17 Non Standard Ringing Procedures

The manual is intended to deal mainly with ringing as a tool to study bird migration. However, the bird ringing as a method could be used in different ecological research. This can be run as a part of the basic work of the permanent bird station or as programmes for ordinary ringers participating in them as volunteers. The most known are projects following population at breeding grounds: colour bird ringing and Constant Effort Sites programme. At some areas where a lot of birds spend a winter ringing projects at bird feeders are popular. Because some of these activities could be effectively run at permanent ringing stations, a bit of information about could be justified in the manual, especially that there can be used procedures similar to traditional bird ringing. Colour ringing. Tagging of birds using colour markers – colour rings, wing tags, neck collars – is very close to the classic ringing. Generally, colour rings are similar to normal metal rings, but made of colour plastic, but differentiated by colour, not by inscriptions and numbering (although some of them are bearing numbers). After colour ringing, the bird or the bird group is identified from a distance by colour or combination of colour rings; it is not necessary to re-trap the bird to have return information on the bird. This makes collecting ecological information about birds at breeding area much more efficient than waiting for subsequent catches. Colours give possibility to know at least the group the individual bird belongs to: the defined cohort is marked by colour, e.g. nestlings from the year 2010 bear yellow ring, from 2011: red ring, while those from 2012: blue ring, and during breeding season 2013 we will know the exact age of birds breeding in the vicinity. The more sophisticated colour ringing uses combination of several such rings put on one or two legs, right and left: so, yellow ring on the left leg does not mean the same as the yellow ring on the right one. If we use a few rings possibility of individual coding grows and return information, obtained without re-trapping bird grows much. It must be mentioned that colour ringing is the only case when putting more than one ring on one leg is allowed. The disadvantage of common colour rings is that plastic is much less durable than metal and birds can lost some colour rings relatively soon. This problem is solved in the European Laser Signed Advanced ring rings system (ELSA) designed for White Stork ringing and intended that the ring number to be read by binoculars or telescope rather than waiting for traditional bird recovery report. By the way, the idea of reading ring number from a distance is nowadays more and more popular as optical equipment is more accessible and modern cameras with high resolution bring readable pictures easily. The similar idea of identification from a distance is used in a form of wing tags and neck collars; the readings can be easily read, even using common binoculars. Radio tagging. Quick development of electronic devices brought important progress in bird migration studies. At the beginning, there were small radio transmitters, that were fixed on a bird, allowed locating it using directional antenna

from a distance hundreds meters to a few kilometres. In the bird migration study, they were useful for studying stopover behaviour locally. This kind of radio transmitters still could be useful in such research, as these devices are relatively cheap. However, the work with them is tiring and time consuming. Recent development of miniaturized tracking technology has opened a new perspective in bird migration studies. They differ in applied tracking technology, accuracy and weight (Table 17.1, Figure 17.1). Tracking device deployed on a given bird species must be small enough to be carried without difficulty. It is widely accepted that weight of the tracking device should not exceed 3% of body mass of the bird. Nowadays only geolocator technology may be applied for small birds, weighing not less than 17-20 g. Geolocator mounted on the lower back or on the upper part of the leg of a bird records light levels in relation to an internal timer. According to these light data the latitude and the longitude could be estimated by specialized computer program. Accuracy of geolocators is severely limited in equatorial areas during some parts of the year and in Polar Regions. However, geolocator accuracy is low and varies depending on location, habitat and weather, they are sufficient in studies on long distance migrants (e.g. Egevang et al., 2010; Bairlein et al., 2012; Cormier et al., 2013).

Table 17.1: General characteristics of the most popular bird tracking devices in 2013.

