Richard Hutto ( edit )

B.A. University of California, Los Angeles, 1971
M.S. Northern Arizona University, 1973
Ph.D. University of California, Los Angeles, 1977

My research interests revolve around habitat selection, the factors that determine suitability of sites to landbirds, and the process by which birds choose to settle nonrandomly in space.  Most of my research has been focused in conifer forest and riparian habitats in the northern Rockies and in northern Mexico.  I am especially interested in conifer forests that have been disturbed by recent wildfires and/or timber harvesting, and in riparian systems that are subject to a variety of human alterations.  In both systems I am asking how vegetation type and structure (as influenced by land use practices) and landscape context affect habitat selection and subsequent distribution patterns.  Some of my main questions are: How can we use our mechanistic understanding to model the distribution pattern of any bird species?  For any given species, why has natural selection led to a distribution pattern that is non-random in space?  Do patterns of habitat occupancy reflect habitat suitability?  How important is disturbance in maintaining diversity in these systems?
 
Most of my research activity is conducted in association with
 
(a) a 20-year-old program that is funded primarily by the Northern Region of the USFS (http://www.avianscience.org/research_landbird.htm), which we developed to provide long-term population trend monitoring, habitat-relationships, and management effects studies of forest birds on USFS lands;
 
(b) a program funded by PPL-Montana, BLM, Big Hole Watershed Committee, USFWS (http://www.avianscience.org/research_riparian_madison.htm) to use birds as a tool to assess restoration success along the Madison and Missouri Rivers in Montana, and to study the distribution, nest success, and re-fueling success of riparian birds in relation to riparian land-use practices;
 
(c) a program most recently funded by USFS/RMRS and the Joint Fire Sciences Program (http://www.avianscience.org/research_avianfire.htm), to examine the distribution of birds within and among recently burned forests to better understand what must have constituted historical fire regimes in the northern Rockies. 
 
My lab is especially interested in putting our research results to practical use by integrating the habitat needs of migratory songbirds into management schemes that are directed toward building a sustainable future.

Avian Ecology