Habitat use by Mountain Plovers in prairie dog colonies in northeastern New Mexico

Abstract

Mountain Plovers (Charadrius montanus) are grassland birds that often breed in close association with colonies of black‐tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus). However, not all colonies provide plover nesting habitat or habitat of equal quality, and the characteristics of colonies important for plovers remain poorly understood. Over two years, I used plover distribution surveys, territory mapping, and habitat sampling to study habitat use by plovers in prairie dog colonies in shortgrass prairie in northeastern New Mexico. My objective was to document important components of plover breeding habitat in colonies by comparing characteristics of used and unused habitats at three spatial scales: colony, territory, and nest‐site. I found evidence of plover breeding in 14 of 44 colonies in 2009 and 13 of 43 colonies in 2010. Based on logistic regression, the probability of a colony being occupied by plovers was positively associated with colony size, but negatively associated with mean vegetation height. Preference for larger colonies could relate to minimum habitat requirements, or a potential tendency of this species to nest in social clusters. Shorter vegetation height was strongly correlated with greater bare ground and lower forb/subshrub cover, all characteristics that may be related to plover predator avoidance and foraging microhabitat. At both the territory and nest‐site scale, areas used by plovers had shorter vegetation, more bare ground, and less forb/subshrub cover than unused areas. Nest sites were also more sloped, perhaps to reduce risk of flooding, and located further away from the nearest prairie dog burrow, perhaps to reduce risk of disturbance. Overall, my results show that plover use of prairie dog colonies was influenced by landscape and habitat features of colonies, and suggest that large colonies are particularly valuable because they are most likely to contain adequate areas with preferred habitat characteristics.

Associations of Grassland Bird Communities with Black‐Tailed Prairie Dogs in the North American Great Plains

“…Furthermore, use of colony sites may depend on the size and landscape position of the colonies. In New Mexico, Mountain Plovers selectively used only the largest colony sites (Gougen 2012). Estimates of local densities of species of conservation concern and an understanding of how colony-site attributes affect their use are both needed to guide the conservation and management of prairie dog complexes to sustain grassland bird communities.…”

Mountain plover nest survival in relation to prairie dog and fire dynamics in shortgrass steppe

“…Populations of the species have been declining since the 1960s, particularly in portions of the western Great Plains (Knopf and Wunder , Augustine ). Although processes underlying this decline are not known, mountain plovers have been shown to select heavily disturbed rangelands with high exposure of bare soil distributed over a broad area as breeding habitat (Knopf and Wunder , Augustine and Derner , Gougen ). Factors suspected to reduce the quality of breeding habitat in rangelands of the Great Plains include the suppression of disturbances from fire and black‐tailed prairie dogs ( Cynomys ludovicianus ).…”

Breeding Ecology of the Mountain Plover (Charadrius montanus) in Phillips County, Montana

“…By considering only the position of nest sites relative to neighboring nests and the geometry of the prairie dog colony, we have implicitly treated nesting habitat within the colony as homogeneous, which is likely untrue. Plovers exhibit selectivity when choosing nest sites based on vegetation height and composition, which are heterogeneous within prairie dog colonies (Goguen 2012). A comprehensive model of nest placement incorporating both habitat preferences and the inhibitory effects of nearby conspecifics would advance our understanding of the Mountain Plover's habitat requirements and inform more effective management for reproductive success in this species.…”

“…P-values are defined as the rank of the test statistic of the observed pattern compared to all 99 simulated patterns and divided by 100. Phillips County, Montana, 1996-2012. The L function summarizes the proportion of all pairwise inter-nest distances smaller than some distance t, standardized to the estimated intensity λ; the G function evaluates only the proportion of nearest-neighbor distances less than t. For each colony-year combination, 999 patterns of n nests each were placed randomly within a square of equivalent area; the L or G function was evaluated across various ranges of distances and compared to the its mean value across all iterations to produce a test statistic ui.…”

“…There has been considerable study devoted to habitat use and selection in birds, including in the Mountain Plover , Ellison Manning 2001, Augustine 2011, Goguen 2012. However, the spatial patterning of Mountain Plover nests has not been examined in detail.…”