Biology Faculty Research and Publications

Roosting Distributions and Habitat Associations of Overwintering White-throated Sparrows (Zonotrichia albicollis) on the Nonbreeding Grounds: A Journal of Ornithology

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

The Wilson Journal of Ornithology

Publication Date

12-2023

Volume

135

Issue

4

First Page

533

Last Page

545

Abstract

The diurnal habitat preferences and foraging behaviors of White-throated Sparrows (Zonotrichia albicollis) have been extensively studied on the nonbreeding grounds, but prior to this study roosting habitat preferences during the nonbreeding stage of the full annual cycle had not been documented. We fitted radiotransmitters to 15 White-throated Sparrows in central Arkansas and recorded GPS locations for both foraging and roosting locations from 19 January to 2 March 2023. We used both 95% minimum convex polygon (MCP) and bivariate normal kernel density estimation (KDE) methods to calculate home ranges for foraging and roosting locations. Sixty percent of the radio-tracked individuals that were included in the 95% MCP analysis exhibited 0% overlap between roosting home range and foraging home range estimates. The average centroid distance between 95% MCP foraging and roosting home ranges was 356.38 6 165.11 m (x 6 SD). Both roosting and foraging locations contained thick horizontal vegetative ground cover, but roosting locations had significantly greater vertical vegetative structure, whereas diurnal foraging locations had significantly greater leaf litter depth. This example of habitat selection for spatially distinct roosting and foraging locations suggests that nonbreeding season conservation strategies based solely on diurnal observations of foraging behavior may not sufficiently address full annual cycle habitat requirements.

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The Wilson Journal of Ornithology

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