Imprisonment by glaze ice may have caused the death of a cavity-roosting marsh tit (Parus palustris)
2009
Matsuoka, S.(Forestry and Forest Products Research Inst., Sapporo (Japan). Hokkaido Research Center) | Kudo, M.
The carcass of a marsh tit (Parus palustris) was found in a roosting hole whose entrance was covered with glaze ice and granular snow in a broadleaved deciduous forest in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan, on 15 February 2007. Because the ice was clear and covered by granular snow, freezing rain appears to have fallen first and formed an ice layer on the surface of the trunk; granular snow then followed. The entrance of the cavity opened to the south, and south and south-southwestern winds would have carried both glaze ice and granular snow into the roosting hole. Weather data observed near the forest indicate that glaze ice would have covered the hole's entrance around midnight on 14-15 February. The bird's body weight and appearance suggest that it was in good condition and did not die as a result of nutrient depletion, and the results of our necropsy do not rule out asphyxia. Thus, we conclude that glaze ice covered the entrance of the cavity after the tit roosted in the evening of 14 February, and the resulting barrier to aeration led to death of the tit by asphyxia.
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