Solitary winter roosting of Ovenbirds in core foraging area

We used radio-telemetry to locate night roosts of 54 Ovenbirds (Seiurus aurocapilla) wintering in a coastal second-growth scrub habitat in Jamaica. All Overibirds roosted within their daytime home range and most individuals roosted within the core of their diurnal home range. Sixty-six percent of individuals roosted within the 30% core use distribution (i.e., most heavily used portion of their home range) and 35% of individuals roosted within tire 10% core. The average distance between roost sites for 29 individuals located on more than one night was 34 in and at least three birds roosted solitarily in the same location on different nights. Roost location relative to the 10% core area of diurnal home range did not differ between males and females, adults and immature,,, or between individuals Studied ill Subsequent years. The wintering Ovenbird population we studied appeared to roost solitarily. This study is the first to provide quantitative evidence that individual migrant songbirds in a tropical wintering population consistently roost at night within their foraging home range. These results suggest that roosting behavior is correlated with daytime space use patterns of the winter social system.