Bird ringing

Bird ringing (also known as bird banding) is an aid to studying wild birds, by attaching a small individually numbered metal or plastic ring to their legs or wings, so that various aspects of the bird's life can be studied by the ability to re-find the same individual later. This can include migration, longevity, mortality, population studies, feeding behaviour, and many other aspects.

Some results

An Arctic Tern ringed as a chick not yet able to fly, on the Farne Islands off the Northumberland coast in eastern Britain in summer 1982, reached Melbourne, Australia in October 1982, a sea journey of over 22,000 km (14,000 miles) in just three months from fledging.

Related Topics:
Arctic Tern - Farne Islands - Northumberland - Britain - Melbourne - Australia

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A Manx Shearwater ringed as an adult (at least 5 years old), breeding on Copeland Island, Northern Ireland, is currently (2003/2004) the oldest known wild bird in the world: ringed in July 1953, it was retrapped in July 2003, at least 55 years old. Other ringing recoveries have shown that Manx Shearwaters migrate over 10,000 km to waters off southern Brazil and Argentina in winter, so this bird has covered a minimum of 1,000,000 km on migration alone (not counting day-to-day fishing trips). Another bird nearly as old, breeding on Bardsey Island off Wales was calculated by ornithologist Chris Mead to have flown over 8 million km (5 million miles) during its life (and this bird is still alive in 2003, having outlived Chris Mead).

Related Topics:
Manx Shearwater - Northern Ireland - Brazil - Argentina - Bardsey Island - Wales - Chris Mead

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Copeland, ringed 1953

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Copeland Bird Observatory

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BBC News

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Bardsey Island, ringed 1957

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Bardsey Island Bird Observatory

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BBC News

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Wildlife Britain news

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Patagial tags in crows

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