TERRITORY STRUCTURE OF THE ROBIN ERITHACUS-RUBECULA OUTSIDE THE BREEDING-SEASON

On the basis of radio-tracking data from 51 individuals, the space use of Robins Erithacus rubecula outside the breeding season was non-unif orm and multinuclear, On average, territorial Robins spent 78% of thei r time in one or more resource patches represented by bushes, which ac counted for only 1% of a convex polygon encompassing each range. A sui te of range polygons was developed to quantify range structure. One of these polygons showed similar size to, and high overlap with, defende d-area polygons and so was a good estimate of territory; In addition, the area of bushes in each polygon suggested Robins occupied constant resource territories, There was undefended neutral ground between terr itories, which, although seldom visited, was crossed to achieve intrus ions. Over the short term (days), Robins showed high fidelity to the r esource patches they defended, Over the longer term (months), most ind ividuals showed some degree of range shift, It is concluded that if th e information concerning territories is to be maximized, empirically d erived sampling protocols should be used when measuring territory para meters.