Tracking Minimum mass of Accuracy Advantages Disadvantages technology the device [g]

GPS with satellite 20 High accuracy. Expensive; not more relay systems Global range of than 20 locations operation; SOLAR per day

GPS logger with 5 g for short 2-5 m High accuracy; Data downloading radio data (about 400 m) SOLAR possible only when transmitter (UHF) range of birds stay within the transmission; range of antenna 15 g for long (about 4 km) range of transmission

GPS logger with 15 2-5 m High accuracy; data Only for larger or GSM transmission transmission through medium sized birds cell phone networks; SOLAR

Solar geolocation 0.5 50–200 km Cheap and light; Low accuracy; might be used for require recovery tracking small pas- of the device to serines (about 15 g download data of body mass) data Non Standard Ringing Procedures 195

Figure 17.1-1: Mallard with GPS device. Photo W. Meissner.

Figure 17.1-2: GPS device from the White Stork found near Aswan, Egypt. Photo I. Rząd. 196 Non Standard Ringing Procedures

Devices based on GPS systems usually record and store location data at a pre- determined interval. GSM module allows changes of operating parameters remotely in loggers set on animals. Data stored in logger memory (usually up to 30 000 GPS positions) are relayed to a central data store or internet-connected computer using an embedded cellular (GPRS), radio, or satellite modem. These devices offer high accuracy of obtained geographical positions of tracked birds, hence, they may be used both for studies on local bird movement and studies on long distance migration. It can be expected that in the future, more accurate devices will be available for tracking small birds, geolocators are currently the only options for majority of passerines and small sized waders. There is no doubt that we are entering a new era in bird migration studies. Nowadays, information on migratory routes may be obtained by combining data from bird rings returns, analyses of biomarkers (e.g., genes and stable isotopes), cage orientation tests and applying modern tracking devices. However, classic studies based on bird ringing and measuring are still widely used providing valuable data not only on migration, but also on mortality, longevity, site fidelity and many other aspect of birds life. Constant Effort Site. This programme, working in several European countries, is generally set for voluntary ringers, but there is no reason to not apply it in a permanent ringing station. The basic idea is to catch the birds in a standardized manner during breeding period. Therefore, the idea is very close to that recommended in this book for the bird migration studies. CES programme monitors numbers of birds inhabiting the defined breeding area, gives information about productivity, from a proportion between number of adults and juveniles, and estimates adult survival rates, for species with breeding site fidelity. The basics of the method used are: twelve ringing visits at the site between May and August, distributed as evenly as possible. The standard set of nets should be used throughout all visits, as well as the nets should be located in the same positions. Recommended number of nets is 10-20 ones, and a time of work should be not less than 6 hours (the same for all visits), starting from the dawn. The scheme allows some flexibility as to these parameters (additional nets as well as additional visits are allowed). The site habitat is limited to more stable wet, scrub and deciduous biotopes being relatively stable as to succession development. Habitat should be carefully described at the start of the site. The problems with changing habitat are the same as it was mentioned for sites used for the standardized migration catching (see Arrangement of the Netting Area - p. 51). Within the CES system biometrics information is not required, but the ringing station that work in the breeding time will surely collect these data, because of their value for comparisons between local and migrating populations. Feeder ringing. Out of migrations seasons and breeding time (CES) ringers, and obviously, permanent ringing stations frequently do ringing during the winter (Figure 17.2). As feeding birds during the winter time is a very common custom of not only ornithologists, ringing at feeders is easy and could be very effective; many birds are attracted by food supplied to the feeder (see also Attracting the Birds to Nets and Non Standard Ringing Procedures 197

Traps – p. 75). Ringing at feeder should be carried out with a special care about safety of birds, among others it must be avoided too much disturbance to the birds when weather conditions are really critical – very low temperature, deep snow cover and, especially, when trees are covered by a slimy ice cover or when cold fog make the birds wet quickly. It is recommended to extract caught birds frequently, even just after they are caught. You need to remember that as the feeder, you are carefully controlled by a public.

Figure 17.2-1: The birds caught at a feeder in winter. Przebendowo, Poland. Photo P. Busse.

Figure 17.2-2: A flock of birds at the feeder in winter. Przebendowo, Poland. Photo P. Busse.