Sensitivity of Band Reporting-Rate Estimates to Violations of Assumptions

Reward-band studies have been used to estimate the proportion of banded birds shot and retrieved by hunters that is reported to the Bird Banding Laboratory (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service). The use of band reporting rates has been motivated mainly by the need to adjust band recovery rates for nonreporting in order to estimate harvest intensities. Henny and Burnham (1976) provided a further motivation, suggesting that band recovery observations used in the estimation of recovery and survival rates be adjusted by band reporting rates. In the present report, we examine the reward-band methodology and the estimation procedure used by Henny and Burnham, and conclude that (1) estimates of reporting rate based on reward bands are sensitive to 2 assumptions, which are probably violated under current methodology; and (2) band recovery data should not be adjusted for reporting rates when estimating survival rates. In a reward study, a subsample of N' birds is banded with reward bands, whereas the rest (N birds) are banded with ordinary bands. A simple estimator of reporting rate used in the past is