A Time-Series Algorithm to Detect Avian Nesting Behavior

• Activity Number: 428
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Tuesday, August 3, 2010 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistics and the Environment
• Author(s): Emily Sheldon* and Viswanathan Ramakrishnan+ and Kevin Caillouet and Leroy Thacker
• Companies: Virginia Commonwealth University and Virginia Commonwealth University and Virginia Commonwealth University and Virginia Commonwealth University
• Keywords: time-series ; moving average ; Avian

Abstract

Avian nesting behavior is of interest to ornithologists and to disease control officials who monitor nesting birds for zoonotic pathogens such as West Nile virus. To determine the amount of time nest-attending adult birds spend on the nest and to test whether a novel mosquito trap affects avian behavior, we used temperature data loggers to record temperature as a proxy for nest attendance. Temperature was recorded at minute intervals for 12 hour periods. The ambient temperature-adjusted data were smoothed by a 15 minute moving average. Moving regression models for 15 consecutive observations were fit on the 15 minute average data and changes in the direction of slopes delineated a change in nest attendance (off or on nest event). A GLIMMIX model was used to analyze the affect of the mosquito trap presence on the frequency of off-nest events.