726 THE WILSON JOURNAL OF ORNITHOLOGY • Voi 124. No. 4. December 2012 
Occurrence in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial 
Valley is positively related to the amount of forest 
cover within 4-8 km and negatively related to the 
amount of agricultural land (Hamel et al. 1998). 
Abundance in West Virginia is positively related 
to the amount of forest cover in a 3-km radius and 
negatively related to edge density (Wood et al. 
2006) and distance to edge (WeakJand and Wood 
2005). Our finding that the amount of bottomland 
and upland deciduous forest at a local-habitat 
scale positively affected abundance is also 
consistent with patterns elsewhere in their range. 
Cerulean Warbler abundance is positively related 
to the percentage of forested wetlands and patch 
size m a I-km buffer around North American 
Breeding Bird Survey routes in the upper Midwest 
(Thogmartin et al. 2004). 
We surveyed riparian areas because they could 
be easily accessed by canoe and previous experi¬ 
ence indicated Cerulean Warblers were rare in 
upland forests in Missouri. Occurrence or abun- 
ance in other parts of their range, especially the 
Appalachian region, is associated with upper slopes 
and ridges (Deltmers and Bart 1999. Weakland and 
Wood 2005, Buehler et al. 2006) but, in the 
southwestern part of their range. Cerulean War¬ 
blers are more common in bottomland or riparian 
Jorest (Hamel et al. 2004, Carpenter et al. 2011). 
Cerulean Warblers in Missouri appear to select 
landscapes and habitat similarly to elsewhere in 
their range. The magnitude of the landscape effect 
we observed reiterates the need for research and 
conservation to consider landscape effects (e u 
Buehler et al. 2008). We believe additional 
research ,s needed in this part of the Cerulean 
Warbler s range to better examine abundance 
patterns across riparian and upland habitats and to 
address key demographic parameters such as 
fecundity and survival. 
acknowledgments 
co^lc;“r B ^ n rr, dfor 
manuscript - a ^ u ^ 
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