Data from: Non-brooding northern bobwhite resource selection during breeding season in a managed longleaf pine ecosystem

Investigating resource selection patterns of declining species is critical
to developing effective conservation strategies and mitigating negative
population trends. We trapped and radio-collared northern bobwhite
(Colinus virginianus) and recorded the location of each individual three
times per week during the northern bobwhite breeding season (April –
September) to infer resource selection by non-brooding adults. We defined
13 vegetation communities with varying fire histories and assessed their
relative use via a distance-based logistic regression model within a
Bayesian framework. We found reliable evidence that non-brooding northern
bobwhite preferred supplemental feed lines, recently burned natural pine
stands, one-year rough in shrub/scrub, and one-year rough in hardwood-pine
stands. Conversely, we found they avoided one-year rough in natural pine
stands, recently burned shrub/scrub, and recently burned hardwood-pine
stands. Our data suggest that non-brooding bobwhite’s successional stage
preference may vary between vegetation communities within the same study
area and adds further evidence to the importance of fire and vegetation
interspersion in bobwhite management. Results from our study may be
applied to enhance habitat for non-brooding northern bobwhite and
potentially increase adult survival, an important metric correlated with
bobwhite population growth.