1977/01/01 by Wayne R. Marion, Jeff D. Shamis · 4 citations
Environmental Science · Social Sciences · #Wildlife Ecology and Conservation #Geographies of human-animal interactions
paper · doi:10.2307/4512291
openalex publication_date 1977/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/11
A massive proliferation of bird marking techniques has occurred in recent decades as ornithologists have improved old methods or developed new methods to facilitate field investigations.Before beginning a bird marking study, an ornithologist has traditionally been faced with a review of voluminous literature available in various scattered journals and reports.Two decades ago, Cottam (1956) published an excellent review of bird marking techniques.More recently, Cogswell (1973) provided a worthwhile tabular summary of several color-marking methods currently being used, but his paper did not suggest advantages and disadvantages or list references for each technique.The present paper is an attempt to summarize, through 1975, the various techniques used on North American birds and the advantages or disadvantages of each technique.As with any similar undertaking, we have tried to examine the literature thoroughly and have probably overlooked a few important works.We apologize to those authors we have inadvertently neglected and would appreciate being informed of misinterpretations and omissions.Scientific names were taken from the American Ornithologists' Union Check-list (1957) and two recent supplements (Auk, 9:411-419, 1973 and 93:875-879, 1976).Field recognition of birds has frequently been facilitated by attachment of various devices, alteration of the bird's appearance, or a combination of these.For a marker to be useful, it should meet most of the following criteria: Involve no immediate or potential hindrance or irritation marked bird.Be quick and easy to apply. Have both readily visible and distinguishable digits andGive a reasonable promise of persisting on the bird long enough to reach research objectives.e. Be relatively inexpensive.f.Be easy to obtain or fabricate.g.Produce no adverse affects on the behavior, longevity, or social life of the marked bird.Very few marking techniques satisfy all of the above criteria, but the advantages and disadvantages of each technique should be considered before selecting an appropriate technique.Reports in the literature have stressed the disadvantages of each technique and, as a result, such a bias may be evident in this paper.