Annual captures and low apparent survival rates in two tit species in western Hungary

Abstract Adult and juvenile survival are important factors affecting the population dynamics of small passerines. Understanding variation in the population dynamics and survival rates is critical for ecological studies and nature conservation. The aim of this study was to investigate the annual capture-recapture, apparent survival and capture probabilities of the Blue Tit Cyanistes caeruleus and the Great Tit Parus major occurring in western Hungary. Data from 8,628 Blue Tits and 7,727 Great Tits came from a constant-effort ringing scheme, using three ringing periods, spanning 24 years (1998 to 2021). The annual captures did not show a significant linear trend from 1998 to 2021 in the study site for both tit species. The temporal variation of annual captures and the annual capture-recapture proportions of different ages and sexes of the tit species were similar. This indicated that the migration strategies of these two partial migrant species did not differ significantly. According to the best standard Cormack-Jolly-Seber model, apparent survival of first-year birds was lower than that for adults. The CJS model selection for the dataset indicated that the time and sex had no effect on apparent survival probabilities for both tit species. Capture probability in the juvenile groups was not significantly higher than that in the adult groups for both species.