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"Home Range" of garden birds

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  • 10-05-2011 9:30am
    #1
    romulus augustulus
    Closed Accounts Posts: 16 ✭


    I have a question about garden birds . I have a couple of bird-feeders and have what is probably a common mix of birds visiting , goldfinch,greenfinch, chaffinch, robin,blackbird,great/blue/coal tit, starling , collared dove , among others . What I'm wondering is how far these birds travel to come to my garden . It's a rural garden , beside a small wood and an area of furze/gorse and fern/bracken . Are all the birds that I see nesting within my immediate locality or could they travel from further afield each day to visit my garden ? I assume that the larger visitors e.g. doves , rooks , magpies are more likely to have travelled a distance ? I know that in winterbirds are more likely to travel in search of food but again , I assume that most of the birds coming to my garden , once they arrive in the locality will probably roost in the vicinity ?

    Any replies would be appreciated as I'm often curious as to how local "my" birds are .


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    #2
    Mothman
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,498 ✭✭✭Mothman


    I know little about this subject, but I'll give one observation.

    This is from late winter, so before breeding period.
    Maximum numbers of Great Tits seen overwinter at one time was 12.

    During a 2 hour ringing session, 40!! Great Tits were ringed. Doesn't tell you much but a little piece of the big jig-saw.

    Regarding House Sparrows, there is a colony 250m away and occasionally some of them visit my feeders. They are know as being quite sedentary


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    #3
    ytpe2r5bxkn0c1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 32,688 ✭✭✭✭ytpe2r5bxkn0c1


    So many questions.:p

    The answers vary from species to species and it's difficult to generalise.

    The link below is to a great site, which includes a piece on movements of each species. Hopefully it will answer some of your questions on some of the species.

    http://www.garden-birds.co.uk/birdindex.htm


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    #4
    romulus augustulus
    Closed Accounts Posts: 16 ✭romulus augustulus


    Thanks for that Mothman . What you say suggests that they probably travel a bit and do a daily tour of feeding sites . Unfortunately , "my" birds probably aren't "mine" at all !
    That's a good website which I hadn't seen before , Srameen . In hindsight ,my questions probably were a little along the lines of "how long is a piece of string" ;) - not easy to answer without writing an essay !


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