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Researchers have long recognized that the spatial distribution of animals relates to habitat requirements. In birds, despite recent advances in tracking techniques, knowledge of habitat needs remains incomplete for most species. Using radio telemetry, we quantified the relative space use of 37 Wood Thrush (Hylocichla mustelina) males, captured over 2 years (2013, 2014) on their breeding grounds in coastal Virginia. Following tracking, we collected data on prey availability (n = 370 plots) and habitat structure (n = 222 plots) within bird home ranges, and modeled bird utilization distribution with both sets of variables using mixed models. Our objectives were to (a) determine the relative importance of habitat structure and prey availability for bird use, (b) identify specific resources that related to bird utilization distribution, (c) test the hypothesis that soil moisture explained prey availability, and (d) evaluate models by determining whether model-identified conditions agreed with data at ...

The behavior of roosting birds has received little attention from ornithologists, despite its importance for understanding the complete avian circadian cycle. We examined the spatial arrangement of roosts in relation to diurnal home ranges for the declining Wood Thrush (Hylocichla mustelina) on its breeding grounds in coastal Virginia, USA. To our knowledge, this is the first broad description of roosting ecology for a North American migratory passerine during the breeding season. The primary objective of this study was to determine whether roost sites and diurnal use areas overlapped. Secondly, using LiDAR, we tested the hypothesis that birds roosted at sites with higher local vegetation density than random points. Lastly, we explored the effect of nest status on the roosting patterns of pairs. We tracked 37 radio-tagged males to construct 95% kernel diurnal home ranges. In 10 home ranges we also tagged the female mates. Both sexes were tracked at night to roosting locations. Of 74 male roosts, ...