Ringed Birds

Bird ringing in Britain and Ireland is organised and co-ordinated by the British Trust for Ornithology. A network of over 2,400 trained and licensed volunteers currently ring over 800,000 birds every year. On average only one in every 50 birds ringed are subsequently found and reported, so every report of a ringed bird is of value.


How to report a ringed bird?

Click this link; Euring Web Recoveries http://blx1.bto.org/euring/lang/pages/rings.jsp?country=EN

Ringed racing pigeons should be reported to the organisation with which they are registered. The coding on the ring will tell you which organisation to contact: For example this is the link to the Scottish Homing Union http://www.shuonline.co.uk/strays/index.php

Why ring birds?

Much has been discovered about birds by watching and counting them, but such methods rarely allow birds to be identified as individuals. This is essential if we are to learn about how long they live and when and where they move, questions that are vital for bird conservation. Placing a lightweight, uniquely numbered, metal ring around a bird's leg provides a reliable and harmless method of identifying birds as individuals. Each ring also has an address so that anyone finding a ringed bird can help by reporting where and when it was found and what happened to it. Some ringing projects also use colour rings to allow individual birds to be identified without being caught.

The main focus of the Ringing scheme today is monitoring bird populations. Ringing allows us to study how many young birds leave the nest and survive to become adults, as well as how many adults survive the stresses of breeding, migration and severe weather. Changes in survival rates and other aspects of birds' biology help us to understand the causes of population declines.

Ringed Birds on Arran

Each annual bird report has a section on Arran ringed birds.