birding-aus

House Crow stable isotopes?

To: Carl Clifford <>
Subject: House Crow stable isotopes?
From: L&L Knight <>
Date: Thu, 27 Mar 2008 14:30:40 +1000
I would be interested in the results of a comparative study of twitchers vs garden birdos. Could be an interesting PhD topic.

In particular, it would be interesting to see if birders with House Crows on their list are significantly different to the Australian baseline.

Regards, Laurie.

On 27/03/2008, at 2:16 PM, Carl Clifford wrote:

Hmm, has there been any research into the level of un-stable isotopes in Birders?

Carl Clifford


On 27/03/2008, at 2:46 PM, Andrew Taylor wrote:
It might well be possible to determine the House Crow's provenance.
The ratio of various isotopes in the environments varies between
ecosystems and across continents.  You can by examining the isotope
ratios present in a bird tissues infer its location in past months.

This has been used to infer migratory patterns and it has been used at
least once for a vagrant. A Baikal Teal shot near Denmark was found to
have a feather deuterium/hydrogen ratio consistent with it originating
in its native range rather than local captivity.

Andrew [ not making the journey to Dee Why ]

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