Green Herons (Butorides virescens) in an Urbanized Landscape: Does Recreational Disturbance Affect Foraging Behavior?

Abstract As the trend towards urbanization continues, natural areas near dense human populations can be impacted by development, and increased recreational use of these natural areas may increase disturbance of wildlife. Many waterbirds use areas that are generally subject to elevated levels of human disturbance and some species consequently are often considered highly susceptible to disturbance. In 2013 and 2014 we assessed the effects of human recreational disturbance on Green Herons (Butorides virescens) through the use of focal observations at sites of varying disturbance. We collected behavioral data (n = 154 observations) along the headwaters of the San Marcos River located in Central Texas. We built 15 linear regression models to assess the potential influence of human disturbance as well as potential influence of habitat differences between study sites on each of five response variables (four foraging behaviors plus foraging efficiency). Using Akaike's Information Criterion model selection, we fou...