BROWN THRASHER NEST REUSE: A TIME SAVING RESOURCE, PROTECTION FROM SEARCH-STRATEGY PREDATORS, OR CUES FOR NEST-SITE SELECTION?

Population of Brown Thrashers (Toxostoma rufam) nesting on the Konza Prairie Research Natural Area in northeastern Kansas. We determined whether thrashers reuse nests constructed in previous years, and tested predictions of the hypothesis that old nests function to reduce the risk of nest predation by saturatingt he cues used by search-strategy predators

JOHN E CAVIT, The Condor 101:859-862