Identification

Title

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

Abstract

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. Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/1b55a4eb-30be-4bd1-9144-cb7f8ba83b4e

Resource type

dataset

Resource locator

https://data-package.ceh.ac.uk/data/1b55a4eb-30be-4bd1-9144-cb7f8ba83b4e

description: Download a copy of this data

function: download

https://data-package.ceh.ac.uk/sd/1b55a4eb-30be-4bd1-9144-cb7f8ba83b4e.zip

description: Supporting information available to assist in re-use of this dataset

function: information

Unique resource identifier

code

https://catalogue.ceh.ac.uk/id/1b55a4eb-30be-4bd1-9144-cb7f8ba83b4e

codeSpace

doi:

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

biota

environment

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Land Use

Environmental Monitoring Facilities

originating controlled vocabulary

title

GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2008-06-01

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

-4.609

East bounding longitude

-4.251

North bounding latitude

56.125

South bounding latitude

55.861

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

2020-03-06

End position

2021-10-25

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2024-08-06

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

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.

Conformity

Conformity report

specification

title

Commission Regulation (EU) No 1089/2010 of 23 November 2010 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards interoperability of spatial data sets and services

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2010-12-08

degree

explanation

Data format

name of format

Comma-separated values (CSV)

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Limitations on public access

Constraint set

Limitations on public access

Constraint set

Limitations on public access

If you reuse this data, you should cite: 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

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

organisation name

email address

Davide.dominoni@glasgow.ac.uk

web address

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2063-9955

description: ORCID is an open, non-profit, community-driven effort to create and maintain a registry of unique researcher identifiers and a transparent method of linking research activities and outputs to these identifiers.

function: information