Oklahoma Black-capped Vireo dispersal study

Mechanisms driving breeding dispersal are complex but are of high interest because dispersal strongly links individual fitness to population dynamics. We examine the relative importance of personal information, neighborhood effects, and structural habitat characteristics in determining an individual’s propensity for breeding dispersal. We attempted to identify relevant cues for breeding dispersal of a North American territorial migratory bird species, the Black-capped Vireo. We color marked and radio-tagged males in Southwestern Oklahoma and used a conditional inference tree analysis to evaluate 11 variables that individuals could use as predictors of emigration. We used the correlation between arrival date and habitat structure to determine habitat preference. Breeding dispersal propensity among Black-capped Vireos depended mostly on their personal breeding experience, but also on reproductive information gleaned from their neighbors. Older and younger age classes that reproduced succe..., We conducted our study on the Fort Sill Military Installation in Southwest Oklahoma, USA, from April to September in 2017 and 2018. The Fort Sill Military Installation, roughly 38,000 ha, with adjacent Wichita Mountain National Wildlife Refuge adding 23,885 ha total, with about 10,000 ha suitable vireo habitat (Diamond and Elliot 2015), forms a contiguous track of the Wichita Mountain ecoregion in Oklahoma. Two common vegetation structures in vireo habitat included patches of short stature (one to three meters in height) black-jack and post oaks (Quercus marilandica, Quercus stellata, respectively), skunkbush (Rhus triolobata), flame-leaf sumac (Rhus lanceolata), and tall stature oak woodland (3 to 10 meters in height) with hackberry (Celtis occidentalis) common in the understory (Diamond and Elliot 2015). During the two years of this study, Fort Sill and the wildlife refuge controlled for Brown-headed cowbirds, a frequent nest parasite of black-capped vireos, by removal through tr..., # Oklahoma Black-capped Vireo dispersal study

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.mpg4f4rdm](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.mpg4f4rdm)

## Description of the data and file structure

These data are Black-capped Vireo *Vireo atricapilla* reproductive and movement data from 2017 and 2018 collected on the Fort Sill Military Installation in Lawton, Oklahoma. They were used in a decision tree that analyzed within season dispersal and territory abandonment of adult males.

### Files and variables

#### File: ForParty_breeding_2022_updated.csv

**Description:** Data for decision tree to determine dispersal correlates

##### Variables

* TerrNo: Individual Territory Number of the individual bird
* Move_behavior: Categorical what did the bird do (stayed put: stationary;Explored but came back to territory = forayed; Disappeared = disappeared from territory, no resight afterwards; Left territory permanently but I was able to keep track of them through telemetry = Wandered; Relocated = Left territory perma...,