Submitted by Ms. Jacky Chaplow on
The Predatory Bird Monitoring Scheme recently published a report on the potential for use of population health indices.
Lee Walker explains “Each bird that is submitted to the scheme is given a post-mortem examination during which many observations and measurements are made. The information gathered during this examination could potentially be used to monitor the health status of birds at the time of their death or at a particular stage of their development.
In the current study, we focused on examining potential health indicators for the sparrowhawk, Accipiter nisus. We chose the sparrowhawk for the following reasons:
- We have a long track record of collecting carcasses and eggs of this species and therefore hold substantial associated post-mortem observations and egg morphometric data sets.
- It is sexually dimorphic. This means that the two sexes of the same species exhibit different characteristics beyond the differences in their sexual organs. Differences may include size, colour, markings and behaviour.
We hope this report is the first step in developing a health indices approach in the future. This will enable us to utilise the birds submitted to the PBMS to tell us about the general health of their environment”
The report can be downloaded from the PBMS Reports page
