Supplementary Address Bands Increase Recovery Rates

INTRODUCTION Fish and Wildlife Service bands larger than size 1A bear an inscription of a return address and a serial number on the outside of each band.For example, on sizes 2 and 3 bands the inscription is AVISE BIRD BAND WRITE WASH DC USA.Larger sizes bear an expanded version of this message that directs the finder to contact the Fish and Wildlife Service rather than "Bird Band."Sizes 0, 1, lB and 1A carry only the serial number on the outer surface of the band and an abbreviated message AVISE BIRD BAND WASH DC USA is printed on the inside surface.Do finders of birds banded with these four small bands open the band and see the printed message on the inside and if so, do they understand what it means?Recovery rates of small birds are notoriously low.Could the obscurity of the return address on band sizes 0 through 1A be partially responsible for a low reporting rate?Little information is available on the effect of a return address on recovery rates.As far as we are aware, all other national banding schemes include some form of return address message, as well as a serial number, on the outside surface of bands of all sizes.From 1969 to 1973 the Ringing and Migration Committee of the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) conducted an experiment in which two different return addresses were compared (Sales 1973).The species involved were European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) and Sandwich Tern (Sterna sandvicensis) and bands were inscribed with either INFORM BTO TRING ENGLAND or IN-FORM BRIT.MUSEUM LONDON SW7.The address used on the band had a highly significant effect on the reporting rate of starlings found dead in the British Isles, with 83% more birds reported if they wore bands with the British Museum address.For starlings and terns reported outside the British Isles, there was a smaller but non-significant tendency for "British Museum" bands to be reported more often (Sales 1973).If the wording of the address itself can have an impact on reporting rates, it seems likely that the lack of any address at all on the outside of the band would have a severe adverse effect on reporting rates.Recovery rates calculated for birds banded with sizes 0 through 1A bands at Long Point Bird Observatory in 1960-1964 indicated a marked discontinuity between the reporting rates of sizes 1A and 2 bands and it was suggested that the readily visible address on the outside of the size 2 band might be at least partially responsible (Hussell 1967).Hussell recommended that the U.S. and Canadian banding offices should investigate whether the lack of a return address on the outside of the band had a serious adverse effect on recovery rates of birds banded with the smallersized bands and, if so, take steps to correct the situation; but nothing was done.

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