Bird ringing (UK) or bird banding (US) is the attachment of a small, individually numbered metal or plastic tag to the leg or wing of a wild bird to enable individual identification. This helps in keeping track of the movements of the bird and its life history. It is common to take measurements and examine conditions of feather molt, subcutaneous fat, age indications and sex during capture for ringing. The subsequent recapture or recovery of the bird can provide information on migration, longevity, mortality, population, territoriality, feeding behavior, and other aspects that are studied by ornithologists. Other methods of marking birds may also be used to allow for field based identification that does not require capture.
The earliest recorded attempts to mark birds were made by Roman soldiers. For instance during the Punic Wars in 218 BC a crow was released by a besieged garrison (which suggests that this was an established practice). Quintus Fabius Pictor used a thread on the bird's leg to send a message back. Or in another case in history a knight interested in chariot races during the time of Pliny (AD 1) took crows to Volterra, away and released the crows with information on the race winners.
Falconers in the Middle Ages fit plates on their falcons with seals of their owners. In England from around 1560 or so, swans were marked with a swan mark, a nick on the bill.
Storks injured by arrows (termed as pfeilstorch in German) traceable to African tribes were found in Germany in 1822 and constituted some of the earliest evidence of long-distance migration in European birds.
In North America John James Audubon and Ernest Thompson Seton were pioneers although their method of marking birds was different from modern ringing. To determine if the same birds returned to his farm, Audubon tied silver threads onto the legs of young eastern phoebes in 1805 (although the veracity of the dates has been questioned), while Seton marked snow buntings in Manitoba with ink in 1882.
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This course aims to provide graduate students a thorough grounding in the methods, theory, mathematics and algorithms needed to do research and applications in machine learning. The course covers topi
Bird migration is the regular seasonal movement, often north and south, along a flyway, between breeding and wintering grounds. Many species of bird migrate. Migration carries high costs in predation and mortality, including from hunting by humans, and is driven primarily by the availability of food. It occurs mainly in the northern hemisphere, where birds are funnelled onto specific routes by natural barriers such as the Mediterranean Sea or the Caribbean Sea.
Parrots, also known as psittacines (ˈsɪtəsaɪnz), are birds of the order Psittaciformes (ˈsɪtəsᵻfɔrmiːz) and are found mostly in tropical and subtropical regions. They are made up of four families that contain roughly 410 species in 101 genera. The four families are: Psittaculidae (Old World parrots) , the Psittacidae (African and New World parrots), the Cacatuoidea (cockatoos), and the Strigopidae (New Zealand parrots). One-third of all parrot species are threatened by extinction, with higher aggregate extinction risk (IUCN Red List Index) than any other comparable bird group.
Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and the aesthetic appeal of birds. It has also been an area with a large contribution made by amateurs in terms of time, resources, and financial support. Studies on birds have helped develop key concepts in biology including evolution, behaviour and ecology such as the definition of species, the process of speciation, instinct, learning, ecological niches, guilds, island biogeography, phylogeography, and conservation.
Flocks of birds self-organize into V-formations when they need to travel long distances. It has been shown that this formation allows the birds to save energy, by taking advantage of the upwash generated by the neighboring birds. In this work we use a mode ...
Flocks of birds self-organize into V-formations when they need to travel long distances. It has been shown that this formation allows the birds to save energy, by taking advantage of the upwash generated by the neighboring birds. In this work we use a simp ...
Climate changes are expected to affect bird migration in several aspects including timing changes, breeding and migration orientation. The correlation analysis of several climate conditions (e.g. temperature, wind, humidity, etc) and bird migration traject ...