Nesting Ecology of a Range-edge Population of Veeries in the Southern Appalachian Mountains

William B. Lewis^1,* and Robert J. Cooper¹

¹Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602. *Corresponding author.

Southeastern Naturalist, Volume 18, Issue 4 (2019): 541–547

Abstract
Very little is known about the nesting ecology of Catharus fuscescens (Veery) breeding at a low-latitude range limit in the southern Appalachians. Between 2017 and 2018, we monitored 34 Veery nests in the mountains of North Carolina. Veery nests were generally placed low to the ground in a variety of substrates, predominantly Rhododendron maximum (Rhododendron) and Gaylussacia spp. (huckleberry); however, estimates of daily nest survival did not vary by the nest-site characteristics we measured. The daily nest survival estimate of 0.925 and estimated overall success rate of 13% are lower than most reports from farther north in the Veery’s range, but the reasons for the low nest survival at the southern edge are unclear. This study provides the first report of the nesting ecology of Veeries in the southern Appalachians, and our work suggests the need to determine why Veeries in this region are declining and moving upslope.

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