Data from: Region- and season-specific exposure to lead in a common North American songbird
Data files
Apr 08, 2026 version files 29.83 KB
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Ohrberg_et_al._2026_AMRO_Pb.csv
27.53 KB
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README.md
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Abstract
The American Robin (Turdus migratorius) is a common songbird in a variety of habitats across most of North America that could serve as an ideal sentinel of heavy metal contamination. We evaluated how robin exposure to lead (Pb) varied regionally, seasonally, and among demographic groups, and assessed impacts on body condition and reproductive hormone concentrations. We detected higher blood Pb concentrations in robins sampled in a more urban region (Indiana) compared to a more rural region (Alaska). Higher blood Pb concentrations in the more urban region may reflect the robin diet of earthworms, which accumulate lead due to their feeding behavior, and could incorporate greater ambient soil lead contamination typical of more urban areas. Blood Pb concentrations were also highest in spring and summer, when robins primarily forage on earthworms. We found no relationship between blood Pb concentrations and body condition, but blood Pb concentrations showed a negative relationship with testosterone in male robins and with estradiol in female robins, suggesting lead may have negative effects on reproductive function.
Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.59zw3r2pt
Description of the data and file structure
We collected blood samples from American robins and assayed blood lead (Pb) concentrations, and assayed blood testosterone and estradiol concentrations.
Files and variables
File: Ohrberg_et_al._2026_AMRO_Pb.csv
Description: Metadata for "Region- and season-specific exposure to lead in a common North American songbird." Any NA represents data not available.
Variables
- Band: individual bird ID based on band number
- date: day on which bird was banded and blood collected
- year: year in which the bird was banded and blood collected
- month: month in which the bird was banded and blood collected
- site: location where the bird was banded and blood collected
- State: state in which the bird was banded and blood collected
- sample: type of blood sample collected: WB=whole blood; RBC=red blood cells; WB/RBC=both sample types collected
- Pb_raw: lead (Pb) concentration (µg/dL) in the sample
- Pb: adjusted lead (Pb) concentration values (estimated intercept and slope used to predict Pb concentrations in whole blood for any robins for which Pb concentrations were collected using only RBC samples)
- lPb: log10-transformed values of Pb adjusted lead (Pb) concentration values
- Sex: sex of the sampled bird; M=male, F = female, U = unknown
- Mass: body mass (in grams) of the sampled bird
- Wing: wing chord (in millimeters) of the sampled bird
- bc_resid: residual of sex-specific linear model regressing wing chord on body mass
- Age_code: HY=hatch-year (bird was born in the same calendar year as the calendar year on which it was sampled); AHY=after hatch-year (bird was sampled in a calendar year after the calendar year in which it was born); U=age unknown
- T0: concentration (ng/mL) of testosterone in the blood sample collected
- E2: concentration (pg/mL) of estradiol in the blood sample collected
Code/software
Software: program R
Packages: lmerTest, mgcv, performance packages
Access information
Other publicly accessible locations of the data:
- NA
Data was derived from the following sources:
- NA
We collected blood samples from 245 American robins at the Indiana University-Bloomington campus and surrounding neighborhoods as well as at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson (JBER) near Anchorage, Alaska, USA. We analyzed blood samples for lead as well as plasma samples for testosterone (for males) and estradiol (from females).