Introduction



Third Year Project

The relationship between the presence of a clay lick and the flight direction of Psittaciformes in Tambopata, Peru.

Mr Peter Cowen

peter.cowen@hotmail.co.uk

A project submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Physical Geography, The Manchester Metropolitan University

Department of Environmental and Geographical Sciences

The Manchester Metropolitan University

April 2007

Contents

List of figures IV

List of tables V

1. Introduction 1

1.1 Parrots 1

1.2 Behaviour 2

1.3 Geophagy 2

1.4 Peru 3

1.5 Why are they threatened? 4

1.6 Conservation 4

1.7 Ecotourism 5

1.8 Gaps in the knowledge? 5

1.9 The project 5

2. Methods 7

2.1 Study Area 7

2.2 Length of study 10

2.3 Bird Data 10

2.4 Weather Data 13

2.5 Other Factors 14

2.6 Data Analysis 14

3. Results 16

3.1 Abundance of different parrot species at the two sites 16

3.2 Number of species recorded in the morning and afternoon 17

3.3 Daily patterns of flight activity 19

3.4 Call Rates 20

3.5 The influence of weather on bird flight activity 22

3.5.1 Wind 22

3.5.2 Cloud 23

3.6 Directions of flight 24

3.6.1 Morning flights 24

3.6.2 Afternoon Flights 25

4. Discussion 28

4.1 Abundance 28

4.2 Influence of time on abundance and activity 30

4.3 Call Rates 32

4.4 Weather 32

4.5 Flight Directions 34

4.6 Conservation Implications 35

5. Acknowledgements 37

6. References 38

7. Appendices 44

7.1 Appendix 44

List of figures

Page

Figure 1: Map of South Eastern Peru, showing the location of the Refugio 7

Amazonas lodge, also showing the location of the Reserve zones.

Figure 2: Satellite maps of research area, showing the location of the two 8

different sites (Google Earth).

Figure 3: Diagram showing the tower and the surrounding deforested area, 9

the distance from the tower to the forest can be seen by the grey line. The

bearings of which the tower faces are also present as well as the direction

of the clay lick.

Figure 4: Map showing view of overlook with red line showing the direction 10

of the clay lick. The bearings of the view are also included.

Figure 5: Diagram showing the different percentage cloud cover that was 13

used during the study, ranging from 0% to 100%.

Figure 6: A histogram showing the frequency of the different species 17

recorded over the recording period in order of the most abundant.

Figure 7: The total number of groups at different times of the day 20

(06h00 to 17h30)

Figure 8: The number of different species recorded flying in different 25

directions for the morning observations.

Figure 9: The number of different species recorded flying in different 26

directions for the afternoon observations.

List of tables

Page

Table 1: Showing the species name, scientific name, and code use in the 12

field, the range (Km2) and the rarity, taken from IUCN Red list Category.

The size of the birds and their distinguishable calls are also shown. 1.

Birdlife (2006), 2. Terborgh et al (1990).

Table 2: Table shows the total number of groups of different species at 16

the two different sites in order of most abundant. Site one being the

Canopy tower and site two the Overlook.

Table 3: The number of groups that were recorded during the morning and 18

afternoon hours, with the expected count in brackets.

Table 4: The total number of groups and total number of individuals for the 19

hours that the recording took place, ranging from 06h00 to 17h30, including

the maximum number of individuals seen in one group.

Table 5: The total calling and non-calling groups for each different species 21 with the expected value included in brackets.

Table 6: Table showing the presence of different species in the presence of 22

wind or without. Means and standard deviations are shown also the results

of a Mann – Whitney test are recorded. Numbers in bold are shown to be

significant.

Table 7: The mean ranks of the top five recorded species, also with the 23

number of groups recorded at each level of cloud cover.

Table 8: Directions in which different species flew in and the expected value, 24

also showing the calculated p value for the morning.

Table 9: The directions in which different species flew in and the expected 26

value, also showing the calculated p value for the afternoon.

INTRODUCTION

There are two types of rain forest in the world, tropical and temperate with the former found in approximately 85 different countries across the world and are mostly located near the equator. However 90% of this forest is concentrated in only 15 of the total countries (Malaysian Timber Council, 1995). The extent of rainforests in the past covered approximately 14% of the worlds land surface but this figure is now nearer 6% mainly due to deforestation. Tropical types of rainforests are the most diverse areas on the planet. Rainforests are host to many different species with more than half the worlds estimated 10 million species of plants, animals and insects living in tropical rainforests. The rainforest can provide habitat for between 50% and 90% of the planets different fauna and flora species (Forest Alliance of British Columbia, 1996).

