Technique for Evaluating the Breeding Habitat of Mourning Doves Using Call-Count Transects

This paper describes a technique to evaluate the breeding habitat of the mourning dove (Zenaida macroura) utilizing a "windshield approach" capable of identifying habitat parameters correlated with call counts. Habitat parameters accounted for up to 77.8 and 97.8 percent of the variation in call counts within transect intervals and transects, respectively, when regression analyses were conducted within ecological areas. Techniques presented can be used to evaluate the habitat of any game or non-game species for which transects are used to obtain population data, can be modified to include particular plants important to a given wildlife species. and may be useful in monitoring annual or long term changes in wildlife habitat.