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Dominoni, D.M.; Capilla-Lasheras, P.; Branston, C.J.

Bird activity (amount, onset and offset) data recorded in the field using automated radio telemetry, Glasgow, UK, 2020-2021

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This dataset is available under the terms of the Open Government Licence

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https://doi.org/10.5285/1b55a4eb-30be-4bd1-9144-cb7f8ba83b4e
This dataset contains information on activity parameters obtained from automated radiotelemetry data collected on individual birds of six passerine species (European robin, Eurasian blackbird, great tit, blue tit, dunnock, common chaffinch). Birds were caught via mistnetting at 4 sites along a 35 km urban gradient in Glasgow, Scotland, in autumn and winter of two years: 2020 and 2021. Once tagged, each bird was monitored for approximately 3-4 weeks. Raw telemetry data was processed and analysed in order to extract activity traits. The activity traits were: onset of morning activity, end of evening activity, total amount of daily activity.
Data were collected to investigate the effects of urbanisation on daily activity patterns, reproductive traits and population dynamics of passerine birds.
Publication date: 2024-08-06
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More information

View numbers valid from 06 August 2024 Download numbers valid from 06 August 2024 (information prior to this was not collected)

Format

Comma-separated values (CSV)

Spatial information

Study area
Spatial representation type
Tabular (text)
Spatial reference system
WGS 84

Temporal information

Temporal extent
2020-03-06    to    2021-10-25

Provenance & quality

To estimate the timing of activity and levels of activity in free-living birds, we used radio telemetry technology. Using mistnets, we caught, individually marked with a metal ring and radio tagged (details below) individuals of six passerine species (European robin, Eurasian blackbird, great tit, blue tit, dunnock, common chaffinch). They were caught during February-April (hereafter ‘pre-breeding phase’) and September-November (hereafter ‘post-breeding phase’) in 2020 and 2021 in two urban and two non-urban (forest) locations. The urban sites were located within the boundaries of Glasgow city (Kelvingrove Park and Garscube Campus). The non-urban forest sites were located in the surroundings of the Scottish Centre for Ecology and the Environment (‘SCENE’), approximately 45 kilometres north of Glasgow, on the eastern shore of Loch Lomond (SCENE and Sallochy forest). At the end of each year, the data collected during that year were checked and uploaded on a central database.
In each site, we installed two to four automatic radio receivers which were set to scan each tag every 180 seconds. Whenever a tag was detected, the receiver recorded a date and time stamp, and the radio signal strength (dB).
The raw data from the receivers was processed and analysed in R. The radio telemetry system generated a 3-min interval time series of radio detections per bird (i.e., tag) and per receiver. We calculated the absolute difference in radio signal strength between consecutive time intervals (hereafter termed ‘signal differential’) per receiver and per bird. We then averaged this value across the receivers per site.
We estimated daily onset and end of activity assuming that variation in signal differentials is low during inactive phases and high during times of bird activity. We then seek to identify the point of clearest change between the active and inactive state. We applied several quality control steps and used the agreement in estimates of daily onset and end of activity between two employed methods to assess the quality of our dataset for downstream analysis. We used fixed time windows to quantify activity levels to avoid biases introduced by seasonal changes in day length and individual times of onset and end of activity.

Licensing and constraints

This dataset is available under the terms of the Open Government Licence

Cite this dataset as:
Dominoni, D.M.; Capilla-Lasheras, P.; Branston, C.J. (2024). Bird activity (amount, onset and offset) data recorded in the field using automated radio telemetry, Glasgow, UK, 2020-2021. NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/1b55a4eb-30be-4bd1-9144-cb7f8ba83b4e

Correspondence/contact details

Dominoni, D.M.
University of Glasgow
 Davide.dominoni@glasgow.ac.uk

Authors

Dominoni, D.M.
University of Glasgow
Capilla-Lasheras, P.
University of Glasgow
Branston, C.J.
University of Glasgow

Other contacts

Rights holder
University of Glasgow
Custodian
NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre
 info@eidc.ac.uk
Publisher
NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre
 info@eidc.ac.uk

Additional metadata

Topic categories
biota
environment
INSPIRE themes
Environmental Monitoring Facilities
Land Use
Keywords
blue tit , great tit , productivity , radiotelemetry , reproductive success , urbanisation
Funding
Natural Environment Research Council Award: NE/S005773/1
Last updated
15 August 2024 10:34