Nest Survival of Chickadees in Managed Forests: Habitat, Predator, and Year Effects

Abstract

Abstract We examined the influence of year, habitat, and predators on nest survival by monitoring 69 natural cavity nests of the chestnut-backed chickadee (Poecile rufescens) across a range of uncut and partial cut stands in northwest British Columbia during 2000–2003. We considered 3 spatial scales of habitat: 1) the stand (19–24 ha of uncut and partial cut stands), 2) the nest patch (a 0.03-ha patch centered on nest trees), and 3) the nest tree. At each scale we hypothesized that nest survival time of chickadees differed among years, as a result of harvest treatment, habitat characteristics, and predator activity. Nest predation rates fluctuated among years: 56% in 2000, 64% in 2001, 10% in 2002, and 12% in 2003. We identified the red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) as the dominant nest predator. At the stand and nest patch scales, only the covariate year reliably predicted survival time: Risk = 1.81 (Year 2001) for both models. At the nest tree scale, we found the most support for a model with year ...