Abstract
IT will be interesting to see if the number of wild birds ringed in 1935 for migration study in the British Isles, namely, 46,430, the first decline for many years, 1934 having 49,651, approaches the limit of work possible for field ornithologists working without financial assistance from official bodies. Of the leading ringers, Dr. H. E. Moon, of Cumberland, marked 5,205 birds (1,762 song-thrushes, 970 lapwings, 877 blackbirds, 379 starlings and 154 swallows), and excepting 1934, he has marked more birds than any other ornithologist each year since 1924 (British Birds, April 1936). Since bird-ringing began in Great Britain under the organisation of H. F. Witherby in 1909 (when 2,171 birds were marked), 482,510 birds have been ringed, chiefly nestlings; but the proportion of adult birds is increasing with the use of small ‘traps' and bird-observatories, last year's totals including 30,364 nestlings and 16,066 ‘trapped’ birds. Of the total number of birds ringed since marking began, the leading figures are: song-thrush 53,108, blackbird 42,469, starling 37,592, swallow 34,243, lapwing 27,928, chaffinch 19,684, greenfinch 18,643, redbreast 17,008, common tern 15,245 and black-headed gull 12,902, Sandwich tern 11,630, hedge-sparrow 11,317, house-marten 9,996, willow-warbler 8,492, linnet 7,659, yellow bunting 3,953. The proportion of recoveries is not always the same, and out of 3,037 spotted flycatchers marked, only seven have been recovered, only one out of 1,092 garden-warblers, and one out of 625 grey wagtails, while out of 1,337 arctic terns marked, two have been recovered, and out of 8,492 willow-warblers three have been reported. In some species the recoveries reached 23 per cent.
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Present State of Bird-Ringing in Britain. Nature 137, 860 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/137860c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/137860c0