Articles Estimation of Band-Tailed Pigeon Band Recovery and Population Vital Rates in Colorado, 1969–1981 Mark E. Seamans,* Clait E. Braun M.E. Seamans Division of Migratory Bird Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 755 Parfet Street, Suite 235, Lakewood, Colorado 80215 C.E. Braun Grouse Inc., 5572 N. Ventana Vista Road, Tucson, Arizona 85750 Abstract Data to inform population assessment of the Interior subspecies of band-tailed pigeon, Patagioenas fasciata fasciata (breeding range from Colorado and Utah south into Sierra Madre Occidental of Mexico), have been lacking despite substantial past banding efforts. We used a data set of more than 26,000 bandings from Colorado, with 3,500 live recaptures and 780 recoveries from the harvest of banded individuals to estimate annual survival, fidelity, and harvest rates. Most birds were harvested in Colorado (62%) followed by Mexico (18%); New Mexico (16%); Arizona (3%); and 1% or less each in California, Washington, and Utah. On average, each year 15% (range 0–30%) of surviving band-tailed pigeons did not return to Colorado. From 1969 to 1981 mean annual survival was 0.633 (standard error [SE] ¼ 0.031) for hatch-year and 0.719 (SE ¼ 0.016) for after-hatch-year birds, with a mean annual recovery rate of 0.015 (SE ¼ 0.002) for hatch-year and 0.011 (SE ¼ 0.001) for after-hatch-year birds. From 1970 to 1974, mean annual abundance of band- tailed pigeons in Colorado on 1 September was 59,911–88,290. These data provide a baseline for additional data collection for band-tailed pigeons in the range of the Interior subspecies. Keywords: abundance; band-tailed pigeon; fidelity; harvest; Patagioenas fasciata; survival Received: November 3, 2015; Accepted: September 12, 2016; Published Online Early: September 2016; Published: December 2016 Citation: Seamans ME, Braun CE. 2016. Estimation of band-tailed pigeon band recovery and population vital rates in Colorado, 1969–1981. Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management 7(2):369-376; e1944-687X. doi: 10.3996/112015-JFWM-110 Copyright: All material appearing in the Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management is in the public domain and may be reproduced or copied without permission unless specifically noted with the copyright symbol &. Citation of the source, as given above, is requested. The findings and conclusions in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. * Corresponding author: mark_seamans@fws.gov Introduction The band-tailed pigeon, Patagioenas fasciata, is a migratory game bird in western North America. Two subspecies occupy two distinct geographic areas in western North America: Coastal P. f. monilis (British Columbia south into Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, and into Baja California) and Interior P. f. fasciata (Colorado, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, west Texas, and into central Mexico; Keppie and Braun 2000). Harvest management decisions are made independently for each subspecies (Pacific Flyway Study Committee and Central Flyway Webless Migratory Game Bird Technical Commit- tee 2001). A survey of band-tailed pigeons at mineral sites is used to inform harvest management decisions for the Coastal subspecies (Casazza et al. 2005). The North American Breeding Bird Survey has been used to assess the status of the Interior subspecies (Sauer et al. 2003). However, the usefulness of the Breeding Bird Survey is questionable because the Interior subspecies is detected on few routes and indices of abundance have high variance (Sanders 2014). Thus, there is a pressing need for baseline demographic data for Interior band-tailed pigeons. Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management | www.fwspubs.org December 2016 | Volume 7 | Issue 2 | 369 Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/jfwm/article-pdf/7/2/369/2362051/112015-jfwm-110.pdf by guest on 23 August 2020