Breeding success should increase with prior knowledge of the surrounding environment, which is dependent upon an animal's ability to evaluate habitat. Prospecting for nesting locations and migratory stopover sites are well-established behaviours among bird species. We assessed whether three species of California dabbling ducks – mallards, Anas platyrhynchos, gadwall, Mareca strepera, and cinnamon teal, Spatula cyanoptera – in Suisun Marsh, California, U.S.A., a brackish marsh, prospect for suitable wetlands in the week prior to brooding. K-means cluster analyses grouped 29 mallard and gadwall hens into three groups. One group (N = 13) demonstrated evidence of brood site prospecting, with the fewest and latest prebrooding wetland visits. Of these hens, seven visited their future brood pond an average of 1.14 times and only shortly before brooding (1.29 days), obtaining current information on habitat suitability. For the remaining six hens, we did not detect a brooding wetland visit, possibly due to data limitations or because these hens acquired sufficient familiarity with the wetland habitat during nest breaks in adjacent wetlands, obviating the need to prospect the specific brood pond. The second identified group of hens (N = 11) visited the brooding wetland most frequently (on 4.55 days), further in advance (5.27 days), with the fewest unique wetland visits and the earliest brooding date (26 May). The final group of hens (N = 5) were the latest to brood (21 June) and visited the most wetlands, possibly due to less water or more broods present across the landscape. Brood ponds were always farther from the nest than the nearest ponds, indicating that habitat suitability or presence of conspecifics is more important to brood site selection. Prospecting provides hens with knowledge about current habitat conditions and allows them to ‘crowdsource’ public information regarding use of that habitat by other brooding hens. Prospecting may, therefore, benefit ducks inhabiting ephemeral habitats like those within Suisun Marsh, where brood habitat is limited and water cover changes rapidly during the breeding season.

中文翻译：

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良好的前景：高分辨率遥测数据表明水禽的新型育雏地点选择行为

繁殖成功应该随着对周围环境的先验知识而增加，这取决于动物评估栖息地的能力。寻找筑巢地点和迁徙中途停留地点是鸟类的公认行为。我们评估了美国加利福尼亚州 Suisun 沼泽中的三种加利福尼亚涉水鸭——野鸭、鸭嘴鸭、gadwall、Mareca strepera 和肉桂青色、Spatula cyanoptera——是否在育雏前一周寻找合适的湿地。K-means 聚类分析将 29 只野鸭和 gadwall 母鸡分为三组。一组 (N = 13) 展示了育雏地点勘探的证据，其中育雏前湿地访问次数最少，也是最新的。在这些母鸡中，有 7 只平均有 1 只访问了它们未来的育雏池。14 次，仅在育雏前不久（1.29 天），获取有关栖息地适宜性的最新信息。对于剩下的六只母鸡，我们没有检测到育雏湿地访问，这可能是由于数据限制，或者因为这些母鸡在相邻湿地休息期间对湿地栖息地有足够的熟悉，避免了对特定育雏池进行勘探的需要。确定的第二组母鸡（N = 11）访问育雏湿地的频率最高（4.55 天），提前（5.27 天），独特的湿地访问次数最少，育雏日期最早（5 月 26 日）。最后一组母鸡（N = 5）是最晚孵蛋的（6 月 21 日），并且访问了最多的湿地，这可能是由于整个景观中的水较少或育雏较多。育雏池总是比最近的池塘离巢更远，表明栖息地适宜性或同种物种的存在对育雏地点选择更为重要。勘探为母鸡提供有关当前栖息地条件的知识，并允许它们“众包”有关其他育雏母鸡使用该栖息地的公共信息。因此，勘探可能有利于鸭子栖息在短暂的栖息地，如水孙沼泽内的鸭子，那里的栖息地有限，繁殖季节期间水面变化迅速。