Age-Dependent Mortality Rates of Some Common British Birds

Summary

This paper is concerned with the description of a simple model of age-dependent survival that may be applied to data for birds ringed in large numbers as pulli. The biological factors that determine age-dependent mortality rates are briefly discussed and the derivation of the model outlined. The parameters of the model are then estimated using data for six species of common British bird. The utility of the method and some of its drawbacks are then discussed before concluding with a short discussion of the uses and abuses of large data sets in quantitative ornithology.