Grassland bird nesting ecology: video samples of behavior: 1st edition

This data publication provides video clips related to the nesting ecology of grassland birds. Each video has a brief description in the included catalog. These videos are supplemental material for scientific publications by the authors, and constitute a subset of videos, collected from 2006-2014, as part of research on the nesting ecology of grassland birds done in Wisconsin, USA, and Alberta, Canada.
Grassland birds are ground nesters that construct nests that are generally well camouflaged by surrounding vegetation. Consequently, their nesting ecology has been more difficult to observe than the ecology of cavity- or shrub-nesting birds. Using video cameras to record behavior of adults, nestlings, and other actors functions to improve our understanding of nesting ecology. This, in turn, improves our management insights and facilitates placing the nesting ecology of grassland birds in the broader context of the nesting ecology of birds generally.
This data publication became available on 08/09/2018. Metadata was updated on 01/30/2019 to include reference to 2nd edition of these data. Minor metadata updates were made on 05/10/2019. ** NOTE: we recommend using the 2nd edition of these data which are now available, see Cross-Reference section below. The 2nd edition provides all of the videos as MP4 files, includes three additional videos and description updates to replace "flight" phrasing with "wing-assisted". This reflects the fact that nestling grassland birds cannot engage in sustained flight, but can (when old enough) coordinate their use of wings and legs. This coordination permits the young to leverage wing-generated lift to assist leg-generated thrust to move farther than use of legs alone would allow. Wing-assisted locomotion reaches its peak with "short flight", wherein the young birds are flying for short distances (although their development has not progressed enough to allow sustained flight).