Nest Site Selection in Least Terns (Sterna antillarum) in New Jersey and New York

Abstract

East Coast Least Terns (Sterna antillarum) generally nest in relatively barren, homogeneous habitats of broad sandy beaches on barrier islands or on spoil deposition sites. We studied Least Terns at several New York (N=4) and New Jersey colonies. About 300 pairs of Least Terns nested along 2 km of beach on Brigantine Beach, NJ in 1983. The New York colonies contained from 20-300 pairs estimated from single visits in 1971, 1974 and 1977. At most sites choice of nest sites differed from random with respect to position on the beach, elevation and slope, shell cover, vegetation cover, and distance to vegetation. Terns preferred to nest in the middle third of the beach, on areas with shell cover, and on ridges and slopes. On sparsely vegetated beaches, nests were closer to vegetation than were the random points; on heavily vegetated areas, nests were further from vegetation than were the random points. At Brigantine, fox and cats entered the colony from the dunes and preyed heavily on nests closest to the dunes. Terns nesting during the peak of the nesting season fledged the most young and suffered the fewest losses to predators. At Brigantine, disturbance was less at the ends of the colony, resulting in higher reproductive success in these sections. In the Long Island colonies beach vehicles, humans, and cats were the main causes of egg and clutch mortality.

Habitat selection and potential fitness consequences of two early‐successional species with differing life‐history strategies

“…Thus, it would stand to reason that their selection would be similar with perhaps the exception of proximity of foraging (i.e., wet sand), but even that has some similarities since least tern adults tended to return to the wetted, moist sand with fish for young (D. Catlin, personal observation). Although there have been relatively few studies of nest selection for least terns, they tend to select open, sandy areas, often near inlets on the coast or on mid-channel sandbars on prairie rivers (Burger & Gochfeld, 1990;Kirsch, 1996), which aligns with the more extensive work done to assess habitat suitability for piping plovers Cohen et al, 2009;Prindiville-Gaines & Ryan, 1988). Least terns are colonial (Thompson et al, 1997), although less so in the Great Plains than on the Atlantic Coast (D. Catlin, personal observation), which could have contributed to the relatively stronger signal for selection in terns than plovers (i.e., larger selection coefficients, Table 2).…”

Nest-site selection and characteristics in a mixed-species colony of Avocets Recurvirostra avosetta and Black-winged Stilts Himantopus himantopus

“…In the case of colonial birds, they must add social factors, strongly influenced by the relative position of the nest within the colony and distance to neighbouring nests. Different factors can produce different or opposite selection pressures (Spear & Anderson 1989, Burger & Gochfeld 1990, and nest-site selection becomes a compromise depending on what factors most strongly determine nesting success in each circumstance.…”

Nest-Site Selection and Hatching Success at a Mixed-Species Colony of Black-Winged Stilts Himantopus Himantopus and Gull-Billed Tern Gelochelidon Nilotica

“…The date of clutch initiation is important for hatching success. Late nests often have lower reproductive success than early nests (Burger and Gochfeld, 1990a). In Gull-billed Terns, however, hatching success was higher in late breeders.…”