Testing the Role of Social Cues in Saltmarsh Sparrow Habitat Selection Decisions

TL;DRAbstract

The saltmarsh sparrow Ammodramus caudacutus is a species of national and global conservation concern that is threatened by its limited breeding range and vulnerability to sea-level rise. Despite detailed studies of its nesting habitat, our ability to predict this species' distribution remains deficient. Several lines of evidence suggest that these sparrows may combine social information with their assessment of the physical environment in order to select nesting habitat, yet the way in which birds integrate these disparate types of information is not understood. To resolve this uncertainty, I investigated how conspecific social cues may influence breeding habitat selection. My research indicates that nesting activity is more strongly related to cues describing total sparrow activity than to those specifically related to breeding activity, such as male song or female provisioning behavior. Although this result suggests that sparrow abundance could be a reliable cue of habitat quality, e

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