On the use of capture-recapture models in mist-net studies

Capture-recapture models provide a statistical framework for estimating population parameters from mist-net data. Although Cormack-Jolly-Seber and related models have recently been used to estimate survival rates of birds sampled with mist nets, we believe that the full potential for use of capture-recapture models has not been realized by many researchers involved in mist-net studies. We present a brief discussion of the overall framework for estimation using capture-recapture methods, and review several areas in which recent statistical methods can be, but generally have not yet been, applied to mist-net studies. These areas include estimation of (1) rates of movement among areas; (2) survival rates in the presence of transients; (3) population sizes of migrating birds; (4) proportion of birds alive but not present at a breeding site (one definition of proportion of nonbreeding birds in a population); (5) population change and recruitment; and (6) species richness. Using these models will avoid the possible bias associated with use of indices, and provide statistically valid variance estimates and inference.