Snowy Plovers select wide beaches for nesting

摘要: The Snowy Plover Charadrius nivosus is listed as threatened along the Pacific coast of North America where it breeds amidst sparsely vegetated (i.e. ‘open’) habitats on ocean-fronting beaches, salt pans, and riverine gravel bars. Habitat management to increase population has emphasized restoring coastal dunes beaches by removing invasive plants; few studies, however, have quantified second order habitat selection Plovers choice a breeding site from amongst within species’ range). Consequently, we used three years data 109 nests show that plovers nested wider compared with random locations; some nests, occurred narrow beaches. Our findings may be useful in guiding restoration efforts aimed at improving suitability for Plovers. However, weak explanatory power beach width suggests other unmeasured features or social factors also influence how individuals select sites.