1 Parrots

Psittaciformes or Parrots as they are regularly known are among the most striking features of the tropical avifauna. Due to their popularity as pets and the increasing habitat destruction they are also the most endangered large avian family in the world (Bennett and Owens, 1997, Collar, 1997). The families contain approximately 360 species and are usually grouped into two different sub species, the Cacatuidae (cockatoo), and the Psittacidae (true parrots) (Forshaw, 1989). However there is little known about their ecology and phenogeny so they are poorly understood.

The sizes of parrots range from 8-10cm to 1 metre in length. The smallest is the Buff-faced Pygmy Parrot Micropsitta pusio from Papua New Guinea with a length of 8cm and the largest the Hyacinth Macaw Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus from South America at a length of 100cm and weighing approximately 1.25kg (typical captive bred weight) (Terborgh et al, 1990).The biggest in south-eastern Peru is the Red and Green Macaw Ara chloroptera which has a length of approximately 90cm and weighs in at 1.05 – 1.32kg (Terborgh et al, 1990).

They are a diverse order that occur primarily in Australia, the Neotropics, and in tropical Africa and Asia (Forshaw, 1989). The Neotropics ranges from the southern parts of America and Northern Mexico to the Southern end of Brazil in South America. There are more birds here than anywhere else in the world as habitats range from the Andean mountains to the barren coast of southern Peru and Chile, from the active volcanoes along the spine of Central America to the pampas of Argentina. New world parrots in the Neotropics have the greatest diversity in the western basin with communities reaching 15 species, with the south eastern area of Peru reaching 18-20 species (Roth, 1984, Kileen and Schulenberg, 1998).

2 Behaviour

Relatively little is known about the behavior of most of the species in the wild as they are forest dwelling, nest solitarily in high trees and disperse widely to feed (Chapman et al, 1989). Little is also known about the role of the clay licks and how they influence the movements and abundance of the birds (Brightsmith, 2004b) but it has been documented that activity patterns in the Neotropics during the dry season show a peak in the morning and again in the late afternoon (Gilardi and Munn, 1998). There is no known reason why the birds feeding varies so widely throughout the year (Brightsmith, 2004b) as the macaws visit the licks less during the months of May and June (the start of the dry season) and then peak during the months of August and September, the driest time of the year (Munn, 1994). July and August, the months in which this study takes place is part of the dry season, this season usually presents frugivores with minimum food availability (Janson and Emmons, 1990) but research has found that this species have resources in abundance (Janson and Emons, 1990). This is due to the species adaptability to eat unripened fruit and seeds that regular frugivores stay clear from.

Weather is also a key factor in the variance of the visits (Winkler et al, 2002) with rain and lower temperatures causing short term increases in nutritional stress and often leading to a decrease in the frequency of behavior that is not critical for survival e.g. song and flying (Takagi, 2001, Cougill and Marsden, 2004).

3 Geophagy

Geophagy, the intentional consumption of soil, is widespread among vertebrate and invertebrate taxa including mammals, birds, reptiles and insects and in some cases humans (Sokol, 1971, Benkman, 1992, Brightsmith, 2004a). Dispite this, the function of geophagy remains unclear, even though there is documented evidence that in Peru and New Guinea birds use the clay to bind poisonus compounds from the birds diets (Diamond et al, 1999). The areas in which this consumption takes place are called ‘clay licks’ or locally named ‘Colpas’, there are many of these located around South America with one of the largest located at the Tambopata Research Center, 13° 07.6’ S, 69° 36.9’ W (Brightsmith, 2004a).

The soil that is consumed from these ‘clay licks’ provides an important source of sodium that the birds do not get from their primarily vegetarian diet which acts for protection against the dietary toxins. (Diamond et al, 1999, Gilardi et al, 1999). Many of the species congregate in large numbers at these licks (Brightsmith, 2004), while there they are viewable by hunters, predators and are affected by human disturbance e.g. Tourist boats. They also provide a good tourism resource when managed correctly and can generate income for locals and help increase the value of conservation in the area (Munn, 1992, Munn, 1998).

The claylick site for this project was discovered along the ‘El Gato’ (the cat) river by locals. The river is a small tributary to the larger river Tambopata. However unlike the larger TRC clay lick it does not lend itself to tourism, this is mainly due to its small size and the fact that it lacks the presence of more spectacular macaw species (Hammer, 2001).

