Bird ringing

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A great tit being held in the photographers hold, Parus major.
As a first year ecology student I have taken part in a lot of new experiences this year and one of my unlikely favourites has been bird ringing. I went into to the activity slightly nervous mainly because I knew we had to hold the birds and I didn't want to crush them like Lenny in Of Mice and Men. My nerves soon vanished after we were told how to hold the bird properly and how they were actually more hardy than they look.

A dunnock being held in the ringers hold, Prunella modularis. 
Bird ringing is done in order to collect information about the health of species and their distribution. There are many bird ringers around the UK who collect data and then enter it into a national database where a bigger picture of how species are coping can then be observed. This is important for the conservation of bird species as it can tell you which species thriving or which aren't doing so well and can lead to conservationists putting actions into place to aid the species' that aren't doing so well. Whenever a bird is being ringing the ringing aims to keep the bird safe through each stage of the ringing process from catching to measurements to release. Bird ringings have to have gone through a lot of training in order to get a permit and even then they are limited by their permits as to what they can do. These permits are issued by the BTO which is the UK's leading bird research organisation and all permits are issued under the Wildlife and Countryside Act of 1981.

To catch the birds large nets are set up which are made of very thin threads that are difficult for the bird to see when they are flying at high speeds. There is a large excess in the nets which means that when the birds fly into them their impact is absorbed by the net. The nets are left static and then every 15/20 minutes or so, depending on the temperature, the nets are checked. Any birds in the nets are gently untangled from any net they may be caught in then put into bags to calm them down. They are then taken to the area where observation and measurement is occurring and held using a special technique called the ringers hold. This is where the birds back is against the palm of your hand and its head is between your first and second fingers, such as in the picture with the dunnock above. There is also another hold which is called the photographers hold which enables to birds to be clearly seen and observed for ages and sex etc.
A chaffinch being held in the photographers hold, Fringilla coelebs. 

Measurements of the birds are then taken. The body fat of the bird is taken by blowing on its stomach feathers and seeing the pattern that the fat is deposited in. Wing length is then measured using a ruler and so is body length from head to tail. The weight of the bird is finally measured by putting the bird in some sort of container and then weighing it on a set of scales. The sex and age of the bird can also be measured. In some species it is easier to tell these two things than in others. For example, many type of finches are sexually dimorphic which means that based on their markings you can tell what sex they are. Males have more brightly coloured breast bars than females so it is easy to tell what sex they are. Age of birds can be told by their moult patterns. After all the measurements and observations are done, and the bird has been ringed, the bird is released.

To ring the bird the bird is held in the ringers hold and depending on the size of the bird, a certain size ring is chosen. The rings are applied using pliers that are designed to prevent any harm coming to the bird and the rings are also designed to not affect sexual selection or make the birds more susceptible to predation.

The images in this blog are some of the birds we caught during our ringing session. I really enjoyed the session and would like to maybe one day train to get my own permit.




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