Fat scoring in four sparrow species as an estimation of body condition: a validation study

Wenker, Elizabeth S.; Kendrick, E. L.; Maslanka, Mike; Power, Michael L.

doi:10.5751/jfo-00119-930205

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…Moreover, fat score has poor resolution for quantifying lipid mass at the lower end of the scale (Seewagen 2008), and birds with low fat scores can store fat elsewhere on their body that is not detected by traditional scoring (Rogers 1991, Seewagen 2008, Labocha and Hayes 2012. Thus, there are limitations to using fat score as a metric for body condition when there are many birds with scores of 0 (Rogers 1991, Seewagen 2008, Labocha and Hayes 2012, and low levels of fat may not actually be indicative of poor body condition (McKinnon et al 2015, Wenker et al 2022.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fall bird migration in western North America during a period of heightened wildfire activity

Kittelberger¹,

Miller²,

Şekercioğlu³

2022

ACE

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Billions of birds annually migrate between breeding and nonbreeding grounds in North America. During fall 2020, there was a series of alarming mass-mortality events of migratory birds across the western United States, with estimates of 100,000 to 1 million birds having perished. One potential culprit behind these die-offs is wildfires, though there has been little research documenting the indirect effects of wildfires on actively migrating birds. We undertook a multi-year assessment of potential impacts that wildfires may have had on fall bird migration over the past decade, with a particular focus on fall 2020, using systematic bird banding data from southeastern Utah. We used a correlative approach to evaluate the relationship between estimates of acres burned by wildfires in western North America on several variables representing bird abundance and body condition. Notably, in our best fit models of birds banded at our research site during fall 2020, we found both a positive relationship for the number of bird captures and a negative relationship for body mass index with more daily burned acres. We provide an examination of incorporating lag effects of wildfires on different metrics of bird migration to account for potential impacts of fires on birds before migration and banding. Additionally, we assess the usefulness of different proxies of body condition in highly stressed land birds and introduce a scale for scoring emaciation of birds in the hand while banding. Our insights into avian migration ecology are one of the few studies that explore the role wildfires may have had in affecting migratory bird movements and health. Migration automnale d'oiseaux dans l'ouest de l'Amérique du Nord en période intense d'incendies de forêtRÉSUMÉ. Des milliards d'oiseaux migrent chaque année entre les aires de nidification et celles en dehors de la saison de nidification en Amérique du Nord. Au cours de l'automne 2020, une série d'évènements alarmants de mortalité massive d'oiseaux migrateurs a eu lieu dans l'ouest des États-Unis, l'estimation d'oiseaux ayant péri oscillant entre 100 000 et 1 million. Les incendies de forêt sont l'un des potentiels responsables de ces mortalités, bien que peu de recherches aient été menées sur les effets indirects de ceux-ci sur les oiseaux en migration active. Nous avons entrepris une évaluation pluriannuelle des impacts potentiels des incendies sur la migration automnale des oiseaux au cours de la dernière décennie, en portant une attention particulière à l'automne 2020, au moyen des données de baguage d'oiseaux dans le sud-est de l'Utah. Nous avons utilisé une approche corrélative pour évaluer la relation entre le nombre d'acres brûlés par les incendies de forêt dans l'ouest de l'Amérique du Nord et plusieurs variables décrivant l'abondance et la condition physique des oiseaux. Fait notable, nos meilleurs modèles, à partir des oiseaux bagués à notre site de recherche au cours de l'automne 2020, ont révélé une relation positive du nombre de captures d'oiseaux et une relation négative de ...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fall bird migration in western North America during a period of heightened wildfire activity

Kittelberger¹,

Miller²,

Şekercioğlu³

2022

ACE

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“…The Body Condition Index (body weight divided by one of the body length parameters) is commonly used to assess the condition of birds (see [60,68,69]) and to determine body energy reserves [70][71][72] because the available data suggest that morphometric indices of body condition are often moderately to strongly correlated with fat content in birds [60,73]. Body condition indices have been proven to be a good indicator of the survival prospects of nestling birds [74,75] and to significantly influence their future life [76][77][78].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of Management of Grassland on Prey Availability and Physiological Condition of Nestling of Red-Backed Shrike Lanius collurio

Knozowski,

Nowakowski,

Stawicka

et al. 2024

Animals

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The study aimed to determine the influence of grassland management on the potential food base of the red-backed shrike Lanius collurio and the condition of chicks in the population inhabiting semi-natural grasslands in the Narew floodplain. The grassland area was divided into three groups: extensively used meadows, intensively used meadows fertilised with mineral fertilisers, and intensively used meadows fertilised with liquid manure, and selected environmental factors that may influence food availability were determined. Using Barber traps, 1825 samples containing 53,739 arthropods were collected, and the diversity, abundance, and proportion of large arthropods in the samples were analysed depending on the grassland use type. In the bird population, the condition of the chicks was characterised by the BCI (Body Condition Index) and haematological parameters (glucose level, haemoglobin level, haematocrit, and H:L ratio). The diversity of arthropods was highest in extensively used meadows. Still, the mean abundance and proportion of arthropods over 1 cm in length differed significantly for Orthoptera, Hymenoptera, Arachne, and Carabidae between grassland use types, with the highest proportion of large arthropods and the highest abundance recorded in manure-fertilised meadows. The highest Body Condition Indexes and blood glucose levels of nestlings indicating good nestling nutrition were recorded in nests of birds associated with extensive land use. The H:L ratio as an indicator of the physiological condition of nestlings was high on manure-fertilised and extensively managed meadows, indicating stress factors associated with these environments. This suggests that consideration should be given to the effects of chemicals, such as pesticides or drug residues, that may come from slurry poured onto fields on the fitness of red-backed shrike chicks.

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Fat scoring in four sparrow species as an estimation of body condition: a validation study

Cited by 2 publications

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Fall bird migration in western North America during a period of heightened wildfire activity

Fall bird migration in western North America during a period of heightened wildfire activity

Effect of Management of Grassland on Prey Availability and Physiological Condition of Nestling of Red-Backed Shrike Lanius collurio

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