INTERREX. Colour rings, neckbands & other marks for birds

The project has been started in summer 2009. The main aim is to recognize migrations and movements of Greenfinches in Europe, but there are more specific questions hopefully to be answered, which concern e.g. how moult is related to latitude and longitude in different populations (including age and sex differences), how moult stage is related to condition, how wing morphology (pointedness, convexity) is related to migratory behavior and so on.

Tests carried out by us showed that the code on colour rings can be read on good quality digital photographs taken at a distance of 20 m from the bird. Rings on birds perching on a tree (as they usually do) could be read from even 70 m using a scope (when tested with 30x eye-piece, we were successful with 50 m distance), so we should obtain ring readings also from people not involved in the project – observers can read rings during usual birding trips.

We hope that 10-15 thousands of Greenfinches will be colour-ringed this autumn and winter in Poland. We offer special, cheap rings for the project. If you want to cooperate, please write the project leader, Marcin Faber (info@colour-rings.eu).

Download full version with instruction

Download Excel Database

Publicising of the colour-ringing project

Please inform your local or regional birding mailing list that the project is going on, to ensure that observers will search for colour-ringed Greenfinches in your (and any other) area. Any other ways of making the project widely known are welcome! We’ll update the project website on a regular basis from autumn ownwards so that people can look up to see news and current results.

Good luck!

Grzegorz Neubauer – Ornithological Station, Gdańsk, Poland

Marcin Faber, Tomasz Iciek – colour-rings.eu