Studies of Swallows by the Banding Method
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BIRD-BANDING A JouR,',-^LoF ORNITttOLOGICALINVESTIGATION VoL. III J:-xxuaRY,1932 No. 1 STUDIES OF S\VALLOWS BY THE BANDING METHOD • By DR. SEINOSUKEUCHIDA Ornithologist to the Department of Anhnal Industry, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Tokyo, Japan Ix view of the essentialneed of thoroughknowledge of the habitsof lnigratorybirds, the Japanesegovernment, which pays especialattention to the protectionof wild birds,has been making minute investigationsand collectingdata on migratory birds by entrustingmore than eighty schools,experiment Stations, mete- orologicalobservatories, and lighthouse-keepers,•vith the col- lection of the neededinformation for the sol!utionof this important problem. Moreover, since 1924 the governmentitself hasbeen carrying on bird-banding'-experifnkfitswith a view of contributingtoward the solutionof the sameproblem. The fol- lo•vinglist showsthe numberand speciesof birdsbanded by the Japanesegovernment since that time: . In this report about swallowsI will describein detail the resultsof the bandingexperiments referred to in the abovelist: There are three speciesof swall.owsmigrating to Japan: HMt•do rustica•uttural,•s. (Scopoli), ChimneySwallow; Hir- u;tdodaurica nipatensis (Hodgson), MosqueSwallow; t-Iiru.ndo. javmtica (Sparta), Liu-kiu Swallow. Of the abovethree species,the Li'u.ZkiuSwallow inhabitsonly Loo ChooArchipelago, and thus'is excludedfrom this report. As for the two otherspecie, .(see_map) the former is the com- moner in Japan, being distributedall over the country, whereas the latter principallyinhabits the westernpart-of the country. both nesting on the--cavesor ceilingsof human dwellingsand godowns. XThe tabulated data of returns of banded swallows in my experiments I have already published in Japanese in a paper in Ch•j4 Ch•sa H•koku, Vol. 6. I have• therefore omitted them in this article, i• order to avoid complexity, confining myself t• de•rib. lug only the results of the work. UCfflD.%Stttdy of Swallo•c,s Bird-Banding January Vol.1952nI UCH•DA,Study of Swallows [3 The bandsused for swallowsin Japan,shown in Fig. 1 are usuallyof aluminumand are 12 mm. long and 5 mm. wide, weighingabout 6 centigrams. In Japantwo methodsof bandingare in practicaluse: one ro captureand band the birds while sleeping at night.and the other to captureand bandthem in the daytimeby nettingat the en- tranceand exit of their nestinghouses as they go in and out. To ascertainthe sexeswhen bandingsome skill is needed.so far as the ChimneySwallow is concerned.for the distinctionis rather difficult. In the main, however. the principal points of discrimination are as below: (1) The fentalegenerally has a slightlyshorter tail thanthe male. The lengthof tail: female,70-85 ram., 77 min. on the average;male, 81-100 nun., 88 mm. on the average. (2) The cloacaof the femaleis largeand oblong,while that of the maleis smalland slightly projected. (3) As/or the colorsof the undertail-coverts, forehead, chin, and throat,those of the maleare brighterand morebeautiful than thoseof the female.However, the distinctionis but faint in young birds. (4) The strengthof twittering uotes. (5) It is the femaleonly that sitson the eggs. Let me now show the banding resultsin the form of returns obtainedfor four years,1927-1930. The two speciesof swallows bandedduring the above period totalled2136, of which 124 returned.The localitieswhere they were bandedwere the seven prefectures of Aomori, Akita, Saitama, Toyama, Hyogo, . Hiroshima, and Fukuoka. " The bandingof swallowsis exclusivelydone at their nesting- places,and their returnswere notedat the localitieswhere they were banded.They never came back to nest in localitiesother than thosewhere they were banded.Accordingly, it is to be un- derstoodthat the returns are only thosebirds which returned to the localitiesof bandingor nesting.The following table shows the resultsof bandingswallows by speciesfor the periodabove mentionedfor eachprefecture by years: FIG. I, ALUMIIVUl•œBANDS FOR SW;J. LOWS USED BY THE JAPANESE GOVERNMENT 4] UcH[r)3.,Study' of Swallows JanuaryBird-Banding 1927 Species Prefecture Banded Adults Sexes Nestlings Returns Sexes H. rustics Aomorl 3 0 J ,9• H. rustics Saitama 20 17 3 H. rusticst Hyogo 26 2 •1• 24 H. daurica Hiroshima 24 20 H. rustics Fukuoka 20 7 13 H. rustics 42 8 ; 34 TOTAL ' 135, Adults 38, 13 males, 10 females Nestlings 97. 1928 H. rustics Aomori 47 i 18 , 29',16•2 H. rustics Akita 9 [ 16 Saitama H. rustics Toyams 10'•5C.Xestling Hyogo •o•3 > y.J.G. 223, 23 H. dauriea Ad. 4/ Hiroshima --•9' 22 •2• Fukuoka Adult qnitial letters of the two species banded. TOTAL 568, Adults 173, 88 males, 85 females. 