 Hi, I'm Amanda Mahaffey. I work for the Forest Stewards Guild and I'm going to help introduce your handy habitat assessment tool for forestry for Maine birds. So, first step is to take your three fingers on each hand and point them like this. On your left hand, we're going to talk about live things. On your right hand, we're going to talk about things that aren't alive, but are really important habitat features for forest birds. So, first on your left hand, we are going to talk about overstory, mid-story, and understory. Since I am in the understory, I'm going to talk about that first. If you imagine zero to six feet, any any woody vegetation that you see in zero to six feet, there are going to be certain forest birds that will key in on that. We're going to get into detail in a little bit. Mid-story is between six and thirty feet. So, you can imagine between six feet off the ground and approximately three stories up in the air. That's the mid-story and in that mid-story you can have stems, you can have branches, you can have leaves that all provide really important habitat for forest birds. And then, we have the overstory. So, if you can picture a three-story building thirty feet in the air and all the woody vegetation that is up in the canopy up in the tops of those trees, that's another key area that certain forest birds will key into. So again, on the left hand, we have live things. Overstory, mid-story, and understory. Now, coming back to your handy assessment tool, on the right hand, we have things that aren't so live. First, we'll talk about snags and decaying trees. Then, we'll talk about coarse woody material and fine woody material. So, snags and decaying trees. As you look around your wood lot, you're probably going to see some trees that look like they're in kind of rough shape. You might find some that have really thick trunks that might have holes in them. You might hear certain kinds of woodpeckers and other forest birds that are really taking advantage of those, those big dead and decaying trees. So, snags and dead and decaying trees are one habitat feature you want to look for. Then, we have coarse woody material. We'll show you some good examples, but coarse woody material might be some big pieces that are thicker than the stuff you see here, and you can find those after a logging job. We'll show you some good pictures of that as well. So, piles of coarse woody material are something that other forest birds will key in on. Last but not least, we have fine woody material. So, tops and branches, smaller material that you find, provides habitat for insects, which is a good foraging habitat for other forest birds. So, a quick review of these, and then we have some bonus features for you. So, on your left hand, live things, over story, mid story, under story, and on your right hand, things that were once live, snags and decaying trees, coarse woody material, and fine woody material. Another habitat feature we have some bonus features for you is leaf litter. So, the oven bird, which was singing right before we started filming, really keys in on hardwood leaf litter. So, that's a habitat feature that you'll want to think of for your oven bird. Pizza, pizza, pizza, pizza. Also, you want to think about tree size and stand age. So, as you look around, size matters. Basically, the bigger the better, whether it's live or dead. So, again, our bonus features over here, we have leaf litter, hardwood leaf litter, and we have tree size and age. Now, your bonus features on your left hand, we have canopy gaps and riparian areas. So, canopy gaps. After a timber harvest, or as would naturally occur when a tree falls in the forest, you get these beautiful openings, and in those, you probably have seen some nice pools of sunlight, where insects like to fly around, like they are right here. And birds, certain birds, the eastern wood peewee and others, will come in and swoop in and catch those insects on the wing. So, canopy gaps are an important habitat feature to look for in your wood lot. And then, riparian areas. So, riparian, meaning waterways. So, we'll go visit a riparian area in a little while, but just down the hill here, there's a nice little quiet stream, and there's some nice cool shady features and certain kinds of trees and shrubs that like to use that habitat. And then, there are forest birds that also like riparian habitat created by those trees and shrubs. So, once again, for your bonus features, on your left hand, we have canopy gaps, and then we have riparian areas. So, it's a lot to remember, and you can always come back to your original six of live things and used to be live things. Overstory, mid-story, understory, snags and standing woody material, coarse woody material, fine woody material. So, thanks for tuning in. Thank you so much, Amanda, for that great introduction to our Forestry for Main Birds habitat features. And next up, we're going to have Andy Schultz from the Maine Forest Service dive in deeper on the live features of the forest that birds queue into. So, come back soon!