4 Peru

The number of different parrot species found in Peru is approximately 41 with 8 different species of macaw found in the south-eastern area of Peru. The amount of macaw species found in our study site is approximately 6 (Birdlife, 2000). The most endangered of the macaws in this area is the Blue Headed Macaw Ara couloni, where in a years field work only 19 observations were made, so its scarcity is proven (Lloyd, 2004). The area in which the study takes place is located in the Tambopata – Candamo Reserved Zone, this area lies in the Amazon basin in south east Peru. It was originally created as the small Tambopata Reserved Zone (5000 hectares) but in 1990 it was enlarged to 1.5 million hectares (Hammer 2001). The altitude of the zone ranges from 240 – 3500m and contains many different habitats ranging from sub-tropical moist forest, to cloud forest, to tropical savannah. Due to all these different habitats the zone is renowned for being one of the planets hotspots for biodiversity (Mittermeier et al, 1998).

5 Why are they threatened?

Millions of wild birds are traded annually both legally and illegaly (Pain et al, 2006). Even though parrots only contribute a small proportion of all traded birds, they constitute a high proportion of the most frequently traded birds and are among the most threatened bird species in the world (Gonzalez, 2003). They were threatened originally by capture for local release and the pet trade but are more now by widespread habitat destruction. This may take many different forms including clearing for agriculture and selective logging (Beissinger and Snyder, 1992). Selective logging is the periodical extraction of commercially valuable trees from forests (Johns, 1988), the forests are then left to regenerate. This practice usually leaves much of the native vegetation including many macaw food species but the harvest normally targets the older, larger trees that are depended upon for nesting (Munn et al, 1992).

The threats faced by large macaws are also enhanced due to their naturally low reproductive rates, with only one of the 3 or 4 eggs usually laid by the birds surviving. This combined with many other factors e.g. only 60% of young survive the early stages of life due to threats from parasites and predators, combines to create small populations (Nycander et al 1995, Munn et al 1992). E.g. a population of 200 macaws may produce as few as 8 young per year (Brightsmith, 2000).

6 Conservation

There is a wide range of conservation strategies taking place in the area with one of the leading bodies being the Tambopata macaw project. The project was founded in 1990 by Eduardo Nycander with the goal of studying the ecology and natural history of large macaws so the information gained could be used to protect them. The project has incorporated the local community, Infierno. A number of tourist lodges have been set up due to the presence of the project to aid ecotourism (Brightsmith, 2000a). Many different conervation stratergies have been proposed such as the erection of nest boxes, captive breeding and education of the local communities (Brightsmith, 2000a).

7 Ecotourism

Many different authorities agree that ecotourism is a benefit to areas in the tropics, however there is little documented evidence on the impacts of this practice on the birds and their use of clay licks. The macaws are a great prospect for the local tourist industry as they are a favorite to tourists due to the closeness that pictures can be taken (Munn et al, 1991). Continued research into the area means there will be more information on the activity of the birds and which species are attracted to which clay licks. This will help in deciding where future ecotourism should take place (Brightsmith, 2000a).

8 Gaps in the Knowledge

With all of the known knowledge there is still some gaps in the area that need to be addressed, such as how far the birds actually travel when feeding at the clay licks and how many and often the birds use each clay lick. The observations and the research used for this project may go some way in increaseing the knowledge, however more will need to be done to increase the importance.

9 The Project

In this project, the flight directions, the different species, the number of individuals, the time of day and the weather are examined at the Refugio Amazonas Lodge in the Tambopata region of Peru. The following null hypotheses were tested:

1. There will be no similarities among species in their daily flight directions.

2. There will be no difference in the hours of the day that the birds fly.

3. Weather will not be a factor so it will not affect the number of species and individuals that are recorded.

4. Call rates will not be affected during the different times of the day and among different species.

5. There will be no difference in the amount of birds that are recorded at different times of the day.

Based upon previous research into the field, there would be differences in all of the stated hypotheses due to differences in overall activity patterns (Munn 1992, Gilardi et al 1999). The objective of the project is to examine the flight activity during one month of the year where the populations and different species should be relatively similar. There is little data and research into this area of Macaw ecology so this research will increase the knowledge.

METHODS

1 Study area

Parrots were studied at two sites located around the Refugio Amazonas lodge in southeastern Peru, 12°52 ’32.84° S, 69° 24’42.41° , which had an elevation of approximately 223 metres above sea level. The lodge is located in the Tambopata National Reserve (275,000 ha) in the department of Madre de Dios along the river Rio Tambopata (Figure 1). It is situated in an area characteristic to a humid tropical and subtropical rainforest and corresponds to part of an Endemic Bird Area 068 (Brightsmith and Lee 2005). Annual precipitation is about 2810 mm per year (Brightsmith and Lee 2005) with the majority falling in the wet season which starts in October and ends in April and the dry season occuring in the other months from April to October. The climate ranges from humid and warm (3000mm and 25°C on average), sub-level humidity and semi-warm (1700mm and 26°C on average), high-level humidity and semi-warm (400mm and 23°C) (Brightsmith and Lee 2005). The weather for the project data collected was primarily dry with only a little rainfall and one cold spell.

