Monday 1 April 2013

Banding for year 2012/13 - A round up

It was an average years banding in the year 1 April 12 to 31 March 13 which is the DOC Banding Office banding year. In all for the year we banded 2993 birds of 16 species which is slightly above the 8 year average and slightly below the 5 year average. Below are numbers caught for the 8 years since the Banding Office altered the year to run from April to March.  The last 4 years show the ranking for each species.

New birds banded

05/06
06/07
07/08
08/09
09/10
10/11
11/12
12/13
8yr Av
Silvereye
1190
853
1759
1403
1156
1
1934
1
1341
1
1063
1
1337
H Sparrow
353
295
517
495
474
2
698
3
620
2
905
2
545
Greenfinch
163
280
518
266
261
3
710
2
211
3
197
3
326
Chaffinch
99
99
163
109
110
5
161
5
195
4
175
4
139
Blackbird
108
119
124
185
133
4
123
6
174
5
151
5
140
Goldfinch
16
26
62
36
61
8
39
12
43
9
140
6
53
Starling
64
80
166
56
91
6
76
8
73
6
91
7
87
Tui
10
54
86
73
71
7
67
9
57
7
71
8
61
Dunnock
27
44
41
46
44
11
56
10
37
10
65
9
45
Fantail
42
57
58
31
46
10
78
7
30
11
60
10
50
Grey Warbler
13
17
12
20
21
12
41
13
49
8
39
11
27
Yellowhammer
23
7
13
14
56
9
162
4
20
12
27
12
40
Song Thrush
7
3
6
2
7
14
7
14
1
15
5
13
5
E Rosella
0
0
0
0
1
15
0
16
1
16
2
14
1
Kingfisher
4
3
3
3
0
16
1
15
2
13
1
15
2
Redpoll
1
5
4
0
15
13
42
11
1
14
1
16
9
Magpie
0
1
0
1
0
17
0
17
0
17
0
17
0
Bellbird



1
0
18
0
18
0
18
0
18
0
2120
1943
3532
2741
2547

4195

2855

2993
2866



 Recaptures

The number of each species that were recaptured in each of the last 3 years. This number includes, in many cases, the multiple recaps of the same bird.
ReCaps
10/11
11/12
12/13
Silvereye
1128
571
621
House Sparrow
73
82
148
Blackbird
81
55
71
Greenfinch
172
93
55
Chaffinch
25
33
23
Starling
15
30
23
Dunnock
21
6
13
Grey Warbler
4
13
13
Tui
10
8
10
Fantail
31
10
7
Goldfinch
0
4
3
Song Thrush
0
0
1
Kaka
0
1
1
Yellowhammer
4
0
0
1564
906
989

Species caught in the 12/13 year

Species are ranked according to the number of new birds banded (recaps are in brackets)

No 1 Silvereye - 1063 (621) Has been the No 1 species each year but this year's numbers are well below the average with a big drop at several sites.
No 2 House Sparrow - 905 (148) Usually at No 2 and well above the average with a very big breeding season and large numbers of juvenile birds caught.
No 3 Greenfinch - 197 (55) our lowest tally for 7 years. The drop in numbers was evident at all our sites so there appeared to be fewer Greenfinch around the city. This species is usually at 3rd but has been ahead of Sparrows in a couple of years. 
No 4 Chaffinch - 175 (23) usually at 4 or 5 on the list and slightly above average.
No 5 Blackbird - 151 (71) also slightly up on the average.
No 6 Goldfinch - 140 (3) the big mover for the year and by far our highest tally. A large number of juveniles were caught at our stream sites and these will hopefully show up in the recapture figures over the next 5 years or so.
No 7 Starling - 91 (23) pretty close to the average for new birds but a very good recapture rate.
No 8 Tui - 71 (10) with the exception of 07/08 when we targeted Tui one of our highest tallies.
No 9 Dunnock - (13) after a big drop in numbers last year well above the average.
No 10 Fantail - 60 (10) above average but numbers fluctuate a lot depending on the winter survival.
No 11 Grey Warbler - 39 (11) lower than last year but still above the average.
No 12 Yellowhammer - 27 (0) another species that fluctuates a lot with catches fluctuating depending on where they feed during the winter and the catch ability of the site.  It was a bit disappointing not to get any recaps.
No 13 Song Thrush - 5 (1) 
No 14 Eastern Rosella - 2 (0) a bycatch at the Karori Cemetery site but we did have 2 bounce at other sites. I expect this species to feature more in the future.
No 15 Kingfisher - 1 (0) a bird caught on the last banding day of the year.
No 16 Redpoll - 1 (0) a large flock fed at MacAlister Park last winter but we were unable to catch any.

Old Birds

The oldest bird recaptured or recovered for each species. Species in red are from this last year.
Band No
Species
Days
Est Age
D
71970
Blackbird
4021
12yr 0mth
A
135040
Silvereye
3817
10yr 9mth
D
185240
Starling
3107
13yr 2mth
Y
185226
Tui
3001
9yr 8mth
B
96619
House Sparrow
2773
8yr 0mth
A
104329
Chaffinch
2574
8yr 0mth
A
168383
Greenfinch
1956
5yr 3mth
AA
4172
Grey Warbler
1519
4yr 4mth
A
153123
Goldfinch
1428
4yr 5mth
A
167973
Dunnock
1413
4yr 0mth
AX
1919
Fantail Pied
1176
3yr 3mth
A
104139
Yellowhammer
1114
3yr 6mth

The number of birds that were recaptured or recovered that were over 5 years from banding for the last 2 years.

Over 5 yr
11/12
12/13
Silvereye
16
13
Starling
2
9
Tui
2
6
Blackbird
2
5
Chaffinch
1
2
Greenfinch
0
2
House Sparrow
1
1
24
38
It is good to see that several species have had a substantial increase in the oldest bird category and also an increase in the number of birds caught over 5 years from banding.

Birds recovered dead for the last 3 years

Recoveries
10/11
11/12
12/13
Silvereye
14
5
11
Blackbird
4
6
8
House Sparrow
11
20
7
Starling
2
2
6
Tui
6
6
2
Chaffinch
2
1
1
Dunnock
2
0
1
Greenfinch
9
5
1
Grey Warbler
0
0
1
Fantail
1
0
0
Goldfinch
2
1
0
53
46
38
I had a quick look at the cause of death for birds this year and by far the majority were cause unknown including 1 that was reported as "having just fallen out of its tree". 1 was killed in a rat trap, 2 from the Zoo were killed by Otters, 3 hit windows, 5 were killed in road accidents and 9 reportedly were killed by cats.

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