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Publications

USGS publications associated with the Bird Banding Laboratory. For a complete listing of USGS publications:

Filter Total Items: 162

Abundance and distribution of the common eider in eastern North America during the molting season

Like most other sea ducks, male common eiders (Somateria mollissima) concentrate in large groups to molt following the breeding season. Although Maine conducted surveys in the 1980s, little was known of eider molting sites in Atlantic Canada until recently, when surveys and research conducted in Quebec, Newfoundland, Labrador, Nova Scotia and Maine revealed a number of important molting sites. S
Authors
Jean-Pierre L. Savard, B. Allen, D. McAuley, G.R. Milton, S. Gililand

Geographic variation in survival and migratory tendency among North American Common Mergansers

Movement ecology and demographic parameters for the Common Merganser (Mergus merganser americanus) in North America are poorly known. We used band-recovery data from five locations across North America spanning the years 1938–1998 to examine migratory patterns and estimate survival rates. We examined competing time-invariant, age-graduated models with program MARK to study sources of variation in
Authors
John M. Pearce, John A. Reed, Paul L. Flint

Limited genetic differentiation among breeding, molting, and wintering groups of the threatened Steller's eider: The role of historic and contemporary factors

Due to declines in the Alaska breeding population, the Steller's eider (Polysticta stelleri) was listed as threatened in North America in 1997. Periodic non-breeding in Russia and Alaska has hampered field-based assessments of behavioral patterns critical to recovery plans, such as levels of breeding site fidelity and movements among three regional populations: Atlantic-Russia, Pacific-Russia and
Authors
John M. Pearce, Sandra L. Talbot, Margaret R. Petersen, Jolene R. Rearick

Assessment of bird populations in a high quality savanna/woodland: a banding approach

Between 1999 and 2004, Save the Dunes Conservation Fund's Miller Woods Bird Banding Program monitored migrating and breeding bird populations within a high quality black oak, dry-mesic sand savanna/woodland with ridge and swale topography. The objectives of this program were to collect consistent and reliable demographic and abundance data on the bird populations, to investigate long-term populati
Authors
Sandra L. Wilmore, Gary A. Glowacki, Ralph Grundel

Lack of spatial genetic structure among nesting and wintering King Eiders

The King Eider (Somateria spectabilis) has been delineated into two broadly distributed breeding populations in North America (the western and eastern Arctic) on the basis of banding data and their use of widely separated Pacific and Atlantic wintering areas. Little is known about the level of gene flow between these two populations. Also unknown is whether behavioral patterns common among migrato
Authors
John M. Pearce, Sandra L. Talbot, Barbara J. Pierson, Margaret R. Petersen, Kim T. Scribner, D. Lynne. Dickson, Anders Mosbech

Temporal and geographic variation in survival of juvenile black brant

First-year survival has important implications for the structure and growth of populations. We examined variation in seasonal survival of first-year Pacific Black Brant (Branta bernicla nigricans) marked late in summer in Alaska at two brood-rearing areas on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta (Tutakoke and Kokechik) and one area on the Arctic Coastal Plain to provide insight into the magnitude and timing o
Authors
David H. Ward, Joel A. Schmutz, James S. Sedinger, Karen S. Bollinger, P. D. Martin, B.A. Anderson

Redistribution and growth of the Caspian Tern population in the Pacific Coast region of North America, 1981-2000

We examined nesting distribution and demography of the Pacific Coast population of Caspian Terns (Sterna caspia) using breeding records and band recoveries spanning two decades since the first population assessment. Since 1980, population size has more than doubled to about 12 900 pairs, yet the proportion of the population nesting at inland (18%) versus coastal sites (82%) has remained constant.
Authors
R.M. Suryan, D. P. Craig, D.D. Roby, N.D. Chelgren, K. Collis, W.D. Shuford, Donald E. Lyons

A general model for the analysis of mark-resight, mark-recapture, and band-recovery data under tag loss

Estimates of waterfowl demographic parameters often come from resighting studies where birds fit with individually identifiable neck collars are resighted at a distance. Concerns have been raised about the effects of collar loss on parameter estimates, and the reliability of extrapolating from collared individuals to the population. Models previously proposed to account for collar loss do not allo
Authors
Paul B. Conn, William L. Kendall, Michael D. Samuel

Long-term effects of flipper bands on penguins

Changes in seabird populations, and particularly of penguins, offer a unique opportunity for investigating the impact of fisheries and climatic variations on marine resources. Such investigations often require large-scale banding to identify individual birds, but the significance of the data relies on the assumption that no bias is introduced in this type of long-term monitoring. After 5 years of
Authors
M. Gauthier-Clerc, J.-P. Gendner, C. A. Ribic, William R. Fraser, Eric J. Woehler, S. Descamps, C. Gilly, Bohec C. Le, Maho Y. Le

Evaluation of ultrastructure and random effects band recovery models for estimating relationships between survival and harvest rates in exploited populations

Increased population survival rate after an episode of seasonal exploitation is considered a type of compensatory population response. Lack of an increase is interpreted as evidence that exploitation results in added annual mortality in the population. Despite its importance to management of exploited species, there are limited statistical techniques for comparing relative support for these two al
Authors
D. L. Otis, Gary C. White