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Figure 2: Satellite maps of research area, showing the location of the two different sites (Google Earth).

The area of forest that the canopy tower overlooks is terra firme forest with very little disturbance apart from an area of approximately 30m² surrounding the tower which has been cleared for the erection of the tower. The tower itself is 25 metres in height; the platform was 3m in length and 1.5m in width and is painted green and brown so it doesn’t stand out from the habitat. Figure 3 shows a diagram of the tower, the area inside the grey lines is the border in which the area was deforested for the erection of the tower, the longer 17m areas are the location of the safety wires which hold up the tower. The red arrow also shows the direction in which the clay lick is located (Bearing of 330°); this when compared to the bearings of the different birds in flight should be significant in the analysis. It can also be seen that the view around the tower is 360° compared to the overlook which only has a view of approximately 100°.

Figure 3: Diagram showing the tower and the surrounding deforested area, the distance from the tower to the forest can be seen by the grey line. The bearings of which the tower faces are also present as well as the direction of the clay lick.

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The second site, the ‘Overlook’ looks out over the Rio Tambopata and is considerably different to the first site. The view here is 100° and is surrounded by primary forest but is also impeded by the presence of a river running through (Figure 4). However little research has been undertaken in the past on whether there is a relationship between birds in flight over water bodies. The site is a 10min walk from the deforested area of the lodge and is relatively out of the way of the tourist port and the trade port of the lodge.

Figure 4: Map showing view of overlook with red line showing the direction of the clay lick. The bearings of the view are also included.

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2 Length of study

The length of time for the study was 28 days, from the 9th July 2007 to 11th August 2007. This amount of time was chosen due to the equal amount of days that could be used for the recordings to take place at the two different sites and at the two different time periods, this was a total of 14 days at each of the sites. The day was split into two time slots, the morning slot started from 06h00 to 11h00 and the afternoon slot started at 14h30 to 17h30. The recording slots were used everyday, alternating between the two sites.

3 Bird data

Before the study, preparation was taken to help determine what species were located in the area and the different characteristics that each bird held so to aid observations in the field. This was done by studying the birds for a number of days before hand with the help of a local guide and publications that help in identification. The bird’s calls and appearance were studied for each species so to help identification while out in the field.

While out in the field certain equipment was needed, this included: -

1. Binoculars

2. Compass showing bearings

3. Stopwatch

4. Data sheet (Appendix 1)

The data sheet specified in the equipment list was created before going out in the field; this included a number of aspects such as Species, Group Number and Flight Bearing, all of these different recordings could the later be analyzed (Appendix 1). The time of which the group was first seen was recorded, the species, the group size, what action they were performing e.g. in flight or perched, and finally the bearing in which the group was flying. A code was created for the different species to allow for ease in recording the data (Table 1).

When a group was spotted, the time was recorded. The species was also recorded, in most cases by the call that they made. The action was recorded which either could be:

1. Flying then perched

2. Perched then flying

3. Flying

Finally the time in which the event ended was recorded, the event ended usually by the group flying out of range, perching or by changing its size. The bearing was also an important area that was recorded for each different group, this was done by finding the direction in which the group were last seen and taking the bearing of this. This can be related to the aims that are to be studied as the flight direction is important for the overall analysis.

|Name1 |Code |Range (Km2) 1 |Rarity1 |Approx Length (cm) 2 |Weight (kg) 2 |Call2 |

|Scarlet Macaw Ara macao |SCMA |6700000 |Least Concern |85 |1.06 - 1.12 |Loud, harsh, raa – aar |

|Blue and Yellow Macaw Ara ararauna |BYMA |7800000 |Least Concern |86 |1.04 – 1.29 |Loud screeching rraa – aa |

|Red and Green Macaw Ara chloroptera |RGMA |8100000 |Least Concern |90 |1.05 – 1.32 |Raucous deep raw – awk |

|Chestnut Fronted Macaw Ara severa |CFMA |5800000 |Least Concern |46 |0.31 – 0.39 |Raspy scream, cackling |

|Red Bellied Macaw Ara manilata |RBMA |7200000 |Least Concern |50 |0.29 – 0.30 |Shrill screech or wrr – rake |

|Blue Headed Macaw Ara couloni |BHMA |373000 |Endangered |41 |N/A |Rasping purr |

|Mealy Parrot Amazona farinosa |MEPA |7200000 |Least Concern |38 |0.71 – 0.77 |Catch-it, distinct mellow tone |

