ABR and Lyrebird breeding records

["Philip Veerman" <>]

Interesting point and strictly speaking that is correct, in terms of the breeding categories that are included on the COG database system. It represents a value judgement as to whether we want to have lots of information that does not really mean a lot, or restrict ourselves to less information that means more. For many years I have written about hearing a Superb Lyrebird singing along the Bullen range, (opposite side of the river) near Kambah Pool. That is too far away to hear rattling its tail feathers and the birds are never seen. Would that also qualify? Especially with polygamous species where the male's displays have little or nothing to do with the activities at the nest, then the Di is not overly useful information. If it is recorded as such, when combined with understanding of the bird's behaviour, it is what it is and may be useful. The same applies to bowerbirds building bowers in suburban gardens (that would give me a GBS breeding record for the species for each of several recent years). Similarly the Wedge-tailed Eagles doing display flights over the suburbs. The nesting may be nowhere near the Di site and there may not be any breeding associated. Crested Pigeons do display courtship at almost any time. It has also created confusion over the years with King Parrot breeding records in the GBS, all of which are DY, when the nesting was nowhere near the DY site. I am more comfortable with recording a DY as a breeding than a Di, as the former at least is evidence of an outcome. A Di in a polygamous species may sometimes be be performed by a male even when there are no females present.

 

It is a matter of prioritising the importance of the information. That is why when I issued the V3 of the GBS Chart which introduced these codes to the survey, I designed the sequence of breeding codes as:

 

Record any breeding with the first applicable of any of the following codes: ny; nest with young, ne; nest with eggs, fs; faecal sac, on; bird on or seen leaving nest, nb; nest building, cf; carrying food, dy; dependent young, ih; inspecting hollow, di; display, co; copulation, or keep a separate list.

 

Asking for the first applicable was to give preference to recording data of the more important events that relate to evidence of an actual breeding, preferably within the site, down to less definitive evidence of actual outcomes. My thought was that observations of Di & Co could indicate timing but were of not a lot of value unless they formed part of the same breeding record, when combined with other data on other weeks.

 

Philip

 

-----Original Message-----
From: martin butterfield [
Sent: Saturday, 6 April 2013 9:21 AM
To: COG List
Subject: [canberrabirds] ABR and Lyrebird breeding records

I have skimmed through the latest ABR and congratulate those involved in its production.

My attention was grabbed by the statement on p45 relating to Superb Lyrebird  that "There have only been 4 years in the past 30 that have had breeding records."  From my view anytime a male Lyrebird is heard rattling its tail feathers in early Winter it should be recorded as a Display (Di) record.  If that is the case I'd have expected many of the records from the Tidbinbilla Surveys to be coded as Di covering at least each of the past 10 years.  (Of course there should other similar records from observations outside these Surveys.)

--
Martin Butterfield

http://franmart.blogspot.com.au/