Movements of female Sage Grouse Centrocercus urophasianus during incubation recess

Abstract

We combined GPS data-loggers, VHF transmitters and DVR video-monitoring to measure fine-scale movement patterns during daily incubation recesses by female Sage Grouse Centrocercus urophasianus, a species with uniparental incubation that has experienced widespread population decline and distributional contraction. Most (69.6%) Sage Grouse recess activity was highly localized within a core recess area averaging 2.58 ± 0.64 ha, and females remained within 242.3 ± 30.0 m from the nest during recesses (total recess areas were 11.06 ± 2.27 ha). Visually conspicuous Sage Grouse movements near nests at the start and end of recesses and consistent occupation of core recess areas point to a mechanism for newly abundant predators such as the Northern Raven Corvus corax to detect and depredate Sage Grouse nests. Our methods apply to other avian species of scientific interest and conservation concern.