Evaluation of Mist-Net Sampling as an Index to Productivity in Kirtland's Warblers

Abstract

Many applied and theoretical investigations require information on how productivity varies in time and space (Temple and Wiens 1989, DeSante 1995). Examples include studies of habitat quality, population trends, life-history tactics, and metapopulation dynamics. From a demographic perspective, reproductivity is the number of young, counted at a given time of year, produced per adult (e.g. Caswell 1989). Various measures have been used to estimate productivity. One of the most attractive is mist neting during the summer after young have left the nest, but ideally before they have left the studv area. Several programs use this approach, including the Constant Effort Sites Scheme of the British Trust for Ornithology (Baillie et al. 1986 Bibby et al. 1992) and the Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship {MAPS) program (DeSante et al. 1993) in North America.