Behavior And Habitat Selection Of Oriental White Stork In Breeding Season In The Breeding Season In The Yellow River Estuary Nature Reserve

Habitat selection and behavioral biology of Oriental white stork in breeding season were investigated in the Yellow River Estuary nature reserve from March to June in 2008 to 2009. The nest-site use,the forage habitat selection,the behaviors time budget and diurnal rhythm in breeding season were studied by the method of Vanderploeg & Scavia selection index, resource selection functions,principal component analysis,stepwise discriminant analysis and scan sampling. The results showed that:In the breeding season, the time budget proportion of breeding behavior accounted for 22.17%±21.69% (hatching 19.75%±20.71%, drying egg 1.31%±2.16%, feeding 1.00%±1.01%, mating 0.11%±0.32%), and that of resting, nest fixing, alerting, preening,and others accounted for 19.09%±13.94%,6.40%±5.92%,3.94%±4.88%,3.11%±2.31%, and 45.27%±11.08%, respectively.During different stages of the breeding season, behaviors excited significant differences (P<0.01). The behavioral activity of Oriental white stork at different stages of breeding season had definite rhythm, and the diurnal rhythm differed obviously. There existed significant correlations between temperature and drying egg (r=0.810, P<0.01), hatching (r=0.735, P<0.01), vehicles number and alerting (r=0.745, P<0.01),and resting (r=0.612, P<0.01).Oriental white stork preferred to nest on utility poles in reed swamps with a higher water ratio, water depth in quadrat>15cm, higher vegetation height, more vegetation coverage and vegetation density 200-500 root/m2 in quadrat.The distance from the nest to water,reed marshes and forests were small,water depth<0.5m,the distance to human disturbance, agricultural land and grasslands were great.The resource selection function of Oriental white stork nest-sites:logist(p)=-0.206-2.773×the distance to water+2.200×the distance to the road+1.444×the distance to mild disturbances +1.205×the distance to grasslands+1.191×vegetation density, the correct rate:88.6%.Food, human disturbance and vegetation density were main factors influencing nest-site use by Oriental white stork.In the study area, Oriental white stork during its breeding period chose a variety of habitat types as its forage habitat, among which, water and reed swamp were the main two, occupying 48.19% and 44.58% of the total. Oriental white stork exhibited a preference to a place where was higher vegetation height,more vegetation coverage,deeper water and greater water proportion.The distance from the frorage place to water and nest were small, the distance to human disturbance was great.Human disturbance and food were main factors influencing forage habitat selection of the species.