ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes over 40 years of inquiry into the factors which affect reproductive success of wading birds in the Everglades system, with a focus on the past 20 years. It is unlikely that reproductive success has been limited by human disturbance (in the post-plume-hunting era), a depauperate potential nesting population, or lack of suitable colony substrate. Predation of nest contents usually has a minor effect on reproductive success, although predation is clearly a correlate of other stresses, such as drying of the marsh surface, human distur bance, or changes in food availability. The majority of reproductive failures instead appear to be associated with the availability and quality of food and with disease agents. For wood storks and white ibises both the initiation and abandonment of nesting can be associated indirectly with the recession rate of surface water in Everglades marshes. This relationship is almost certainly the result of increased prey availability through entrapment during drying phases. Tricolored herons, snowy egrets, and great egrets all show some susceptibility to abandon nesting during winter storms and reversals in the drying trend, although the mechanism may not entirely be related to dilution of prey. Rising water levels do not apparently contribute to the abandonments in great egrets, while the effects of cool tempera tures on prey do.
