Abstract: By the method of scan sampling, an observation from March to June 2009 was made on the behaviors of four pairs Ciconia boyciana in the Yellow River Delta National Nature Reserve, with the behaviors time budget and diurnal rhythm in breeding season studied. In the breeding season, the time budget proportion of breeding behavior accounted for 22.17%±21.69% (hatching 19.75%±20.71%, drying egg 1.31%±2.16%, feeding 1.00%±1.01%, mating 0.11%±0.32%), and that of resting, nest fixing, alerting, preening, and others accounted for 19.09%±13.94%, 6.40%±5.92%, 3.94%±4.88%, 3.11%±2.31%, and 45.27%±11.08%, respectively. The behaviors excited significant differences (P<0.01) during diff erent stages of the breeding season. The behavioral activities of C. boyciana at different stages of breeding season had definite rhythm, and the diurnal rhythm differed obviously. There existed significant correlations between temperature and drying egg (r=0.810, P<0.01), hatching (r=0.735, P<0.01), vehicles number and alerting (r=0.745, P<0.01), and resting (r=0.612, P<0.01).

Key words: Seabuckthorn, Water relations, Productivity, Different habitats, Loess Plateau