Nest-site selection plays an important role in avian breeding success. The Xinjiang Ground-Jays (Podoces biddulphi) is endemic to China and distributed restricted to sandy desert, scrub and desert poplar in the Taklamakan Desert in Xinjiang, China. In this study, the nest-site selection of the Xinjiang Ground-Jays was investigated from April to May, 2017. Quadrat method was used with following parameters being investigated: distance to water, distance to path, distance to settlement, distance to graze land, vegetation species number, vegetation density and vegetation cover. A total of 12 nests were found, of which 9 were built in the bush of the Tamarisk (Tamarix) and located at the edge of desert, and one was built on the ground near the road (Fig. 1, Table 1). All the 7 parameters were measured for both the nest sites and control plots. Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare the difference between nest sites and control plots, and principal component analysis (PCA) was employed to analyze the main factors of the nest site selection of the Xinjiang Ground-Jay. The results showed that: 1) the vegetation species number and vegetation cover were significantly different between nest sites and control plots. The nest site had more vegetation species number and higher vegetation cover (Table 2); 2) vegetation species number, the distance of nest to the nearest road and the distance to water played the key roles in nest-site selection of the Xinjiang Ground-Jay (Table 3, Table 4). In summary, the nest-sites selection of the Xinjiang Ground-Jay was influenced by both the food availability and avoiding the disturbance, as a result of trade-off between survival and reproduction.