Action

Action Synopsis: Bird Conservation About Actions

Reduce electrocutions by using plastic, not aluminium, leg rings to mark birds

How is the evidence assessed?

Study locations

Key messages

A replicated and controlled study in the USA found no evidence for lower electrocution rates for raptors marked with plastic leg rings, compared to metal ones.

 

About key messages

Key messages provide a descriptive index to studies we have found that test this intervention.

Studies are not directly comparable or of equal value. When making decisions based on this evidence, you should consider factors such as study size, study design, reported metrics and relevance of the study to your situation, rather than simply counting the number of studies that support a particular interpretation.

Supporting evidence from individual studies

  1. A replicated, controlled study in Tucson, Arizona, USA (Dwyer & Mannan 2009), found that electrocution rates for 38 Harris’s hawks Parabuteo unicinctus marked with plastic leg bands were no lower than for 41 birds marked with aluminium bands. In addition, there were no signs of burning/electrocution close to the rings on dead birds’ legs.

    Study and other actions tested
Please cite as:

Williams, D.R., Child, M.F., Dicks, L.V., Ockendon, N., Pople, R.G., Showler, D.A., Walsh, J.C., zu Ermgassen, E.K.H.J. & Sutherland, W.J. (2020) Bird Conservation. Pages 137-281 in: W.J. Sutherland, L.V. Dicks, S.O. Petrovan & R.K. Smith (eds) What Works in Conservation 2020. Open Book Publishers, Cambridge, UK.

 

Where has this evidence come from?

List of journals searched by synopsis

All the journals searched for all synopses

Bird Conservation

This Action forms part of the Action Synopsis:

Bird Conservation
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What Works in Conservation provides expert assessments of the effectiveness of actions, based on summarised evidence, in synopses. Subjects covered so far include amphibians, birds, mammals, forests, peatland and control of freshwater invasive species. More are in progress.

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