| Description |
The study of different bird species and populations is critical for understanding ecosystem health and maintaining important ecosystem services. Bird banding is a useful method for studying birds because it allows for a noninvasive means of monitoring populations, elucidating demographic information, and recognizing climate-change-caused phenological shifts. During banding, birds are identified to the species level using morphological traits. However, Empidonax species are considered some of the most difficult bird species to identify in North America due to interspecific phenotypic similarities, making morphological features an unreliable indicator for species identification. This study investigates the effectiveness of using feather samples collected during banding in Utah from 2013 to 2017 for genetic identification of these flycatcher species and determining the importance of integrating feather collection into standard banding procedure. DNA barcoding of the CO1 region revealed that banders are misidentifying Empidonax flycatchers 11.3% of the time. This misidentification rate could lead to incorrect data on flycatcher community composition, validating that feather sampling for genetic analysis is an important component to integrate into standard bird banding procedure for accurate species identification. This study also investigates the effectiveness of blood, breast feather, and tail feather tissue samples for DNA barcoding. Results show unusually high success rates for DNA sequencing using breast feathers, suggesting that breast feathers may be a sufficient tissue source for genetic identification. iv Nevertheless, more research is necessary to determine the limitations of using this tissue source. Across all sample types, the rate of successful DNA sequencing was 39%. This low success rate is likely a result of poor sample storage. Based on results from testing three different sample storage methods, it is strongly recommended that feather samples be stored in refrigerated conditions after collection and promptly processed for genetic analysis. With this improved storage technique, DNA degradation will be minimized and DNA sequencing can reach success rates of up to 100%. Additionally, the resulting increased quality of DNA in samples can provide opportunities for more extensive genetic research of these bird species and populations, extending beyond simple species identification. |
