Bird Ringing Question

11James11

Today I noticed two goldfinches in the garden with small colored rings on their legs ,I had a good look but couldn't spot any markings or numbers on the rings and was wondering is there some where to track or report this to?

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Try here

http://www.bto.org/ringing/ringinfo/index.htm#ringing

OpenYourEyes

I'd say there's a good chance that they were birds bred in captivity tbh - a picture would help, if you can get one. Was there just one coloured ring on each bird? And was there any metal/dark ring on the other leg?

A lot of captive-bred finch species that have escaped turn up with wild finch flocks at feeders during the winter.

11James11

Just one on each bird ,one red and one pink.First time seeing them but I will try to get a picture tomorrow .From some googling these are the best match I can find .

OpenYourEyes

Yeah, sounds like rings from captive birds so! What part of the country are you in?

11James11

OpenYourEyes wrote: »

Yeah, sounds like rings from captive birds so! What part of the country are you in?

I live in Clare,I counted 40 plus goldfinch today but only two had rings so as you say more than likely captive birds ,is this a big thing in Ireland ?

WildIreland

OpenYourEyes wrote: »

Yeah, sounds like rings from captive birds so! What part of the country are you in?

Definitely sounds like captive bird rings. "Official" wild bird rings are normally metal with unique codes stamped into them that corresponds to a record of that individual bird in the relevant ringing authority's database.

There are some examples of colour-ringing in wild birds, where researchers want to be able to identify individual birds at distance in the field -- waders on an estuary for example. Black-tailed godwits are a good example -- you may notice birds overwintering in Ireland with coloured bands on their legs -- these birds were ringed in Iceland as part of an ongoing project to study the population.

Invariably these colour-ringing projects involve a unique combination of ring colours on one or both legs to identify individual birds.

If your finches only have a single colour band on each bird, they are almost certainly captive bred.

11James11

Finally managed to get a pic not great quality but hard to get a picture with all the fighting they do .Noticed another goldfinch had a purple metal ring with letters on it but couldn't read it ,while try to get a pic tomorrow.

cd07

Found a dead goldfinch in the garden recently that had a metal ring from the natural history museum London. I reported the ring through the BTO and got a response within 2 days. The guy who rung the bird emailed me saying he rung the finch in Wales in 2013 as a yearling and it was a female. I'm in north Co.Dublin so not that far away but still an interesting find.