|Yellow Crowned Parrot Amazona ochrocephala |YCPA |6700000 |Least Concern |35 |0.41 – 0.66 |Riterated yapp, kurr-awk |

|Blue Headed Parrot Pionus menstruus |BHPA |8300000 |Least Concern |38 |0.23 – 0.29 |Kee-weenk |

|White Bellied Parrot Pionites leucogaster |WBPA |3600000 |Least Concern |23 |N/A |Flute like whistles, screaming |

|Orange Cheeked Parrot Pionopsitta barrabandi |OCPA |3500000 |Least Concern |25 |0.17 – 0.19 |Mushy, chew-it, choy-et |

|White Eyed Parakeet Aratinga leucophthalmus |WEPA |10000000 |Least Concern |32 |0.14 – 0.17 |Metallic che-chek, screech |

|Black Capped Parakeet Pyrrhura rupicola |BCPA |550000 |Least Concern |25 |N/A |High pitched yapping |

|Cobalt Winged Parakeet Brotogeris cyanoptera |CWPA |2300000 |Least Concern |18 |N/A |High pitched shrieks |

Table 1: Showing the species name, scientific name, and code used in the field, the range (Km2) and the rarity, taken from IUCN Red list Category. The size of the birds and their distinguishable calls are also shown. 1. Birdlife (2006), 2. Terborgh et al (1990).

4 Weather data

The weather was recorded at 15 minute intervals from 06h00 to 17h00. This was important due to it being compared with the results and the flight directions to find out if there is any significance in whether the presence of certain types of weather affects the number of birds that are recorded. The two aspects that were recorded were cloud cover and wind speed. Cloud cover was split into five different levels, ranging from 0% to 100% in 25% intervals, there were many ways in which the cloud cover was worked out but it was finally decided to make an imaginary quadrate over a small path of sky area and decide how much of the quadrate was filled with cloud, the final areas can be seen on figure 5.

Figure 5: Diagram showing the different percentage cloud cover that was used during the study, ranging from 0% to 100%.

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Wind was also recorded at the 15 minute intervals and was judged by the movement of the surrounding trees. It was recorded in four different stages:

0. None – No movement of trees at all.

1. Light – Small amount of movement.

2. Medium – Greater amount of movement.

3. Strong – Large amount of movement.

Other types of weather were recorded, from the presence of fog, rain and if it is sunny or not. This type of weather recording was not as important as the wind or cloud but could be used if there was a significant difference in the number of birds that were recorded.

5 Other factors

A number of other factors were recorded such as the presence of humans e.g. if a boat was travelling along the river while observations were made at the overlook it could affect the number of birds flying over due to them being scared. This could also be said for the presence of other birds (e.g. vultures or other birds of prey) or animals which may also scare the birds and either change the flight course or reduce the numbers of the birds that were to be recorded.

6 Data Analysis

Some of the species that were recorded were only spotted in low numbers whereas other species had large numbers recorded. For this case in some areas of the analysis only the top five species with the largest numbers were used. Group size and species were analysed at the two sites and at the different times of the day. This data was then studied using means, standard deviations and chi-square tests to find the degree of variation and significance of the data. This type of statistical analysis was used as the size of groups and length of time varied greatly so in some cases created a variance greater than the mean. Other aspects that were compared were the flight activity and the hour of the day, the call rates and the flight directions. For the use in analysis the flight direction was split into three different sections to allow for ease, with the different sections below:

1. Towards - 265° to 354°

2. Away – 85° to 174°

3. Side – 355° to 84° and 175° to 264°

This was then analysed using methods such as chi-square and spearmans rank correlation. The weather data was compared to the presence of different species and the number of individuals at different times of the day and was analysed using a statistical package. In theory it was assumed that when there was a large amount of wind, cloud cover and lack of sun the number of birds would be low but in practice it was not a great factor.

RESULTS

Observations were made during 28 days in the dry season with a total of 1478 different lines of data recorded. Parakeets dominated the flights in number of individuals but not number of species which was dominated by Macaws. A number of species (predominately Parakeets) that were known to be in the area were not recorded such as Dusky Headed Parakeet and the Scarlet-Fronted Parakeet.

