Behavior And Nest Selection Of Great Crested Grebe, Podiceps Cristatus, In Breeding Season In Anbang River Nature Reserve, Heilongjiang Province, China

Behavioral biology and habitat selection of Great Crested Grebe in breeding season were investigated in Anbang River Nature Reserve from April to June in 2009. Collect the data using Instantaneous and Scanning Sampling, Focus Animal Sampling and All-occurrences Recording. Compared the significant difference between different gender and stage by the method of Kolmogorov-Smironov and t-text. Based on the principal component analysis, find the most important influencing factors for nest-site selection. The results showed that:In the breeding season, the breeding behavior and feeding behavior of Great Crested Grebe accounted for the largest proportion penetrating all stages of breeding season. The proportion of male and female is 31.59%,20.38%,44.49%,16.31% respectively. In early breeding period, Great Crested Grebe had definitely diurnal rhythm. In different stages of incubation periods, breeding behavior, resting behavior and swimming behavior excited significant differences (P<0.01), but feeding behavior had no distinguished. For different sex, preening and nest-lying had obvious difference Sig (2-tailed)<0.001. Courting, egg-drying, Feeding and so on had no distinguished.Great Crested Grebe preferred to nest on reed and cattail swamp. The accumulated contribution rates of principal component factor account to 80.83%. The most suitable habitat factors include:Water depth (65.00-110.00cm), Nest height (14.33±0.68cm), Nest depth (5.53±0.43cm), Nest base (44.44±4.49cm), Nest diameter (22.75±0.86cm,31.25±1.63cm), Vegetation coverage (24.38±3.95%), Distance to water (9.63±3.62m). The dominated vegetation is cattail and reed. The height and density of new cattail is 61.57±9.96cm, 35.91±9.61%. The height and density of new reed is 39.89±6.93cm,32.06±7.25%.