I have just arrived back on St Helena to begin a second year researching Wirebird conservation.  As many of you will know the Wirebird population recently dropped dramatically, and the overall aim of my project is to understand what factors drive Wirebird population numbers and to compare the efficacy of different conservation options.  I am a PhD student at the University of Bath and am sponsored by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds; I also work closely with the St Helena National Trust, in particular the Conservation Officer; Eddie Duff.

In order to understand what factors led to the recent decline we have to do two things.  First, we have to understand lots of things about the birds, for example how many nests do they have in a year, how successful are these nests and how long do the birds live?  Second, we need to link this information to aspects of the environment, asking, how do these things change in different habitats, weather conditions or with different numbers or species of predator?

In order to collect this information about the birds it is necessary to tell them apart, so last year Eddie and I caught adults and older chicks and gave them a unique combination of three coloured rings on their legs.  Last years work also showed that the level of nest predation varies markedly between different areas, and by using small cameras close to the nest we found that cats were the main nest predator.

Now that I am back on the island I will be continuing with much of last year’s work, ringing birds and following nests and chicks to see how many juveniles are entering the adult population.  Additionally, I will be travelling all over the island to see where colour ringed birds have moved to and where the young birds are settling down.    

I really hope that the information collected will be of use to the people of St Helena in many ways.  The results of the project will be fed into the Wirebird Species Action Plan, and will allow us to prioritise actions in the plan and help us decide the most effective and efficient conservation strategy, balancing the needs of Wirebird along with those of humans and other animals.  Additionally, the project will allow us to understand more about this fascinating species and provide information for educational and tourist programmes.

If anyone has any questions about my work or information that they think I would find useful please feel free to contact me at feb21@bath.ac.uk .

Fiona Burns

Related Information

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