1 Abundance of different parrot species at the two sites.

Table 2: Table showing the total number of groups of different species at the two different sites in order of most abundant. Site 1 – Canopy Tower, Site 2 – Overlook.

|Species |Combined |Site 1 |Site 2 |

|Cobalt Winged Parakeet Brotogeris cyanoptera |546 |308 |238 |

|Chestnut Fronted Macaw Ara severa |232 |92 |140 |

|Scarlet Macaw Ara macao |172 |83 |89 |

|Mealy Parrot Amazona farinosa |148 |106 |42 |

|Blue Headed Parrot Pionus menstruus |138 |80 |58 |

|Black Capped Parakeet Pyrrhura rupicola |55 |43 |12 |

|White Eyed Parakeet Aratinga leucophthalmus |51 |23 |28 |

|Red and Green Macaw Ara chloroptera |46 |30 |16 |

|White Bellied Parrot Pionites leucogaster |31 |25 |6 |

|Blue and Yellow Macaw Ara ararauna |22 |5 |17 |

|Blue Headed Macaw Ara couloni |11 |5 |6 |

|Yellow Crowned Parrot Amazona ochrocephala |11 |4 |7 |

|Orange Cheeked Parrot Pionopsitta barrabandi |8 |4 |4 |

|Red Bellied Macaw Ara manilata |7 |5 |2 |

|Total |1478 |813 |665 |

Table 2 shows the total number of different groups of species with the most abundant first. A total of 14 different species were recorded, 6 macaws, 5 parrots and 4 parakeet species were found with the majority of the recordings coming from the Parakeet group. For site one a total of 55% of the total recorded groups were spotted compared to site two which only had 45% of the recordings. The Cobalt Winged Parakeets (CWPA) are the most abundant species with the total percentage of the overall group having a recording of 37% which is more than double that of the next abundant species which was the Chestnut Fronted Macaw (CFMA) which only had a percentage of 16%. Most birds were recorded at site one with the exception of CFMA, White Eyed Parakeet (WEPA), Blue and Yellow Macaw (BYMA), Blue Headed Macaw (BHMA) and Yellow Crowned Parrot (YCPA) which had a larger recording rate at site two.

Figure 6 shows the total number of groups recorded, it can clearly be seen that the most abundant species is CWPA with the second most abundant (CFMA) less than half of the CWPA. BHMA, YCPA, OCPA and RBMA are the species with the least groups recorded; the total of all four species only adds up to 3% of all the groups that were recorded over the period.

Figure 6: A histogram showing the frequency of the different species recorded over the recording period in order of the most abundant.

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2 Number of species recorded in the morning and the afternoon

More birds were recorded during the morning hours of 06h00 to 11h00 compared to the afternoon (14h30 to 17h30). Table 3 shows the number of groups that were recorded in the morning and the afternoon. Birds were seen considerably more in the AM hours with the largest set of groups being the CWPA, CFMA, MEPA, BHPA and SCMA. Most species had a low count of groups in the afternoon compared to the morning recordings with the exception of SCMA which had a count of 58, compare this to the expected counts that were calculated for the species, 39, more birds were recorded than expected. The AM recordings for SCMA were less than expected with the expected count recorded at 133 compared to the actual count which was 114. This can also be seen in a number of other groups such as the CWPA which had an afternoon expected count of 125 but only had an actual count of 105 groups.

Table 3: The number of groups that were recorded during the morning and afternoon hours, with the expected count in brackets.

|Species |AM (Exp Count) |PM (Exp Count) |

|Scarlet Macaw |114 (133) |58 (39) |

|Blue and Yellow Macaw |15 (17) |7 (5) |

|Red and Green Macaw |31 (36) |15 (11) |

|Chestnut Fronted Macaw |179 (179) |53 (53) |

|Red Bellied Macaw |5 (5) |2 (2) |

|Blue Headed Macaw |9 (9) |2 (3) |

|Mealy Parrot |111 (114) |37 (34) |

|Yellow Crowned Parrot |10 (9) |1 (3) |

|Blue Headed Parrot |105 (106) |33 (32) |

|White Bellied Parrot |29 (24) |2 (7) |

|Orange Cheeked Parrot |7 (6) |1 (2) |

|White Eyed Parakeet |42 (39) |9 (12) |

|Black Capped Parakeet |42 (42) |13 (13) |

|Cobalt Winged Parakeet |441 (421) |105 (125) |

|Total |1140 (1140) |338 (338) |

A Chi squared test showed that there was significant difference in the proportions of different species flying in the mornings and afternoons (χ2 =27.0, df = 13, p = 0.012).

3 Daily patterns of flight activity

All 14 species were recorded at the two sites but only five of the species are to be studied here as their numbers were larger so more data was available for the analysis. The species chosen were: SCMA, CFMA, MEPA, BHPA and CWPA.

