Abstract: The habitat preference of Mrs Hume’s Pheasant (Syrmaticus humiae) in Jinzhongshan Nature Reserve of Guangxi was studied in the summers of 2011 and 2012. In field, we used radio transmitters to track 8 birds and then confirmed the sign sites, and 20 ecological factors were measured in 111 sign quadrats (10 m× 10 m) and 93 control quadrats, respectively. Qualitative and quantitative analysis methods were used to test the differences between the two datasets of sign and control quadrats. Our results demonstrated that slope position, distance to forest edge, herb coverage, shrub height, herb density, and tree diameter at breast height had no significant differences (P>0.05) between the two kinds of quadrats, while other factors existed significant differences (P<0.05). The principal components analysis showed that there were five most important factors (with eigenvalue >1) dominating the Mrs Hume’s Pheasant’s habitat selection in summer. The total eigenvalue contribution of the five factors was 64.23%. The first principal component belonging to food factor was a major factor affecting summer habitat selection of Mrs Hume’s Pheasant; the other four principal components were safety, disturbance, geographical and water factors. We suggested that food resource availability in different habitat patches was the vital factor affecting the habitat preference of Mrs Hume’s Pheasant.

Key words: evapotranspiration, rain-fed area of the Loess Tableland, soil reservoir, soil desiccation, winter wheat