Western French Pyrenees-group

single groups

Study area: Western French Pyrenees

The study area is in the Western French Pyrenees, next from the Pyrenees National Park and next from the core of the high mountainous massif.

It is located on the territories of Barèges and Bagnères de Bigorre municipalities and includes the Mongie-Tourmalet ski resort.

In this area is located the more numerous and dense population of snowfinches known of the Pyrenees.

Start of ringing activities in winter 2024:

• The ringing sites are in the “Pic Midi de Bigorre” summit (2876 m), the Tourmalet pass (2115 m) and La Mongie village (1740 m). Birds use the area throughout the year. The breeding biology was studied in this area from 2004 to 2007 (Grangé et al., 2015).

• Main goals of the activities: actually estimating the feasibility of the study on this population, our main goals are to estimate resource use across seasons (including space use) and later the structure of the population as well as classical demographic parameters through participatory re-observation process and capture-recapture analysis.

Colour ring project:

Colour-ring type: Orange [O] with a white engraving two alpha- numeric code (on two leg) and metal ring (on right leg).

We are starting using only letters A to Z for now.

In winter 2024 before having orange rings with white engraving, we used a combination of two coloured-rings (left leg) and a metal ring (right leg).

We used a pink ring with another ring (orange, yellow, green, blue, black, red or pink).

European coordination of colour rings: https://cr-birding.org/node/6969

References:

• Chiffard, J., Marciau, C., Yoccoz, N.G., Mouillot, F., Duchateau, S., Nadeau, I., Fontanilles, P. & Besnard, A. (2020). Adaptive niche‐based sampling to improve ability to find rare and elusive species: Simulations and field tests. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 11(8): 899-909.

• Grangé, J.-L., Boyer, D., Gush, M., & Navarre, P. (2015). Biologie de reproduction du monticole de roche Monticola saxatilis dans les pyrénées occidentales françaises. Nos Oiseaux, 62, 121–140.

• Fontanilles P. & Grangé J.L. (2012). Niverolle alpine. In FREMA ux S& RAMI ERE J. (coord.), Atlas des oiseaux nicheurs de Midi-Pyrenees. Nature Midi- Pyrenee s. Paris, Delachaux et Niestle: 382-383.

Western French Pyrenees, National Park