Use of heat-shrink tubing to attach radio transmitters to bird rectrices.
Mark G. Alessi, Arlo Raim, Tara A. Beveroth, Misty N. Barron, Michael P. Ward · Digital Commons - University of South Florida (University of South Florida) · 2009
Researchers have been attaching radio transmitters to birds for over 50 yr, which has greatly increased our knowledge about the behavior of many bird species.However, because researchers are interested in studying the behavior of birds, it is important to attach the transmitters in a manner that mitigates any potential effects the transmitter may have on a bird's behavior.We present a new method to attach radio transmitters to the rectrices of birds, specifica11y passerines, using heat-shrink tubing.We attached 27 0.8-g transmitters to 40 Ye11ow-breasted Chats (Icteria virens), and 10 1.1g transmitters to 10 American Robins (Turdus migratorious).The mean duration of transmitter attachment was 16.5 days for chats and 48.5 days for robins.Our observations suggest that this method had little effect on the behavior of the birds.We discuss species and questions for which this method is most suited. METHODSWe attached transmitters toY ell ow-breasted Chats (Icteria virens) and Am~rican Robins (Turdus migratorious) in two spatially separate locations in Jan.