Table 4: The total number of groups and total number of individuals for the hours that the recording took place, ranging from 06h00 to 17h30, including the maximum number of individuals seen in one group.

|Hour |Total Groups |Total Ind |Mean |ST Dev |Max |

|06h00 – 06h59 |385 |2922 |7.6 |8.0 |48 |

|07h00 – 07h59 |331 |1960 |5.9 |7.0 |41 |

|08h00 – 08h59 |286 |1710 |6.0 |5.9 |34 |

|09h00 – 09h59 |92 |637 |6.9 |6.3 |34 |

|10h00 – 11h00 |46 |227 |4.9 |4.3 |18 |

|14h00 – 14h59 |23 |110 |4.8 |3.4 |14 |

|15h00 – 15h59 |89 |689 |7.7 |6.4 |26 |

|16h00 – 16h59 |195 |1388 |7.1 |6.6 |28 |

|17h00 – 17h30 |31 |101 |3.3 |2.8 |15 |

|Total |1478 |9744 |6.6 |6.8 |48 |

Throughout the day starting from 06h00, groups of birds were seen flying at both sites, with the highest number of individuals and groups seen at the first hour of recording, this recording was calculated as 30% of the whole number of individuals. The hour with the least individuals was between the hours of 14h00 and 14h59; here the total percentage of individuals was 1%.

In the hours of 06h00 – 07h00 the species with the highest recorded groups were CWPA which had recorded a total of 20% of the individuals, with the least coming from the SCMA which recorded their highest number between the hours of 07h00 -08h00. Being the most abundant the species CWPA had the greatest number of individuals over all the recording hours.

As seen on Table 4 the total standard deviation is larger than the mean so this indicates a larger variation in data. Most of the recording hours show little variation in the data with the exception of the hours of 07h00-07h59, 14h00-14h59, 15h00-15h59 and 16h00 – 16h59 which all show that the standard deviation is considerably larger than the mean so a variation in data.

Figure 7: The total number of groups at different times of the day (06h00 to 17h30).

[pic]

Figure 7 shows the total number of groups that were recorded, it can clearly be seen when the greatest number of groups were recorded, and the number of groups decreases as the day moves towards the afternoon, with another increase towards the early evening.

4 Call rates

All 14 of the different species were recorded calling but some birds were more silent when compared to others. 1357 (92%) groups were recorded to be calling and only 121 (8%) groups were to have not called or had been silent (Table 5). A Chi squared test showed that there was significant difference in the proportions of different species calling and not calling (χ2 =49.5, df = 13, p < 0.001).

The expected calling rates for each species was overall very similar to the actual calling data with the exception of SCMA which had an actual recording of 7 less than the expected. MEPA also had an expected number that was more than the actual data, and finally CWPA had the biggest difference with a total of 23 more than the expected value. The non-calling group was relatively small when compared to the total number of calling, take CWPA for example which had a total of 39% of the total calling groups.

Table 5: The total calling and non-calling groups for each different species with the expected value included in brackets.

|Species |Calling |Silent |

|Scarlet Macaw |151 (158) |21 (14) |

|Blue and Yellow Macaw |19 (20) |3 (2) |

|Red and Green Macaw |44 (42) |2 (4) |

|Chestnut Fronted Macaw |215 (213) |17 (19) |

|Red Bellied Macaw |4 (6) |3 (1) |

|Blue Headed Macaw |11 (10) |0 (1) |

|Mealy Parrot |124 (136) |24 (12) |

|Yellow Crowned Parrot |11 (10) |0 (1) |

|Blue Headed Parrot |120 (127) |18 (11) |

|White Bellied Parrot |29 (29) |2 (3) |

|Orange Cheeked Parrot |8 (7) |0 (1) |

|White Eyed Parakeet |46 (47) |5 (4) |

|Black Capped Parakeet |51 (51) |4 (5) |

|Cobalt Winged Parakeet |524 (501) |22 (44) |

|Total |1357 |121 |

MEPA were a species that had a big difference in the amount of silent groups recorded (24) and the expected amount (12), so the actual recording was double of what was expected which shows significance as they are known to be a high calling species. CWPA were also another significant difference again with the actual number (22) half of what was predicted (44).

5 The influence of weather on bird flight activity

1 Wind

Table 6: Table showing the presence of different species in the presence of wind or without. Means and standard deviations are shown also the results of a Mann – Whitney test are recorded. Numbers in bold are shown to be significant.

