Where the wild things are (and aren't): Land cover associations of raptors in the Great Basin

The Great Basin is home to a variety of avian species but as anthropogenic change continues, land cover change in this region may displace some species. We quantified the amount of land cover change in the Great Basin region between 2001 and 2019, analyzed distribution data derived from the eBird Status and Trends database for 19 raptor species (orders Accipitriformes and Falconiformes), and identified each species' land cover occurrence patterns. We discovered that 15 of the raptor species investigated had land cover type as a top-10 predictor for occupancy. We also observed a large percent change in total cover of water, deciduous forest, mixed forest, shrublands, and grasslands land cover types. The raptor species with land cover in their top-10 predictor list could thus potentially be affected by these land cover change trends. While the complexity of land cover associations are nuanced, we identify patterns of land cover change over almost 2 decades in the Great Basin and reveal species that may be impacted by continued landscape change. These findings can provide crucial information for both habitat management and species conservation.