Effects of Climate on Scaled Quail Reproduction and Survival

Grassland birds are among the most imperiled bird guilds in North America. Scaled quail (Callipepla squamata) are a semi-arid grassland bird whose populations have declined over the past half century. We monitored scaled quail in New Mexico to study the effects of habitat, temperature and precipitation on survival of scaled quail adults, nests, and broods. Seasonal nest survival (39.4%) had a positive relationships with increasing average weekly maximum temperature and grass density, and negative relationships with increasing average minimum temperature and percent bare ground. Seasonal brood survival (49.0%) had a negative relationship with increasing average weekly minimum and maximum temperature, and with increasing precipitation. These results illustrate the importance of managing ground cover for scaled quail to ensure adult survival and successful recruitment. Ground cover provides protection from thermal and precipitation related stress, as well as for visual obstruction from predators. This data release has three child items corresponding to the data and metadata files on adult, brood and nest survival of scaled quail.