Tagged Magpie

["Philip Veerman" <>]

Yes thanks Mark, Marg, Maryanne & Denise for the information. No disagreement from me on any of this. I feel sure these issues have all been done before. My thoughts on this are not specific (or even mainly, about magpies). I guess it comes down to priorities of the ABBB Scheme. I also suspect that the idea of banding rehabilitated birds is inefficient, in that there simply is not the quantity or consistency of individuals to justify the administrative or travel effort (especially for common and well known sedentary birds like magpies). The question arises about tracking survival: well one thing is sure, in most cases, by not banding them we will continue to not have information about this question. About non return or low rate of return, well that is not specific to rehabilitated birds: For many years Steve Wilson & team banded thousands of honeyeaters at New Chums road etc. Their write up of the project indicated only one bird was ever recaught and from nearby (although they got lots of repeat captures and good information on residents like thornbills & scrub-wrens). The idea about it could have resulted in compromising someone’s study is a fair concern and a tricky one, if it should ever arise.  Mark's odd story about the magpie is more about problems of taming a bird that easily gets to like people and people who like to complain (that case seems an odd thing to complain about but who can predict that), rather than about the band. As Daryl Jones' book shows, there is no shortage of PR problems about the magpie. There is also a spirited campaign by some people to stop banding, although that is mainly directed against the use of leg flags on waders and the capture method with cannon nets. I am not in agreement with the basis of that campaign as I see it as based on misinformation. About the issue of finding tagged dead birds. I recall a story (long ago) of Tim Lowe when he was with ABBBS, dropping lots of banded dead House Sparrows around Melbourne as an experiment to find out the rate at which people find and report these bands. I guess that experiment only needed to be done once.......

 

Philip

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Clayton [
Sent: Sunday, 29 March 2015 11:45 AM
To: 'Philip Veerman'; 'Denise Kay'; 'Canberra Birds'
Cc: 'ABBBS'
Subject: RE: [canberrabirds] Tagged Magpie

To reply to Philip’s question, the bird was not given an ABBBS band as there is no official project on banding rehabilitated birds in the local area. All ABBBS bands can only be used on officially approved studies. The plastic band, as I noted in my earlier email, was technically placed on the bird “illegally”. Again it is the ABBBS that issues colour banding authorities for the use of colour bands, patagial wing tags and nasal saddles. This is to avoid any potential conflict between researchers who may inadvertently use the same colour combinations. Problems have arisen in the past where this has happened. Theoretically what should have happened in this case was for the colour band to be removed before the magpie was released. I know that the carers are interested to know what happened to their birds but it could have resulted in compromising someone’s study, especially if it involved a lot of other colour banded rehabilitated birds. In this case however, to the best of my knowledge, there is no study in the local area on magpies.

 

It is highly unlikely that the ABBBS will endorse any future program of banding rehabilitated birds either  locally or elsewhere in Australia. As mentioned by Marg Peachy, there are not too many chances to get genuine recoveries (see next paragraph). There have been quite a few studies in Australia where banding of rehabilitated birds has been done. I think it has really only been successful on larger seabirds. I will contact the banding office to see if they can provide references to any papers on the subject and will pass the information to the list.

 

I also know from experience what problems can be caused by a banded rehabilitated bird. Many years ago when I was banding in my yard a neighbour said that there was magpie sitting on a window ledge at their house. I duly went and caught a perfectly healthy young magpie, put a band on it and let it go. It did everything one would expect of a wild bird. Several days later I had two somewhat irate people turn up at my front door demanding to know why I had banded “THEIR” magpie that they had spent some time rehabilitating. This bird was so tame, similar to the bird that started this discussion, that for the next month or so, it was reported to the banding scheme just about every day from properties over northern Kaleen. I am not sure what happened to the bird but have a sneaky feeling the band was removed! Similar situations have happened a number of times in other localities – the birds make a real nuisance of themselves, usually demanding to be fed.

 

Hopefully this will answer the question that Philip has asked. If people want any more information please feel free to contact me and I will do my best to provide an answer.

 

Cheers,

Mark

 

From: Philip Veerman [
Sent: Sunday, 29 March 2015 9:55 AM
To: 'Denise Kay'; 'Canberra Birds'
Subject: RE: [canberrabirds] Tagged Magpie

 

That is all reasonably sensible and understandable. My question is if they are given a plastic band, why aren't they also given an official ABBBS band? To meet the official protocols. I remember intentions from the wildlife foundation to start doing that 30 years ago. That would also give greater chance of getting more information (even though magpies don't move far).

 

Philip

-----Original Message-----
From: Denise Kay
Sent: Sunday, 29 March 2015 8:51 AM
To: Canberra Birds
Subject: Fwd: [canberrabirds] Tagged Magpie

Please see the response from Wildcare re: young Magpie. 

 

The end result of raising orphaned/ ‘ rescued “  magpies once released is mostly unknown by those who raise them . 

 

We would all love to know how they cope or indeed if they cope. I for one would like to see a pilot program that allows us to tag these birds ( for perhaps two years ) if only to know if they survive or not.

 

Thanks 

Denise 

Begin forwarded message:

 

Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] Tagged Magpie

From: Home <>

Date: 29 March 2015 7:53:12 am AEDT

Cc:

To: Denise Kay <>

 

Hi Denise,

 

Yes that is a Wildcare juvenile magpie released in Carwoola in November, so good to hear it is doing well.  I actually got a phone call this afternoon from another person in Carwoola letting me know it has been sighted as well.

 

The magpie has a slight disability (falls over occasionally), but is otherwise OK.  It still visits the Wildcare member who raised it (also in Carwoola), but is now hanging out with a bachelor group in the area.  I'm not surprised it is following Wayne's son around as the Wildcare member has 2 boys who helped with raising it.

 

We haven't banded all of our juvenile magpies, but started doing some of them so we could track their progress.  Any further reports on banded magpies would be much appreciated and they can send them to me at 

 

Cheers,

 

Maryanne