Locations wanted for Regent Honeyeater in summer

Hi Peter, Yes, unfortunately the size of a Regent Honeyeater means it is still too small to wear appropriate tracking equipment. The biggest Regent weighs around 45 grams, and according to ethics guidelines no species is to be fitted with a transmitter (including harness or other affixing material) weighing more than 5% of its body weight – which for the heaviest Regent is 2.25 grams. Unfortunately the smallest satellite tracking transmitter weighs 5 grams. They can comfortably wear radio-transmitters, and we use these for tracking birds post-release during our captive releases. They weigh about 1.9 grams when fitted, but these have a range of 1km at most and need to be ‘manually’ monitored by an observer. They also only last about 12 weeks before the battery goes flat. The other thing we’ve considered are geolocators like those used on Ruddy Turnstones a few years ago by VWSG. But these need to be recaptured for download (for Regents this would only be 1 in 10 banded birds which are resighted, and this can take up to 10 years!), and they only have an accuracy of +/- 100km from memory…which reduces their effectiveness. And there is no ‘realtime’ data streaming anyway. Hope that explains it. Cheers, Dean How come we can track godwits across the ocean but we can’t track honeyeaters these relatively short distances? Are they too small to carry the necessary equipment? Peter Shute Sent from my iPad Dean Ingwersen | Woodland Bird and WA Program Manager Regent Honeyeater recovery coordinator BirdLife Australia Suite 2-05, 60 Leicester Street, Carlton VIC 3053 M 0409 348 553 | T 03 9347 0757 ext 247 | F 03 9347 9323 dean.ingwersen@birdlife.org.audean.ingwersen@birdlife.org.au> | birdlife.org.au ABN 75 149 124 774 [BirdLife Australia logo] [Follow BirdlifeOz] [Follow BirdLife Australia’s public updates] [Aussie Backyard Bird Count] an evening with Phil Liggett – Click here