Micronesian Starlings?(Aplonis opaca) are one of two native forest bird species that have survived on the island of Guam despite predation by invasive brown tree snakes (Boiga irregularis). We report the first detailed account?of the starling’s breeding biology to help understand how this species has persisted and guide management to conserve and expand the population. Our surveys indicated that although starlings continued to forage in nearby forest, nesting occurred almost exclusively in developed habitat on Andersen Air Force Base. We located 36 active nest sites in a variety of natural and artificial structures, many of which were likely difficult or impossible for snakes to access. We report reproductive data from those nest sites and also predator-resistant nestboxes (n = 48 pairs using 58 boxes) installed in our study area. Typical of tropical species, the average clutch was?small (2.19 ? 0.55 [SD] over 431 nesting attempts), but pairs nested repeatedly throughout the year.?Pairs showed high site fidelity, and nestboxes (n = 70) installed at least 34 m from forest edge were readily colonized with 77% occupied by the end of our study. Protected nestboxes in urbanized areas along with snake suppression may be useful strategies for expanding the population of Micronesian Starlings and consequently restoring seed dispersal in nearby forest on Guam.

中文翻译：

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当地濒临灭绝的密克罗尼西亚椋鸟 (Aplonis opaca) 的巢址选择和繁殖生物学为其在关岛的恢复提供了信息

密克罗尼西亚椋鸟？（Aplonis opaca）是两种在关岛幸存下来的本土森林鸟类之一，尽管被入侵的棕色树蛇（Boigaregularis）捕食。我们报告了椋鸟繁殖生物学的第一个详细记录，以帮助了解该物种如何持续存在并指导管理以保护和扩大种群。我们的调查表明，尽管椋鸟继续在附近的森林中觅食，但筑巢几乎只发生在安徒生空军基地的发达栖息地。我们在各种自然和人工结构中定位了 36 个活跃的巢穴，其中许多可能是蛇难以或不可能进入的。我们报告了来自这些巢穴的繁殖数据，以及安装在我们研究区域的抗捕食者巢箱（n = 48 对，使用 58 个箱子）。典型的热带物种，平均离合器很小（2.19 ? 0.55 [SD]，超过 431 次筑巢尝试），但对全年重复筑巢。对表现出高现场保真度，巢箱（n = 70）至少安装了 34 个在我们研究结束时，距离森林边缘的 m 很容易定植，占 77%。在城市化地区保护巢箱以及抑制蛇可能是扩大密克罗尼西亚椋鸟种群并因此恢复关岛附近森林中的种子传播的有用策略。