Figure 5. The proportion of banded Beaufort birds seen at one of the other three Ross Island colonies (Capes Royds, Bird, Crozier), relative to the total number of Beaufort-banded birds potentially alive each year (“Emigration Rate”; light bars) and the total number of banded Beaufort birds potentially available (dark bars) during band searches.

Except for 2005 and 2008, 400 chicks were banded at Beaufort Island per year from 1999–2010. Birds banded as chicks at the beginning of the study (1999) began returning to breeding colonies within the Ross-Beaufort island metapopluation in 2002.