Nest Ecology of Grassland Passerines on Road Rights-of-Way in Central Illinois(Revised)

摘要

The ecology of nesting by grassland passerines was studied from 1976 to 1984along rural interstate (four-lane) and secondary road rights-of-way in central Illinois (N = 593 nests). Numbers of nests and species increased with roadside width. The probability of nest survival/day on managed (seeded and unmowed) rural secondary roadsides was 0-970. The amount of vehicular traffic along secondary roadsides did not influence nest densities. With the expansion of row-crop farming in the Midwestern United States, vegetation along road rights-of-way is critical for sustaining grassland birds that nest in edges and ecotones; roadsides should be carefully managed toward this end.