14 Nestlings H.D.N. Nestlings 381, 13 males, 16 females. Returns 17 15 Ad. H. rustics, 6c•, 7(2, 1 Ad. c• it. daurica. Vol. III UC•DA, Study of Swallows 1932 [5 1929 Species PrefectureBanded Adults Sexes Nestlings Returns Sexes H- rustica Aomori 86 16 70 1 H. rustica Akita 61 18 43 Adult Saltams 156 42 114 I Adults53 \25 9 1 H. rustica Toyurea 30 12 18 Adult H. rustics Hyogo 194 79 '•41 9 115 f23c' H. daurica 106 47 .24 9 49 '6• H. rustlea Hiro.qhima 26 13 •7 9 13 Adults Fukuoka 79 18 61 TOTAL 738, Adult H. rustics 168, 79•, 101•2, Nestlings 434. Adult H. daurica 47, 23cf, 24'9. Nestlings 59. Returns 63. Adults 63, 34cf, 29 9 ß 1930 ' 6 H. rustics Akita 160 52 108 Adults Remarks 20 Saitama 186 96 90 Ads. 19 Nestlings 139 H. rustics Toyama 20 14 6 Adults 2o',29 H. rustics Hyoga 250 60 190 7 H.J.G. 2 adult, 1o'.1 9 - 4 Ads. 3 H.D.N. and I nestling H. daurica Hiroshima 30 8 5 Ads. H. rustics Fukuoka •9 15 32 2 H. daurica TOTAL 697, Adult H. rustics 239, 810', 104•. Nestlings 426. Adult H. dauriea 10, 6c•, 4•. Nestlings 22. Returns 44.41 H. rustlea. 40 adults, 12o', 22 9, 1 nestling. 3 H. daurica, 2 adalts, lc•, 1 •. I nestling. Studyof Swallows JanuaryBird-Banding SUMMARY Total Birds Banded, 2136 Aomori Prefecture Adult H. rustica 136. 34 (19 malesand 15 females) and 102 nestlings. Akita Prefecture Adult H. rustica 238. 71 (1 female) and 167 nest- lings. Saimma Prefecture Adult H. rustica 550. 259 (121 males and' 138 fe- males) and 291 nestlings. Toyama Prefecture Adult H. rustica 70. 29 (14 males and 15 iemales) and 41 nestlings. Hyogo Prefecture Adult H. rustica 867. 164 (77 malesand 87 iemales) and 529 nestlings. Adult FI. daurica 59 (31 malesand 28 females) and 115 nestlings. HiroshimaPrefecture Adult FI. rustica 85. 42 (18 malesand 17 icmales) and 43 nestlings. Fukuoka Prefecture Adult H. rustica 190. 43 (7 males and 26 females) •ud 14&nestliugs. Adult H. daurica 2 (1 male and 1 iemalc). Returns,124. Of these,120 were H. rusticaadults, comprising 52 males and 57 females. Four were H. daurica, 3 adults and 1 nestling. The percentageof returnsof adult birdsas shownin the fore- goingtable, is as follows: Percentageof Returns of Adult Banded Swallows Banded One YearA#o Banded TwoYears,4#o 1928 1929 1930 Average 1929 1930.dvcra9e Akita 100 33 67 Saitama 59 49 24 44 12 9 11 Toyama 33 33 33 I-Iyogo 33 5 13 Hiroshima 57 36 31 41 5 5 Fukuoka 13 11 8 Total Average 34 8 Accordingto the abovetable, the percentageof returnsaver- ages34 in six prefectures.But as returnsin Hyogoand Fukuoka Prefectureshave been excepted for the reasonthat the investiga- tion has beeninadequate, the averagepercentage in the other four prefectures--Akita, Saitama, Toyama, and Hiroshima-- amounts to 46. In other words, about one half of the adult swallowsbanded return to the neighbourhoodof their nesting placesof thepreceding year. The death-rateof swallowsis gen- erallyconsidered exceedingly high because of theirlong-distance migration.We may safelyconclude, however, that mostof them are,as a rule,in thehabit of returningto theirbreeding places of the precedingyear in view of the resultsobtained as shown in the above table. Vol. II! UCHm.x,Study o[ S'rcallo'•'s 1952 [7 • Hitundorus•icagu•uralis Aomor[ v• Hitundodaurioanipalensis N •AP SHOWINGDISTRIBUTION OF Two SPECIESOF SWALLOW• I,N- JAPAN 8] UcarD^,oCtudy ofSwallows JanuaryBird-Banding When we consider the localities where the banded swallows returned,we find that almostall of them return to placeswithin the limits of the villages or towns where they lived during the preceding3'ear, the majority returning even to the samehouses where they nestedthe precedingyear. In fact. out of the 124 examplesof returnedbirds. thosewhich returnedto nesting- housesother than the ones occupied'the precedingyear were only 31. T•vo of them nestednext door to their nesting-houses of the precedingyear. There were 8 examplesof swallows whichreturned to the samevillage or town for threeconsecutive years,and 3 of them even nestedat the same housesfor three consecutiveyears. With regard to the 31 examplesreturning to housesother than their old onesof the preceding5-ear. when ob- servedmore carefully, it has been found that most of them. •n spiteof havingreturned to the samehouses once. lost their mates or werecompelled to chooseother houses,owing to the repair.or someother condition of their old houses.It may easily be seen that swallwstend stronglyto return not only to the samelocali- ties but alsoto the:samehouses occupied during the preceding )-ear. It is a very interestingquestion why so few nestlingswallows return to their old nests.My bandingwork so far has resulted in a very smalluumber of suchreturns, consisting only of the fol- lowing three examples: No. 36413 Chimney Swallow. One of the 114 nestling swallows banded at Shichiri-mura. Saltarea Prefecture. August 9, 1929. returned to Noda-mura. an adjoining village in the sameprefecture, May 28, 1930. No. E-50 Chimney Swallow. One of the 24 nestlingswallows banded at Uozumi-mura. I-Iyogo Pre- fecture,July 29, 1927. returnedto the samevillage, May 30. 1928. No. 48391 Mosque Swallow. One of the 59 nestling swallows banded at Chigusa-mura.