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Bird Ringing for Science and Conservation
What is Scientific Bird Ringing?
Scientific bird ringing is a research method based
on the individual marking of birds. Any record of a ringed bird,
either through recapture and subsequent release, or on the occasion
of its final recovery as a dead bird, will tell us much about its
life. This technique is one of the most effective methods to study
the biology, ecology, behaviour, movement, breeding productivity
and population demography of birds.
Tracking back the journeys of ringed birds allows
us to define their migratory routes and staging areas, so providing
crucial information for the planning of integrated systems of protected
areas for our birds. Other information derived from recoveries and
recaptures include population parameters (e.g. survival estimates,
lifetime reproductive success), which are essential to determine
the causes of changes in population sizes.
Much of the data for this work are gathered by
well-trained ”professional amateurs” whose motivation
is not money but the simple privilege of working with birds for
the ultimate purpose of conservation.
Because almost 4 million birds are ringed annually
in Europe alone and because many birds migrate freely across political
boundaries, the use of individual rings and the collection of data
from birds recovered need efficient organisation. A network of fully
co-ordinated ringing stations and National Ringing Schemes has been
indispensable for the management of scientific bird ringing in Europe.
EURING, the European Union for Bird Ringing, guarantees the efficient
collaboration among national ringing schemes.
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The main aim of ringing is
to gain results which can be used in research and management.
Ringing is not a goal in itself, but a scientific method of
collecting desired information on the life of birds. |
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