Novel Tracking and Reporting Methods for Studying Large Birds in Urban Landscapes

Adrian Davis,John M Martin,Charlotte E Taylor,Richard E Major

doi:10.2981/wlb.00307

Adrian Davis, John M Martin + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.2981/wlb.00307

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Abstract

Monitoring individually marked birds' movements over the long term with the aid of third‐party observers can be challenging for reasons including poor tag visibility, observer error and tag failure or removal. This study tested the efficacy of the little used method of tagging birds with livestock ear‐tags; fitted to the patagia of 100 sulphur‐crested cockatoos occupying an urbanised landscape. The wing‐tags were easily applied, persisted over four years, and were highly visible. Urban residents were encouraged to report sightings of tagged birds, and there was a strong public response, with a total of 14 705 valid records over the first four years. Wing‐tagged birds were predominantly reported through a customised smartphone application (n = 10 146 records), e‐mail (n = 3243), Facebook (n = 415), and other formats (n = 901) by a large number of people (n = 1252) across all formats. All 100 tagged birds were reported by third‐party observers at least once and 68% of birds were reported more than 100 times. Because large birds tend to dominate urban bird communities, this research methodology should be effective for many other urban ecology projects.

Highlights

BioOne Complete is a full-text database of 200 subscribed and open-access titles in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences published by nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses
Many fundamental questions in animal ecology require the estimation of population size, assessment of movement, measurement of habitat preference, and interpretation of group and individual behaviours (McDonnell and Pickett 1990, Dingle 1996, Savard et al 2000, Marzluff 2001, McKinney 2002, Kark et al 2006, Grim et al 2008, Sol et al 2013)
Marking a subset of individuals in a population is an important research method used to answer a range of questions, and marking technologies have advanced considerably over the past century, from leg banding birds to satellite tracking of sharks (Calvo and Furness 1992, Horback et al 2012, Jorgensen et al 2010, Martin and Major 2010, Recio et al 2011, Votier et al 2011)

Summary

Introduction

BioOne Complete (complete.BioOne.org) is a full-text database of 200 subscribed and open-access titles in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences published by nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses. Your use of this PDF, the BioOne Complete website, and all posted and associated content indicates your acceptance of BioOne’s Terms of Use, available at www.bioone.org/terms-of-use. The integration of mobile technology and citizen science has the capability to increase data capture associated with ‘inexpensive’ methods such as bird marking This is likely to be most successful in urban areas, where there is more reliable mobile coverage and a larger pool of public participants

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