37 Meyer and Zimmerman listed features in themselves can serve as adequate nest sites, but preserving adjacent buffers of even two- or three-tree widths, even if not required, can increase their value to Swallow-tailed Kites. Desynchronizing harvest plans. Promote heterogeneous age and physical structure, longer rotations, larger patches, and a prescription for a) a minimum number of suitable patches of nesting habitat; and b) a minimum total area of productive foraging habitat on the managed landscape at any given time. Harvest planning can be flexible and meet management targets while still allowing for maintenance of prescribed habitat quality and quantity within the timber-managed landscape.
III. Landscape-level management and conservation strategy Not all suitable Swallow-tailed Kite nesting habitat is occupied. There probably are two main explanations: The species’ strong social tendencies, including nesting in loose colonies, which results in a clumped breeding distribution; and factors other than habitat (e.g., demographic performance, relatively low survival associated with long-distance migration) that limit population growth. When planning the spatial aspects of Swallow-tailed Kite conservation, we should consider the relative locations of present concentrations of nesting neighborhoods and the importance of connecting these areas with other centers of social activity, such as communal roosts and foraging areas. Natural corridors, usually of mature forested wetlands, promote movement among these sites. There are too few nests on public lands to assure persistence, with industrial forests supporting most Swallow-tailed Kites (Meyer 2004a). Although nesting habitat is not presently limiting, the quality of associated foraging habitat, which has not been assessed, may influence productivity (Meyer et al. 2004). Strong philopatry and social behavior (Meyer 1995, Meyer 1998) require protection and enhancement of habitually-used nesting areas, which are at risk from intensive forest management and development. Population viability analyses (PVA; Ralls et al. 2002), however, show that, even in more protected areas, survival (Meyer 2005) and nest success are only