| Species |No Wind: Mean / St D |Wind: Mean / St D |Mann-Whitney test |

|SCMA |1.27 / 1.60 |1.08 / 0.96 |Z = -0.40, p = 0.69 |

|BYMA |0.16 / 3.67 |0.15 / 0.36 |Z = -0.06, p = 0.95 |

|RGMA |0.14 / 5.80 |0.25 / 0.52 |Z = -1.57, p = 0.12 |

|CFMA |1.53 / 1.44 |2.08 / 1.77 |Z = -1.48, p = 0.14 |

|RBMA |0.02 / 0.49 |0.08 / 0.27 |Z = -1.19, p = 0.24 |

|BHMA |0.09 / 0.29 |0.09 / 0.30 |Z = -0.93, p = 0.93 |

|MEPA |1.60 / 2.22 |0.74 / 1.11 |Z = -1.37, p = 0.17 |

|YCPA |0.11 / 0.32 |0.09 / 0.30 |Z = -0.27, p = 0.79 |

|BHPA |1.62 / 1.71 |0.60 / 0.88 |Z = - 3.29, p = 0.001 |

|WBPA |0.47 / 0.76 |0.15 / 0.50 |Z = -2.67, p = 0.008 |

|OCPA |0.09 / 0.29 |0.06 / 0.23 |Z = -0.62, p = 0.55 |

|WEPA |0.40 / 0.81 |0.55 / 0.77 |Z = -0.68, p = 0.50 |

|BCPA |0.49 / 0.87 |0.38 / 0.79 |Z = -0.99, p = 0.32 |

|CWPA |5.02 / 3.76 |4.06 / 2.76 |Z = -1.03, p = 0.30 |

Table 6 shows the mean and standard deviation for each of the 14 species at the two different sites and their reaction to the presence of wind i.e. if the presence of wind affects the amount of birds that are recorded. The five top species again have the highest mean with the CWPA having a total mean of 4.50 compared to the lowest which turned out to be RBMA with a total of 0.05. The MEPA, BHPA and CWPA species had the highest numbers recorded when there was no wind, with the greatest difference coming from BHPA. The mean for wind recorded here was 1.62 and the mean for no wind was 0.60.

A large amount of variation can be seen among the species when they are not in the presence of wind, the macaw groups showed the biggest variation with the RGMA showing the least. When there is increased wind strength they are still present but not to the degree seen when no wind is present. The results of the Mann Whitney tests (Table 6) show that there was no significant difference in flight activity between windy and non-windy days for any species except for WBPA and BHPA with the value for p being 0.008 and 0.001 respectively so when compared to the given value for p (0.05) it shows that there is a significant difference.

2 Cloud

The most commonly recorded cloud cover percentage was 25% which was recorded 30 times, closely followed by 0% cover that had a recording of 22. The other 3 sets of percentages were relatively recorded the same number of times. This can be seen on Table 7, the table also shows the mean ranks for the top five species. CWPA shows that its highest mean rank is at 50% which is also the case for MEPA. The highest mean rank recorded was for BHPA in a presence of 25% cloud cover.

Table 7: The mean ranks of the top five recorded species, also with the number of groups recorded at each level of cloud cover.

|Cloud Cover % |N |SCMA |CFMA |MEPA |BHPA |CWPA |

|0 |22 |48.4 |46.9 |50.5 |42.7 |46.2 |

|25 |30 |50.1 |44.7 |50.2 |58.4 |49.5 |

|50 |17 |44.5 |48.4 |54.7 |41.9 |53.4 |

|75 |15 |55.7 |52.9 |49.1 |50.7 |48.2 |

|100 |14 |49.4 |61.4 |48.2 |49.1 |51.5 |

The different species again like the wind recordings didn’t show any great reaction to the presence of cloud which can be seen by how significant the calculated values are when compared to the chosen significant level. For example SCMA (χ2 =1.42, df = 4, p = 0.019) showed no significance at all.

The only two species that showed any significance are the BYMA (χ2 =11.7, df = 4, p = 0.019) and BHMA (χ2 =8.7, df = 4, p = 0.071) but these species were not recorded in large quantities so are not to be analysed any further.

6 Directions of flight

Of the total number of groups of birds recorded, 78% were in flight with the rest (22%) either perched or were lost while recording i.e. flew out of range. The majority of the birds flew towards the clay lick with an even number flying to either side, with the smallest number of groups recorded flying away from the clay lick.

1 Morning Flights

A total of 889 groups were recorded in flight in the morning hours which was 77% of the overall number of groups of flying birds. CWPA showed the largest number with 44% which was expected due to the abundance of the species, whereas the species with the least was OCPA and RBMA which both recorded a total of >1% each.

Table 8: Directions in which different species flew in and the expected value, also showing the calculated p value for the morning.

|Species |Towards |Away |Side |χ2 |

|SCMA |33 / 21 |7 / 21 |45 / 42 |P = 0.0003 |

|CFMA |44 / 28 |12 / 28 |56 / 56 |P = 0.0001 |

|MEPA |25 / 18 |11 / 18 |38 / 36 |P = 0.0689 |

|BHPA |32 / 23 |14 / 23 |45 / 46 |P = 0.0084 |

|CWPA |136 / 98 |59 /98 |195 / 196 |P = ................
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