Action

Action Synopsis: Bird Conservation About Actions

Mark eggs to reduce their appeal to egg collectors

How is the evidence assessed?
  • Effectiveness
    50%
  • Certainty
    35%
  • Harms
    0%

Study locations

Key messages

A single before-and-after study found that marking eggs greatly increased the number of chicks fledging from six raptor nests in Australia in 1979 and 1980.

 

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 small before-and-after study in the Flinders Ranges, South Australia (Olsen et al. 1982), found that twice as many young fledged from five peregrine falcon Falco peregrinus nests (12 young fledged from 16 eggs) and one wedge-tailed eagle Aquila audax nest (one chick from two eggs) in 1980, when eggs were marked with a single line drawn in black, waterproof ink, as in 1979, when no eggs were marked (6/15 and 0/2 fledged respectively).

    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

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Bird Conservation

This Action forms part of the Action Synopsis:

Bird Conservation
What Works 2021 cover

What Works in Conservation

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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