Mitchell el til • DICKCISSEL NESTLING PROVISIONING 
305 
0-1.6 1.6-8.0 8.0-14.5 14.5 + 
Wind speed (km/hr) 
Cloud cover (%) 
FIG. 5. Mca. foraging distances (least-squared means ± SE) of adult Dickcissels from nests in north-central 
Mississippi (USA), May to August 2008-2009. 
" ver nestlings, or foraged closer to the nest (sensti 
^hnson and Best 19X2. Wittenberger 1982. Rosa 
;in <J Murphy 1994) to provide physical protection 
10 nestlings from convective cooling as a result o! 
inclement weather and dissipative effects of high 
"ind (Johnson and Best 1982). 
Habitat Type Effects.— Old field habitats have 
"hen been considered primary habitats (compared 
t() prairies) for Dickcissels (Zimmerman 1966. 
>971; Temple 2002) because they may contain 
higher amounts of food, more forbs, and a more 
heterogeneous structure than prairies (Finck 
1984). Adjacent non-buffer habitats in our study 
closely resembled old field vegetation and 
structure, and could potentially be considered 
primary habitat over planted buffers. Females that 
nested in non-buffer habitat (potentially primary 
habitat) should have provisioned in predictable 
ways (higher rates, more biomass, prey items of 
different size and taxa) compared to nests in 
