Hi Tweets,

>A question, though, has anyone (not here, I mean academically which
>could also mean here, of course) worked out the longetivity records
>vs. banded birds/recovered at other ages to determine a statistically
>acceptable higher limit on age for such species? I'd think that given
>enough banding data one would end up with a standard distribution that
>could at least assign probabilities of older birds than those known to
>have been recovered being banded yet not recovered.

This sounds a lot like 'maximum wave height forecasting
In a past life, I have done wave height forecasting, where we uses the
available wave height data from an area taken over a relatively short period
(say 1 year), and performed a statistical analysis to extract the 'largest'
wave likely to be seen in, say, a 100 year time scale. This is a standard
analysis to extract the so-called 'maximum' wave. Whether the result is
meaningful is a function of the quality of the data and the character of the
underlying probability distribution.

I would think that this type of technique, applied to banding data, would be
very interesting.

Rick Romea
Seattle, WA
rromea at stioptronics.com

206-523-5831 (Home)
425-827-0460 X 316 (Work)
___________________________________

If you feel like everything is under control,
you're probably not going fast enough.
- Mario Andretti

-----Original Message-----
From: Don Baccus <dhogaza at pacifier.com>
To: ekridler at olympus.net <ekridler at olympus.net>; tweeters at u.washington.edu
<tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Date: Tuesday, December 15, 1998 10:19 PM
Subject: Re: Longevity Records of Some Bird Species


>At 08:37 PM 12/15/98 -0600, Eugene Kridler wrote:
>>Some chit chat and getting back to birds and away from the Kennewick Man
>>for a little while. Do you know that Black Brant can live up to 28 years
>>6 months? Caspian Tern to 29 years 6 months,
>
>Really? Not 7 months in at least one of these cases? :)
>
>OK, I'm kidding, because longetivity records are just that, RECORDS.
>For all we know they can live to 128 years and 129 months...
>
>
>(that's convoluted, but hopefully some will understand).
>
>
>
>
>- Don Baccus, Portland OR <dhogaza at pacifier.com>
> Nature photos, on-line guides, and other goodies at
> http://donb.photo.net