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Evaluating the accuracy and biological meaning of visits to RFID‐enabled bird feeders using video

Radio‐frequency identification (RFID) technology has gained popularity in ornithological studies as a way to collect large quantities of data to answer specific biological questions, but few published studies report methodologies used for validating the accuracy of RFID data. Further, connections be...

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Autores principales: Hughes, Eric J., Mady, Rachael P., Bonter, David N.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8668810/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34938498
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8352
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author Hughes, Eric J.
Mady, Rachael P.
Bonter, David N.
author_facet Hughes, Eric J.
Mady, Rachael P.
Bonter, David N.
author_sort Hughes, Eric J.
collection PubMed
description Radio‐frequency identification (RFID) technology has gained popularity in ornithological studies as a way to collect large quantities of data to answer specific biological questions, but few published studies report methodologies used for validating the accuracy of RFID data. Further, connections between the RFID data and the behaviors of interest in a study are not always clearly established. These methodological deficiencies may seriously impact a study's results and subsequent interpretation. We built RFID‐equipped bird feeders and mounted them at three sites in Tompkins County, New York. We deployed passive integrated transponder tags on black‐capped chickadees, tufted titmice, and white‐breasted nuthatches and used a GoPro video camera to record the three tagged species at the feeders. We then reviewed the video to determine the accuracy of the RFID reader and understand the birds’ behavior at the feeders. We found that our RFID system recorded only 34.2% of all visits by tagged birds (n = 237) and that RFID detection increased with the length of a visit. We also found that our three tagged species and two other species that visited the feeders, American goldfinch and hairy woodpecker, retrieved food in 79.5% of their visits. Chickadees, titmice, nuthatches, and woodpeckers spent, on average, 2.3 s at feeders to collect one seed per visit. In contrast, goldfinches spent an average of 9.0 s at feeders and consumed up to 30 seeds per visit. Our results demonstrate the importance of confirming detection accuracy and that video can be used to identify behavioral characteristics associated with an RFID reader's detections. This simple—yet time‐intensive—method for assessing the accuracy and biological meaning of RFID data is useful for ornithological studies but can be used in research focusing on various taxa and study systems.
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spelling pubmed-86688102021-12-21 Evaluating the accuracy and biological meaning of visits to RFID‐enabled bird feeders using video Hughes, Eric J. Mady, Rachael P. Bonter, David N. Ecol Evol Research Articles Radio‐frequency identification (RFID) technology has gained popularity in ornithological studies as a way to collect large quantities of data to answer specific biological questions, but few published studies report methodologies used for validating the accuracy of RFID data. Further, connections between the RFID data and the behaviors of interest in a study are not always clearly established. These methodological deficiencies may seriously impact a study's results and subsequent interpretation. We built RFID‐equipped bird feeders and mounted them at three sites in Tompkins County, New York. We deployed passive integrated transponder tags on black‐capped chickadees, tufted titmice, and white‐breasted nuthatches and used a GoPro video camera to record the three tagged species at the feeders. We then reviewed the video to determine the accuracy of the RFID reader and understand the birds’ behavior at the feeders. We found that our RFID system recorded only 34.2% of all visits by tagged birds (n = 237) and that RFID detection increased with the length of a visit. We also found that our three tagged species and two other species that visited the feeders, American goldfinch and hairy woodpecker, retrieved food in 79.5% of their visits. Chickadees, titmice, nuthatches, and woodpeckers spent, on average, 2.3 s at feeders to collect one seed per visit. In contrast, goldfinches spent an average of 9.0 s at feeders and consumed up to 30 seeds per visit. Our results demonstrate the importance of confirming detection accuracy and that video can be used to identify behavioral characteristics associated with an RFID reader's detections. This simple—yet time‐intensive—method for assessing the accuracy and biological meaning of RFID data is useful for ornithological studies but can be used in research focusing on various taxa and study systems. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2021-11-16 /pmc/articles/PMC8668810/ /pubmed/34938498 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8352 Text en © 2021 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Articles
Hughes, Eric J.
Mady, Rachael P.
Bonter, David N.
Evaluating the accuracy and biological meaning of visits to RFID‐enabled bird feeders using video
title Evaluating the accuracy and biological meaning of visits to RFID‐enabled bird feeders using video
title_full Evaluating the accuracy and biological meaning of visits to RFID‐enabled bird feeders using video
title_fullStr Evaluating the accuracy and biological meaning of visits to RFID‐enabled bird feeders using video
title_full_unstemmed Evaluating the accuracy and biological meaning of visits to RFID‐enabled bird feeders using video
title_short Evaluating the accuracy and biological meaning of visits to RFID‐enabled bird feeders using video
title_sort evaluating the accuracy and biological meaning of visits to rfid‐enabled bird feeders using video
topic Research Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8668810/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34938498
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8352
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