Studies on The Nest Site Selection of Daurian Partridge

This paper presents the results of a study on the nest site selection of the Daurian Partridge Perdix dauuricae in Ningwu County of Shanxi Province from 1991 to 1993.Totally 60 nests have been found in the field work,with most of them were located in the farmland and shruby areas.About 67% of the nests built in the sunny southeastern slope and southwestern slope.The comparisons of the 12 habitat variables which may affect nesting success between the nest sites and random chosen non-nest sites within 100 m from the nest show that,5 variables influenced the nest site selection of the Daurian Partridge are (in decreasing order of importance):the amount of leaf litter,the width of field boundary,the amount of dead grass,the width of shrub and the height of the bank at the base of the field boundary.The results of discriminant analysis indicate that,the amount of leaf litter and the amount of dead grass are the two most important variables distinct the nest sites and non-nest sites.In conclusion,the Daurian Partridge prefer to select the site in the farmland and shruby areas which have more leaf litter and dead grass combined with relative higher vegetation coverage to build its nest.