Behavior And Nest Site Selection Of Red-Crowned, Crus Japonensis, In Incubateing Season In Qixinghe Nature Reserve

Behavioral biology and nest habitat selection of Red-crowned Crane in incubating period were investigated in Qixing River National Nature Reserve from April to June in2011and2012. Instantaneous and scanning Sampling and all events sampling method were used to collect the data. The significant differences of different stages were compared by the method of Kolmogorov-Smironov, t-text and One-way ANOVA. Based on the principal component analysis, the most important influencing factors for nest-site selection were found. The results showed that:in incubating period, Red-crowned Crane had definitely diurnal rhythm. Various behaviors of red-crowned crane during breeding season are regular. Breeding behavior was the major activity during breeding period, accounting for (37.43%) of the whole time budget, then feeding (28.44%),alert (16.79%), resting (8.99%), locomotion (5.97%) and other behaviors (2.38%). The proportion of time occupied by different breeding behavior was: courtship (1.12%), copulation (0.48%), nes-t building (3.78%), laying(0.28%), incubation (72.18%), brooding (22.16%). Time budget of various behaviors is significantly different during different breeding phases. In the breeding season, there were significant differences of behaviors of feeding, alerting, resting, and others (P<0.01), and the behavior of walking excited normal differences (P<0.05). Feeding behavior is the highest in the time budget of red-crowned crane pre-incubation period. Breeding behavior is the main behavior during incubating period. The principal component analysis of nest site shows that:hidden constitute was the first principal components which was the factor affected the nest selection of Red-crowned Crane. During its selection of habitat, food factor played a crucial role, followed by concealment factor, water factor, and identification factor.