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you got me into ornithology and i asked the nearest banding station near me to let me volunteer so i can maybe get certified and they agreed!
Hell yeah! Welcome to the ranks of people who choose to get bit/shit on/screamed at for funsies! I hope you have a blast!
What makes a bird band identifiable? They seem too small to be able to fit much information on them. I assume (seems logical) that the person who bands them puts info into some database so that it can be retrieved by whoever finds the bird later? How heavy are they relative to the birds? Does it make flying harder? I mean, they’re literally ankle weights.
Each metal band has a number/letter code on it and information on the issuing authority for the ring. When a ringer places a ring on a bird, they record the relevant info and send it to the authority who issued the ring, and they maintain a database of these codes and the birds they were assigned to.
We want them as small as possible so as to keep the bird as comfortable and safe as possible, while still providing relevant info. So the only way someone could see the information on the ring is to capture the bird, or find the bird dead or the ring alone. Every time someone finds a bird with a ring or a ring, it is great if they can report it to the correct authority so that the database can be updated. For example, someone just reported finding a ring alone in Ireland that my colleague placed on a bird here in Iceland 18 years ago! That's pretty cool.
The rings are made of really light aluminum so they add very little weight relative to the weight of the birds (unless they are birds that go in water regularly--then they need steel rings so they don't corrode and rust as quickly). I don't know the exact weight ratios. What I can tell you is that we often weigh birds a few days apart, and their body weight can increase by 20% in less than a week when they are bulking up to migrate, without causing any noticeable difference in their ability to fly. It's nuts! The biggest risk incurred by the ring is its potential to get snagged on something, unfortunately.
I am talking all about placing metal rings here, NOT about color ringing. Coloring ringing is about marking birds with unique color codes for visual ID from a distance, and comes with a whole other set of rules and caveats I am not gonna get into right now.
Lots of folks debate the usefulness/ethics of bird ringing. I am not gonna weigh in on all that. It's too much.
Hi! I've been trying to figure this one out for a while so I was wondering if you could tell me how to become a licensed bird ringer in Iceland?
I found the information needed here at the website for Náttúrufræðistofnun.
I am not entirely sure on the route that most people take to get a permit--I have been ringing birds for over a decade and had a project and groups to work and folks to vouch for my experience when I applied. If you want a place to work with, I highly recommend contacting my friends at Fuglaathugunarstöð Suðausturlands.
Got bit by a new bird species today!
Red-eyed vireo (Vireo olivaceus)
This guy doesn't even go here! Recent high winds blew him over to Iceland from his typical American homeland. Awww, kinda like me!
(I am a licensed bird ringer for the country of Iceland and all animals are captured and handled according to regulations under the authority of the Natural Science Institute of Iceland)
met up with a friend to ring some little owls
all birds were handled with the necessary permits and by trained and licensed bird ringers.
I've wondered this for awhile, but how do you catch wild birds safely? I don't want to catch them, I just don't understand how others do without hurting them
A few methods I have personally used:
Mist nets. These are huge, thin nets that birds fly into and get tangled up it. You can either have these placed passively in bird flyways, or you can actively herd birds into them. Then you just gotta untangle them and you've got bird.
(the mist net at the bird observatory in Iceland collecting mist)
2. Nest trapping. When birds are nesting, they have a very strong drive to sit on their eggs. Depending on where they nest and their size, there are lots of different types of traps you can effectively use to capture birds on their nests. For ground nesting birds, these can be flip traps, drop traps, funnel traps, noose mats, etc. For cavity nesters, you can use trap doors or specialized nest boxes. Some birds refuse to leave their nests so much that you can use a net to catch them directly on their nest, or even just scoop em right off.
(angry mama blue tit refusing to leave her and telling me to fuck off)
3. Molt capture. Lots of larger birds will go through a catastrophic molt, meaning that they lose a bunch of feathers all at once, which prevents them from being able to fly, and so you can effectively herd them into a corral/helgoland trap.
(barnacle geese herded into a makeshift corral, ready for ringing)
4. Babies! Ringers often focus on ringing baby birds because they are easy to nab.
(meadow pipit chick hiding in the tall grass, and then nabbed)
I am sure there are other methods I am less familiar with, but those are all the methods I have used. No method is perfectly safe, but we try to mitigate those risks as much as possible, and we work within the standards set out by governing bodies and the scientific community.
Laughing Dove (Spilopelia Senegalensis), from a banding. Jerusalem bird observatory (JBO). 25.11.24
Sat 14th Dec 2024
Acentor Común | Dunnock | Pardal de Bardissa Europeu (Prunella modularis)
