Re: Longevity of Australian passerines

[Anthony Overs <>]

Thanks Denis, and thanks Paul for the summary from the banding scheme database.

Overseas visitors are often astounded by the fact that our birds are so long lived. Many years ago, during some banding work at Barren Grounds, I had immense pleasure in showing a recaptured Brown Thornbill to some foreign visitors; the bird was 15 years old, it weighed seven grams and had been retrapped a dozen times in the same spot, right by the warden's residence. In the same day I retrapped a 12 year old "scrubbie" and two 10 year old Eastern Spinebills. From memory (which is fading...) the birds were all adults when banded, so those ages are a minimum!! That Brown Thornbill could have been ten years old when it was initially banded. Known age birds such as juveniles and immatures are so important in banding studies as it gives you a baseline or starting point. As an example, that's how Bill Lane worked out that male Satin Bowerbirds got their black plumage in their sixth and seventh years, by banding juveniles and recapturing them repeatedly.

Cheers
Anthony

On 23 January 2013 14:42, Denis Wilson <> wrote:

Further to Erika Roper's link to Scientific American re Citizen Science, I followed a few links, and came across this story "The Oldest Northern Shrike in North America."
http://ebird.org/content/wi/news/the-oldest-northern-shrike-in-north-america

What immediately attracted my attention was the age "record": "at least 8.5 years old and the oldest Northern Shrike ever known in North America."

What - 8.5 years is a "record"?

This confirms something I vividly remember my father, Steve Wilson talking about with his American friend and colleague, Don Lamm - namely that the small Australian passerines such as Brown Thornbills and White-browed Scrubwrens easily outlive the "normal lifespans" of many Northern Hemisphere birds.

I hope that Banders such as Mark Clayton or Anthony Overs, or other COG members such as Philip Veerman, who keep up with the Literature, might be able to provide more details on longevity of small Australian passerines. But from memory, many of the birds we banded at New Chums Road, exceeded 12 years, and no doubt there are other heroic examples which have gone closer to 18 years. We all know stories of captive Cockatoos living 60 years or more - but they might not be representative of wild birds (and they are not Passerines).

I recall the theory for this was along the lines that our small birds did not have to undertake stressful migrations (either across to Mexico, or across the Mediterranean - to Africa, in the case of European migratory species). Whereas a "Scrubbie" once it survived its first year, and established a territory, more or less knew all about the threats which would face it for the rest of its life, except for catastrophic events such as severe bushfires which might totally destroy its habitat.

As Dad used express it, once and "Old Scrubbie" woke up every morning, it knew how and where to find its Breakfast. That's more or less all it needed to know.

Anyway, I found the article interesting - hope others do too.
 
Denis Wilson

"The Nature of Robertson"
www.peonyden.blogspot.com.au