Abstract
Abstract We compared predation of artificial open-cup nests baited with Japanese Quail (Coturnix coturnix) eggs with predation of natural open-cup nests during 1997 and 1998 in a Louisiana pine forest to assess the assumption that predation of artificial nests is an index to that of natural nests. Cameras were placed at randomly selected natural and artificial nests in shrubs to document predators. Predation at artificial-nest plots was positively correlated with predation at adjacent natural-nest plots overall, although inconsistently by year. Artificial nests were almost exclusively depredated by corvids, but quail eggs were too large to be broken by small-mouthed mammalian predators. American Crows (Corvus brachyrhynchos) appeared to be important predators of natural nests. Predation of natural nests was independent of predation at other nests, but predation of artificial nests by crows was spatially and temporally clumped. Crows may have learned the location of artificial-nest plots, and predation of ...
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