A particular type of site fidelity is faithfulness to the nest site, where birds are not only reoccupying breeding territories but also reusing nests built in previous breeding seasons. Staying faithful to the nest site is believed to be an adaptive strategy, and based on the ability to predict an individual's own breeding success, a hypothesis of “win-stay:loose-switch” was proposed. In this study, we aimed to resolve which factors affect the nest-site fidelity of white stork Ciconia ciconia, species known for reusing nests available in the breeding sites. Basing on ring recoveries from 31 years of studies in Western and Southern Poland, we analysed the impact of intrinsic and extrinsic factors on nest-site fidelity. We found that increasing age and breeding success (i.e. producing any fledglings or not) increased the probability of reusing the nest, but in the oldest individuals, the probability decreased. In turn, the probability of breeding success increased with age, the increasing number of reproductive events on the particular nest, and the presence on the nest in the previous year. However, the oldest individuals had lower probability of success, as the relationship was curvilinear. The number of fledglings, however, was influenced only by an individual's age. The number of reproductive events on the nest was, in turn, affected by age, with the youngest and oldest individuals using the current nest for the least number of years. Our study shows that the decision process of whether to stay faithful to the nest or switch is based on the experience from the previous breeding event, consistently with the “win-stay:loose-switch” hypothesis. Our results also show that site fidelity benefits white storks, as the probability of breeding success increases if the nest is reused. Results also show the senescence effect that lowers breeding success and site fidelity probabilities.

中文翻译：

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年龄、巢穴命运和领地质量影响白鹳巢址的保真度

地点保真度的一种特殊类型是对巢穴地点的忠实，鸟类不仅重新占据繁殖地，而且重复使用在先前繁殖季节建造的巢穴。忠于巢穴被认为是一种适应性策略，并且基于预测个体自身繁殖成功的能力，提出了“胜利-停留：宽松-切换”的假设。在这项研究中，我们的目的是解决影响白鹳巢穴保真度的因素，白鹳是一种以重复利用繁殖地现有巢穴而闻名的物种。根据波兰西部和南部 31 年研究中环的恢复情况，我们分析了内在和外在因素对巢址保真度的影响。我们发现，年龄的增加和繁殖成功率的增加（即是否产生任何雏鸟）会增加重复使用巢穴的可能性，但对于最年长的个体来说，这种可能性会降低。反过来，繁殖成功的可能性随着年龄、特定巢穴上繁殖事件数量的增加以及前一年在巢穴中的存在而增加。然而，年龄最大的个体成功的可能性较低，因为这种关系是曲线形的。然而，雏鸟的数量仅受个体年龄的影响。巢穴中繁殖事件的数量反过来又受到年龄的影响，最年轻和最年长的个体使用当前巢穴的年数最短。我们的研究表明，是否忠实于巢穴或转换的决策过程是基于之前繁殖事件的经验，与“胜利-留下：松散-转换”假设一致。我们的结果还表明，场地保真度对白鹳有利，因为如果重复使用巢穴，繁殖成功的可能性就会增加。结果还显示衰老效应会降低繁殖成功率和地点保真度概率。