Nests and Nest-site Selection of White-crowned Penduline Tit Remiz coronatus in the Northern Xinjiang

The nest-site selection of White-crowned Penduline Tit Remiz coronatus in Northern Xinjiang was studied from April to July in 2008. It has special nesting behavior. The nest has a pocket pouch size, with a delicate structure. Research of the nest, using the method of total area investigation, included searching for nests carefully, combined with tag plotting method, and drawing the nest distribution map. In total 125 nests were found in the field, nesting on willow, poplar, birch and other hardwood trees near lakes and rivers. 68.80% of nest trees were willows Salix spp. The average height of nests was 5.3±2.5 m. The nests were located in the lower part of arbor (about 1/3), about 70% of nests less than 30 meters from river. Study of the nest-site selection, used a quadrate survey to investigate the parameters of nest-site characteristics. The principal component analysis indicated that there were four factors affecting the nest-site selection of the White-crowned Penduline Tit. They were: 1. canopy (including diameter of nest tree and canopy cover above nest), 2. nest tree species (including species of nest tree and arbor, height of nest tree and nest in the tree), 3. position or site (including distance to river and nest orientation ), 4. food and nest material (including canopy cover under nest).