Estimating age-specific survival rates of tawny owls--recaptures versus recoveries

We compared estimates of annual survival rates of tawny owls ( Strix aluco ) ringed in southern Finland from several different sampling methods: recoveries of birds ringed as young; recaptures of birds ringed as young; recoveries of birds ringed as adults as well as young; combined recoveries and recaptures of birds ringed as young, and combined recoveries and recaptures of birds ringed as adults and young. From 1979 to 1998, 18 040 young owls were ringed, of which 983 were recaptured as breeders in subsequent years during this period, and 1764 were recovered dead at various locations. In addition, 1751 owls were ringed as adults, of which 612 were later recaptured and 199 were recovered dead. First-year survival rates estimated using only recoveries of birds ringed as young averaged 48%, while apparent survival rates estimated using only recaptures from birds ringed as young averaged 10-13%. Use of combined recapture-recovery models, or supplementary information from recoveries of birds ringed as adults, produced survival estimates of 30-37%. Survival estimates from young-recoveries-only models were biased high, because of violation of the assumption of constant recovery rates with age: birds dying in their first-year were one-third less likely to be found and reported than older birds. In contrast, recaptures-only models confounded emigration with mortality. Despite these differences in mean values, annual fluctuations in estimated first-year survival rates were similar with all models. Estimates of adult survival rates were similar with all models, while those for second-year birds were similar for all models except recaptures-only. These results highlight the potential biases associated with analysing either recaptures or recoveries alone of birds ringed as young, and the benefits of using combined data.