LAUSR

The relationship between nest‐site selection and nest success remains unclear for many avian species. Discrepancies among results may be driven by the localized conditions of study sites being evaluated at a single scale. We monitored eastern wild turkey ( Meleagris gallopavo silvestris ) nests across 3 study areas in North Carolina, USA, to 1) develop scale‐specific predictive models for vegetation characteristics selected at nest sites and 2) describe effects of female behaviors and vegetation conditions on nest survival. We monitored 370 female eastern wild turkeys to evaluate nest‐site selection and relationship with nest survival at 2 spatial scales across 3 ecoregion‐specific study areas in North Carolina during 2020–2022. We used generalized linear modeling and an information‐theoretic approach to determine if vegetation characteristics around the nest site (15‐m radius) and landscape features in the incubation range (50% nesting period utilization distribution) influenced nest‐site selection at 407 nests across the 3 ecoregions. We used a Cox proportional hazard model to calculate baseline hazards and associated effects of covariates from the nest‐selection model. Wild turkeys selected nest sites that had greater forb and woody understory cover and greater visual obstruction than paired random locations. Within the incubation range, wild turkeys selected for patches with greater shrubland and herbaceous land cover than at random locations. Nest survival decreased by 2.3% for every 1% increase of bare ground cover at the nest site, increased by <1.0% for every 100 m/ha increase in the amount of edge in the incubation range, and increased by 5.8% for every 10% increase in shrubland cover in the incubation range. An increase of one additional daily recess movement by the incubating female increased the risk of nest failure by 12.9%. Female turkeys selected nest sites with concealing vegetation cover and nearby vegetation types that likely provided additional high‐quality nesting cover. Thus, management practices (e.g., forest thinning and prescribed burning) that foster understory vegetation within forest and woodlands intermixed with shrubland and herbaceous vegetation types are essential to manage high‐quality nesting cover for female wild turkeys.