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.

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.