I am planning to use radio telemetry in a study of grey-headed robins (Heteromyias cinereifrons). These birds weigh around 35 g and I have sourced glue-on transmitters weighing 0.9 g (
I don't want to be disrespectful, but : wouldn't it be best not to put a transmitter on a robin at all (will we have any animals on the earth, at all, without attached transmitters?)? To be more constructive: There must be devices one can attach to robins (and/or any other "animal") that are very small nowadays: HOW ELSE COULD WE BE LOCATED BY I-PHONE?; BUT: I will ADMIT that it seems your 0.9-gram device (less than 1/28th of an ounce -- don't ask me how I know this) seems quite small already. (Does this mean a robin only weighs about 1 oz.?; Wikipedia says robins weigh 2.5 to 3.3 oz., depending on species : that would make your device just 1% of the bird's weight -- although I also would believe you would know better than wikipedia the range of any particular robin specie's weight, in particular, the grey-headed robins.) Forgive my "outburst" -- all mainly in fun (and I mean no offense). But, to add some possible bit of use to my post: Why don't we use smaller transmitters for bears, etc., nowadays ?
How about a serious answer: attach it to the base of the rectrices on the top side, near the upper tail coverts. You should probably make sure the transmitter is glued to more than one feather or it might be shed with a single feather drop. I would attach it right where the coverts meet the rectrices and glue it to both.
Thank you Randall, that's a big help. When you say glue to both the rectrices and coverts do you mean sandwich the transmitter between them? Do you have any recommendations for glue type?
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Biological Science
- Faunistics
- Ornithology
- birds