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The Effects Of Management Practices On Grassland Birds: An Introduction To North American Grasslands And The Practices Used To Manage Grasslands And Grassland Birds, Jill A. Shaffer, John P. Delong

Papers in Ornithology

Summary

The Great Plains of North America is defined as the land mass that encompasses the entire central portion of the North American continent that, at the time of European settlement, was an unbroken expanse of primarily herbaceous vegetation. The Great Plains extend from central Saskatchewan and Alberta to central Mexico and from Indiana to the Rocky Mountains. The expanses of herbaceous vegetation are often referred to as native prairie or native grasslands. Native grasslands share the characteristics of a general uniformity in vegetation structure, dominance by grasses and forbs, a near absence of trees and shrubs, annual precipitation ranging …

Use Of Nape Tags For Marking Offspring Of Precocial Waterbirds, Todd W. Arnold, Daizaburo Shizuka, Bruce E. Lyon, Jeffrey T. Pelayo, Katherine R. Mehl, Joshua J. Traylor, Wendy L. Reed, Courtney L. Amundson

Papers in Ornithology

Individualized markers that allow organisms to be identified without recapture are invaluable for studies of survival, movement, and behavior. Nape tags consisting of brass safety pins with unique combinations of two or three colored plastic beads were used to mark 5,868 American Coot (Fulica americana) chicks and 331 Ruddy Duck (Oxyura jamaicensis), 157 King Eider (Somateria spectabilis) and 664 White-winged Scoter (Melanitta fusca deglandi) ducklings. These markers allowed for documentation of parent-offspring interactions, post-hatching survival, brood movements and brood-mixing behaviors. Nape tags were inexpensive, easy to make, easy to observe with binoculars …

Cooperation And Competition: Nepotistic Tolerance And Intrasexual Aggression In Western Bluebird Winter Groups, Janis L. Dickinson, Melody Euaparadorn, Katherine Greenwald, Chandreyee Mitra, Daizaburo Shizuka

Papers in Ornithology

Two hypothesized benefits of delayed dispersal are access to resources and prolonged brood care (or parental nepotism). Resource abundance (mistletoe wealth) is a key factor influencing whether sons stay home in western bluebirds, Sialia mexicana, but nepotism is also observed. Western bluebird sons commonly remain in their family groups throughout the winter, whereas daughters usually disperse before winter. Because pairing often takes place in winter groups, with newly formed pairs settling on exclusive all-purpose territories in spring, selection for sexual competition and nepotism co-occur and may simultaneously influence patterns of aggression within groups. We measured aggression at mealworm feeder …

Life Histories Of North American Nuthatches, Wrens, Thrashers And Their Allies: Order Passeriformes, Arthur Cleveland Bent

Papers in Ornithology

An attempt has been made to give as full a life history as possible of the best-known subspecies of each species and to avoid duplication by writing briefly of the others and giving only the characters of the subspecies, its range, and any -habits peculiar to it. In many cases certain habits, probably common to the species as a whole, have been recorded for only one subspecies. Such habits are mentioned under the subspecies on which the observations were made. The distribution gives the range of the species as a whole, with only rough outlines of the ranges of the …

A Preliminary Review Of The Birds Of Nebraska With Synopses, Lawrence Bruner, Robert H. Wolcott, Myron H. Swenk

Papers in Ornithology

In 1896, Prof. Bruner published his list entitled "Some Notes on Nebraska Birds." As a working basis for the study of the ornithology of the state it has proven invaluable and it has also been greatly in demand by people not ornithologists, who desired to "know something about our birds." That edition was exhausted some time ago and its author has been frequently urged to publish another. However, the organization of the Nebraska Ornithologists' Union and the development of ornithology in the University has led to such a rapid increase in our knowledge in the past five years that it …