NEAFWA 2018

AUTHORS: Alison R. Kocek, Jonathan B. Cohen - SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry

ABSTRACT. Identification of individuals attending nests is often important in avian field work. For secretive species such as tidal marsh sparrows that cannot be easily identified by individual color bands in the field, capture of adults on nests is the primary method for identification. However, as these species renest several times each season, continual recaptures of birds at the nest may lead to nest abandonment and trap avoidance. To reduce both of these costs, we attached a Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT) tag to a band on Saltmarsh Sparrows and Seaside Sparrows in New York in 2014 and 2015. When a sparrow nest was found, we concealed an RFID reader antenna near the nest and if an attending adult had a PIT Tag band, the identity of that individual was successfully recorded every time. Use of PIT Tags reduced physical capture of adults at the nest by 79.2% in 2015, increased apparent detection of individuals by 50%, and five individuals were identified at the nest by use of RFID technology that were never physically captured that season. RFID technology has great potential to increase detection rates while reducing the cost of researcher induced nest abandonment for difficult to observe species.