The study is well underway now and we a getting some really important information already. The first component was conducting a national survey of bird feeding practices, which was sent out in November last year. We had a fantastic response, with over 700 households completing the survey. The results are currently being analysed, but a quick glance at the responses suggested that feeding the birds is a common pastime here in New Zealand, and supported the need for further investigation into the ecological effects of feeding.
So in March I set up a number of experimental feeding stations in the gardens of volunteers on the North Shore, Auckland. At these sites birds are being fed typical types of food daily for 2 years, allowing us to gather information on what effects may be occurring.
So in March I set up a number of experimental feeding stations in the gardens of volunteers on the North Shore, Auckland. At these sites birds are being fed typical types of food daily for 2 years, allowing us to gather information on what effects may be occurring.
Counts of birds in the vicinity of the feeding stations and at non-feeding sites are being conducted monthly. There are many species of birds, both introduced and native at all of the study sites. Though as expected, the species recorded coming in to the feeders are nearly all introduced. Species recorded using feeders so far are: house sparrow, spotted dove, blackbird, myna, starling, greenfinch, song thrush, Barbary dove, rock pigeon, silvereye and chaffinch.
Data on the health of individual birds is collected by catching birds in fine nets called mistnets, and taking samples and measurements. Between March–May we caught and banded a total of 144 birds: 86 sparrow, 21 silvereye, 19 blackbird, 6 spotted dove, 5 tui, 3 song thrush, 2 starling, 1 chaffinch and (surprisingly!) 1 myna. A number of others scrambled out of the nets before we could get to them. As well as being banded with color bands, these birds were screened for parasites (mites, lice, ticks, and intestinal parasites e.g. worms), and subset were screened for Salmonella and Avian Chlamydophila (bacterial pathogens of birds).
At the end of May tracking tunnels were put out in each garden. Hedgehogs were detected in 12 gardens (50%), and mice at just one. The hedgehog detections were evenly split between feeding and non-feeding gardens.
There’s plenty of work to do still, and I will be back out in the field soon for the next round of data collection.
Until next time,
Haere ra!
There’s plenty of work to do still, and I will be back out in the field soon for the next round of data collection.
Until next time,
Haere ra!