Breeding Site Fidelity of Blue-Winged Teal in South Dakota

Assumptions about breeding site fidelity (i.e., fidelity) in blue-winged teal (Spatula discors) are based on limited recapture data and analytic techniques. We banded female blue-winged teal (n = 12,543) from 2003 to 2014 in a 3,800-ha sample area in north-central South Dakota, USA, and used a Bayes...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of wildlife management 2019-07, Vol.83 (5), p.1143-1150
Main Authors: TOAY, BRUCE W., MEIDINGER, RANDELL R., KEMINK, KAYLAN M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accuracy
Animal breeding
Aquatic birds
Bayesian analysis
blue‐winged teal
Breeding
breeding site fidelity
Breeding sites
Burnham's model
Data recovery
Environmental factors
Markov chain Monte Carlo
Mathematical analysis
philopatry
Population Ecology
Prairie Pothole Region
Site fidelity
South Dakota
Spatula discors
Survival
Waterfowl
Wildlife
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Summary:Assumptions about breeding site fidelity (i.e., fidelity) in blue-winged teal (Spatula discors) are based on limited recapture data and analytic techniques. We banded female blue-winged teal (n = 12,543) from 2003 to 2014 in a 3,800-ha sample area in north-central South Dakota, USA, and used a Bayesian hierarchical modeling approach combining live recapture and dead recovery data to predict probabilities of fidelity, survival, recapture, and reporting. We explored sources of variation including time, annual wet area on the landscape, age, and nest survival, and compared our results to other dabbling ducks that nest in the Prairie Pothole Region, a critically important breeding area for waterfowl in central North America. We found annual estimates of fidelity ranging from 0.20 to 0.91, with mean values of 0.62 and 0.67 for hatch year birds and after hatch year birds, respectively. Our findings indicate that environmental factors may cause blue-winged teal to return to breeding sites more frequently than previously assumed.
ISSN:0022-541X
1937-2817
DOI:10.1002/jwmg.21682