We assessed total mercury concentrations in breast feathers of diurnal North American raptors collected at migration monitoring stations. We sampled raptor feathers from 9 species in the Pacific Flyway and compared species, sex, date, and flyway effects on mercury concentrations. We also explored year effects on 3 species of raptors in the Pacific Flyway during 13-years (2002-2014). Finally, we compared mercury concentrations in merlin among 4 continental flyways.

The data consist of measured feather concentrations of total mercury (THg) in six species of raptors sampled at Hawk Ridge, Duluth MN between 2009 and 2012. The species sampled were Sharp-shinned Hawk (Accipiter striatus), Northern Goshawk (Accipiter gentilis), Long-eared Owl (Asio otus), American Kestrel (Falco sparverius), Merlin (Falco columbarius), and Northern Harrier (Circus hudsonius). This dataset is associated with the following publication: Keyel, E., M. Etterson, G. Niemi, D. Evers, C. DeSorbo, J. Hoffman, J. Nichols, Y. Li, and F. Nicoletti. Feather mercury increases with feeding at higher trophic levels in two species of migrant raptors, Merlin (Falco columbarius) and Sharp-shinned Hawk (Accipiter striatus). The Condor. The Cooper Ornithological Society, Bend, OR, USA, 122: 1-17, (2020).

The data consist of measured feather concentrations of total mercury (THg) in six species of raptors sampled at Hawk Ridge, Duluth MN between 2009 and 2012. The species sampled were Sharp-shinned Hawk (Accipiter striatus), Northern Goshawk (Accipiter gentilis), Long-eared Owl (Asio otus), American Kestrel (Falco sparverius), Merlin (Falco columbarius), and Northern Harrier (Circus hudsonius). This dataset is associated with the following publication: Keyel, E., M. Etterson, G. Niemi, D. Evers, C. DeSorbo, J. Hoffman, J. Nichols, Y. Li, and F. Nicoletti. Feather mercury increases with feeding at higher trophic levels in two species of migrant raptors, Merlin (Falco columbarius) and Sharp-shinned Hawk (Accipiter striatus). The Condor. The Cooper Ornithological Society, Bend, OR, USA, 122: 1-17, (2020).

This dataset includes the bird species, sex, age, and total mercury concentrations in feathers, muscle, liver, and nail tissues.

Heavy metal contamination (n=17 metals) of feather and tissue samples from live and deceased Anna's hummingbirds (Calypte anna) was evaluated. Feathers taken from live birds are low in sample weight, therefore a novel method was used in feather sample preparation. Feather samples were then analyzed utilizing an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) assay. In addition, ICP-MS was used to measure heavy metal concentrations in feather and tissue samples from salvaged hummingbird carcasses. Iron, zinc, selenium and mercury concentrations were most commonly elevated in body feathers from live birds with mercury being the metal most likely to be found in elevated concentrations. Because of this, we conducted additional analysis for mercury using atomic absorption spectometry, and this is the mercury data available in this dataset. A strong correlation between total mercury concentrations in feathers and in pectoral muscle was found suggesting that sampling feathers from live hummingbirds may prove a validated, useful, non-lethal sampling method for this species in the wild. These data support the following publication: Nicole A. Mikoni, Robert Poppenga, Joshua T. Ackerman, Janet Foley, Jenny Hazlehurst, Güthrum Purdin, Linda Aston, Sabine Hargrave, Karen Jelks, Lisa A. Tell, Trace element contamination in feather and tissue samples from Anna’s hummingbirds, Ecological Indicators, Volume 80, September 2017, Pages 96-105, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2017.04.053.

These data are the raw total mercury (THg) concentrations in whole feathers, feather homogenates, and feather components (i.e., rachis, vane, calamus) that are presented in the Journal Article "Mercury concentrations vary within and among individual bird feathers: A critical evaluation and guidelines for feather use in mercury monitoring programs" in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry by Peterson et al.

These data represent mercury contamination, influenza infection, and body condition in 11 species of dabbling and diving ducks in the Pacific Flyway. These data support a USGS lead scientific publication.

We investigated whether foraging habitat, sex, or fidelity to a foraging area effected blood mercury concentrations in western gulls (Larus occidentalis) from three colonies on the west coast of the United States. Dataset includes total mercury concentrations in western gulls from three colony locations and associated foraging habitat of individual gulls.

The breast feathers of 13 bald eagles were collected at 11 locations during 2014 to 2016 along rivers and sloughs on or near to Bad River tribal lands and analyzed for total mercury (Hg) concentrations. An age (7 - 9 weeks) was indicated for only two of the eagle feather samples. The eagle feathers sampled were likely all from nestlings, but this could be confirmed for only two of the eagles. Neither the collection of feather samples nor the Hg analyses were performed by the U.S. Geological Survey, New York Water Science Center.

The dataset includes the bird species, region where sampled, sampling site, capture location, mercury concentration in whole blood, lead concentration in whole blood, sulfur stable isotope concentration in blood plasma, carbon isotope concentration in blood plasma, whole blood ALAD activity, and fecal corticosterone concentrations.