SHORT COMMUNICATIONS 
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TABLE 1 Availability and use of cover types by fledgling Ovenbirds alter independence from adult care in sites 
dominated by open-understory deciduous forest and dense-understory mixed-dec.duous-comler foiest in 
northern Minnesota. 
Cover type 
Mature forest 
Forested wetland 
Sapling-dominated clearcut 
Shrub-dominated clearcut 
Deciduous 
Available (%) 
Used (<i 
69 
31 
5 
29 
17 
40 
9 
0 
Mixed deciduous conifer 
Available (%) Used (%) 
58 
27 
7 
8 
62 
28 
9 
(typically 7-20 yrs after harvest), (4) shrub- 
dominated cleareuts (typically 1-6 yrs alter 
harvest), and (5) open wetlands and lakes. We 
did not include open wetlands and lakes in 
selection analysis because we assumed those 
cover types were not available to fledgling 
Ovenbirds. We compared mean daily distances 
moved by birds at each site with Student s /-tests. 
We compared cover-type use hy fledglings to 
cover-type availability within each study site using 
compositional analysis (Aebiseher et al. 1093) with 
Program COMPANA in the ADEHABITAT 
package (Calenge 2006) lor Program R. We report 
the compositional analysis test statistic A lor 
random use and associated P-value for each test 
with P < 0.05 representing non-random use, or 
cover-type selection. We compared understory 
vegetation density among cover types and fledgling 
locations using Student's /-tests. We used a yj test 
of independence to compare proportions ol biids al 
each site that moved to each cover type in their first 
long-distance independent movement. Values are 
presented as ranges or as means r Sh. We 
considered statistical tests significant at n = 0.05. 
RESULTS 
We tracked 23 independent fledgling Ovenbirds 
leach from a different nest) from 25 days after 
fledging (mean age of independence) to 27-51 (a 
= 37) days after fledging. Each fledgling was 
observed once per day. All fledglings originated 
from nests in mature forest. We recorded 2-21 (a 
= 11) locations for 12 birds at the deciduous site 
and 3-16 (x ~ 9) locations for 11 birds at the 
mixed-deciduous-conifer site. All fledglings we 
tracked for 2=5 days (» = 20) made l-day 
movements ranging from 300 m to 3 km ^5 days 
after leaving adult care. Stands occupied after 
those initial long-distance movements were of 
different cover types between the two study sites 
(£- = 6.38. P = 0.04). Five (50%) birds at the 
deciduous site moved to sapling-dominated clear 
cuts, four (40%) moved to forested wetlands, and 
one (10%) moved to mature deciduous lorest after 
the first long-distance move. One (10%) bird at 
the mixed-deciduous-conifer site moved to a 
sapling-dominated clearcut. three (30%) moved 
to forested wetlands, and six (60%) moved to 
mature inixed-deciduous-conifcr forest attei the 
first long-distance move. Birds spent 1-10 (a — 5) 
days in these stands following the first long¬ 
distance movements before making a second 1-day 
long-distance movement ranging from 300 m to 
6.1 km to subsequent areas where they spent 1-10 
(x = 4) days before making a third long-distance 
move. Birds made similar mean long-distance 
movements at the deciduous site (a - — 849^ ± 
159 m) and the mixed-deciduous-conifer site (.v = 
1,133 ± 228 m; / ( s = 1.00. P = 0.33). Birds also 
moved similar mean daily distances within stands 
at the deciduous site {x = 101 ± 12 m) and the 
mixed-deciduous-conifer site (.v = 105 ± 11 m; / is 
= 0.22. P = 0.83). Only two (10%) birds we 
(racked for s5 days were not observed using 
sapling-dominated cleareuts or forested wetlands, 
both at the mixed-deciduous-conifer site. 
Birds at the deciduous site selected among 
cover types (A = 0.048, P < 0.001) using 
sapling-dominated cleareuts and forested wetlands 
more than mature forest and shrub-dominated 
cleareuts. Fledglings at the deciduous site used 
sapling-dominated cleareuts more than twice as 
much, forested wetlands six times as much, and 
mature forest less than half as much as expected 
based on availability (Table 1). Birds at the 
mixed-deciduous-conifer site also selected among 
cover types ( A = 0.272. P - 0.005) using mature 
forest, sapling-dominated cleareuts. and forested 
wetlands more than shrub-dominated cleareuts. 
That result was affected by the disproportionately 
low use of shrub-dominated cleareuts and, if we 
excluded that cover type from our analyses, birds 
