A New Procedure for Transmitter Attachment: Effects on Brood Attendance and Chick Feeding Rates by Male Common Terns

Abstract

A transmitter crystal and battery were covered with epoxy and wired to a size 2 USFWS aluminum leg band. The male partners of 10 Common Tern (Sterna hirundo) pairs were captured during late incubation at a Port Colborne, Ontario tern colony and the transmitter units fixed to their legs. The total package weighed an average 1.08 g more than the usual mass of a single band. The brood attendance patterns and feeding frequency rates of transmittered-males and of their female partners were contrasted over a 20-day period with those of non-transmittered males and their partners. No differences were found. Advantages of the attachment procedure are speed of attachment, light mass, rapid loss of antennae following battery exhaustion, and lack of adverse effect on parental behavior.