A landscape perspective of bird nest predation in a managed boreal black spruce forest.

AbstractSeveral landscape level studies have reported that bird nest predation increases as forest cover decreases. These studies have mainly been conducted in agricultural or urban regions. However, few studies have explored relationships between forest cover and nest predation in boreal forests managed for timber harvesting. In 1997 and 1998, we evaluated bird nest predation in a mosaic of clearcuts and forest remnants dominated by black spruce (Picea mariana [Mill.] B.S.P.) and located north of Lake Saint-Jean, Quebec. We used a 7 km × 9 km grid of sampling points to determine nest predation at four landscape scales (local vegetation, and 250 m, 500 m, and 1000 m radii around sampling points). Artificial nests (ground and arboreal) containing a common quail (Coturnix coturnix L.) egg and a plasticine egg were used to calculate predation pressure and to identify nest predators. Nest predation was high over the entire study area. Dominant predators were the gray jay (Perisoreus canadensis L.) and the red...