rising@zoo.toronto.edu (Jim Rising) (06/18/91)
In 1983a,b, and 1987 there were a series of articles published in the
Journal of Field Ornithology giving maximum known ages for N.A. passerine
birds based on bird-banding data. Here are some of the ones you requested
(5-3 means five years, three months). Note that these would tend to be
conservative because if a bird is banded as an adult, I think that they
generally assume the minimum possible age (i.e. 1 year old for an
Red-eyed Viero first caught in the spring, but it may be older).
Anna's Hummingbird 6-00
Red-shafted Flicker 6-08
Yellow-shafted Flicker 9-02
Scrub Jay (Cal.) 15-09
Cedar Wawsing 7-00
Rufous-sided Towhee (SC) 12-03
Rufous-sided Towhee (Cal) 10-08
Brown Towhee (San Jose, CA) 12-10
Golden-crowned Sparrow 10-06
Gambel's Wht-cr. Sparrow 13-04
Brown-headed Cowbird 15-10
House Finch 11-07
American Goldfinch 8-10
House Sparrow 13-04
The refs. are JFO 54(2):123-137,1983; 54(3) 287-294,1983; 58(3):318-
333,1987. Of course, very few wild dickey-birds live this long; most
die within the first year, indeed first few months, and the probability
that a bird will live is also influenced by the population density
(i.e. much lower if the habitat is crowded with conspecifics; thus
hunting, e.g., may have no effect on local population sizes because
the loss to hunting is compensated for by a reduction in natural
mortality. N.B., I said MAY have no effect... It must be regulated
carefully).
--
Name: Jim Rising
Mail: Dept. Zoology, Univ. Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1A1
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