubby oak mottes, where they
build intricate hanging-cup nests
fastened with spider silk. They
eat insects and spiders gleaned
from leaves and tree branches,
sometimes deftly hovering while
doing so.

The vireo was listed as endangered in 1987. Two years later, surveys of the bird revealed 143 males living on Fort Hood. Their numbers grew, and in the 1990s, the population on Fort Hood was too large to accurately assess. A new method of measuring bird numbers came into use about 2005; it revealed an upward trend, with an estimated 7,500 male black-capped vireos living on Fort Hood by 2014. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service credits these accomplishments to its active conservation partnership with Fort Hood.

The golden-cheeked warbler has seen similar rises. Just this past year, biologists estimated that 7,382 male warblers were on the fort grounds. Indeed, Fort Hood is home to the largest known population of these warblers and vireos. This is particularly noteworthy considering that most of the vireo’s summer range and all of the warbler’s summer range exists in Texas, where 97 percent of land ownership is in private hands.