IBM Protocols:
Ringing Scheme for wild born
Bearded Vultures in the Alps
1) Introduction:
In the last years the need for ringing of wild born Bearded Vultures in the nest
has been discussed (see Protocol “Nest climbing and marking of nestlings in the
wild”). In the IBM Steering Committee 2012 in Goldau, CH, it has been decided
to ring the birds of the release 2013 in Grands Causses with a regular ring of the
Project (Aluminium) and one Darvic ring. This kind of ring should be used for
the nestlings in the wild for the future. Additionally it should be tried for the first
time to ring a wild born Bearded Vulture in the region of Haute Savoie in 2013.
Therefore it was necessary to set up a new scheme for the ringing of the future
years. First of all the new Darvic rings should be used for wild born birds and
the usual Alu rings should still be used for released birds in the coming years,
but the possibility to include released birds in the new ringing scheme has to be
considered.
2) New ringing scheme
a) Determination of regions:
In the IBM the 5 geographical regions have been defined for the analysis of
observation and reproduction data. These 5 regions have to be distinguished in
the new scheme. Therefore 5 different colours should be used.
The proposal for the colours of the regions is:
Corridor region:
South-Western:
North-Western:
Central:
Eastern:
white (with black letters)
red (with black letters)
black (with white letters)
blue (with white letters)
yellow (with black letters)
b) Determination of the year of birth (release):
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The first letter on the ring defines the year of ringing (birth/release). This is
important, because after telling where the bird is coming from, the second most
important information is the year of birth. And therefore it is important to put
the ring on the leg of the bird so that the first letter is on the bottom!! It is
easier to observe the bottom of the ring because it is more likely not to be
covered by the feathers of the leg.
We propose to use clearly distinguishable letters. Therefore the following letters
of the alphabet are left out of the ringing program (preliminary):
F, J, (L), Q, U, Y
Therefore 20 letters remain. This means a possibility to mark birds for 20 years
without having to use the same letter for two years.
It should be started with the letter “A” for the year 2013 and go on in
alphabetical order.
c) Determination of origin:
The second letter on the ring is for distinguishing the origin of the bird, whether
it has been released or born in the wild. We propose to use the letter “R” for
released birds only. In comparison to the rising number of wild born birds the
number of released birds will not exceed the number of 10 to 15 birds per year
(in all regions in total), and the releases are likely to be stopped in a certain
period, as the new established population is constantly growing.
For wild born birds we can use the rest of the letters. Therefore we propose to
use 1 letter per territory/pair, e.g. second letter “A” on black ring is offspring of
pair Bargy. So we have a pool of 20 possibilities to mark wild born birds in one
region per year. The third letter can be additionally used for this determination.
So we have a pool of 20 x 20 (400) possibilities, for individual marking per
region and year.
For the released birds the third letter can be used for the individual identification
of the bird.
For the different colour combinations that are available have a look on the next page or
on the website http://www.colour-rings.eu/ for further information.
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