University of Montana Begins Project Tracking Flamulated Owls

FromUniversity of Montana Bird Ecology Lab

UMBEL is involved in so many amazing research projects it can be hard to highlight them all! Here is an example of an exciting project we don't talk about nearly enough.

In an effort to understand ecological impacts of forest thinning and fuels management techniques, UMBEL has been conducting long-term monitoring in the Meadow Smith study area near Condon, MT. This has mainly consisted of morning point counts pre- and post -treatment across years. But, after a 2024 pilot season of playback surveys (broadcasting "hoots" from a speaker to elicit a response) revealed the presence of Flammulated Owls on the landscape, UMBEL launched collaborative project with the @charismaticminifaunalab.

Flammulated Owls are North America's second smallest owl (do you know the smallest??). They are migratory, nocturnal, and mainly insectivorous! Previous studies suggest that they prefer mature forest stands with large diameter trees and fairly open understory for breeding. As a species of special concern, it's important to understand how Flammulated Owl are affected by our management strategies.

We deployed 69 ARUs (autonomous recording units) in forest stands with different treatment types to investigate occupancy of Flammulated Owls. These ARUs recorded 5 hours of audio each night, throughout the summer of 2025, they've now all been collected and the massive amount of files generated (over 12,000 hrs!) is being processed and run through an initial Al classifier by Charismatic Minifauna Lab superstar undergrad Anna Derossi. Will we detect any Flams? Will they show a preference for forest treatment type? We'll keep you updated here!!