Freezing bird rings

[fred gordon]

A friend of mine has been feeding birds at her birdtable like the rest of us over this very cold period. However, in the last 3 weeks she has found 2 dead birds, both had rings on and were of different species. Does anyone know if the ring on these birds can expose them to greater risks of freezing in this weather?

 

[Bushwhacker]

My chickens cope, they stand on one leg and warm the other up, then swap over.
The ring on its leg won't make any difference.

 

[QDanT]

A friend of mine has been feeding birds at her birdtable like the rest of us over this very cold period. However, in the last 3 weeks she has found 2 dead birds, both had rings on and were of different species. Does anyone know if the ring on these birds can expose them to greater risks of freezing in this weather?

If you find a ringed bird...

Click here to use our on-line reporting form

The BTO relies on people reporting ringed birds, so if you find a ringed bird please contact the Ringing Unit – see contact details below or visit:
www.ring.ac

In your report please include the following information:

Ring number

Please give the full ring number and, if the bird is dead, please enclose the ring securely taped to your letter. If you wish to keep the ring it can be returned to you. If it is not a BTO ring (address NOT starting BTO or British Museum), please give the address as well.
BTO ring

Where and when

Give the location of where the bird was found, including the name of the nearest town or village and a grid reference if possible. Also tell us the date when the ring was found.


The bird

Write down the type or species of bird, if you know.

Circumstances

It is useful for us to know if the bird was alive or dead. If dead, please give the cause of death if known, e.g. was it hit by a car, brought in by a cat, or oiled on a beach? Also note if the bird was freshly dead or decomposed. If the bird is still alive, please say what happened to it. Remember though, if you see a healthy wild bird wearing a ring (feeding on your bird table for example), you must not try to catch it. In these situations you may be able to read the ring through a telescope.

Your details

Don’t forget to give us your name and address so that we can tell you when and where the bird was ringed. Details will normally be sent within a month, but there may be delays at busy times of year. If you send a report of a ringed bird by email, please include your postal address.

 

[harryhawk]

IIRC that you can send the rings off to the BTO The British Trust for Ornithology http://www.bto.org/
I've sent some off in the past. They send details back of where and when the bird was ringed.
I don't think the ringing of birds has any effect on the death of the 2x birds. It's shown that some of the birds ringed in the past are in fact the oldest living birds in the wild. Harry.

EDIT...http://www.bto.org/ringing/index.htm
Some good info on this page. Hope it helps

 

[harryhawk]

As Dan says

 

[QDanT]

I posted my above post to help with freds query.This one just as a chat
I used to help the old farmer in the village for a few years by climbing the ladder to bring down young swallows for him to ring and sometimes the adult which would sit tight, to check it's ring number.The old farmer really new his ringed birds and would come out with tales like :- well this ones bred here 3 years the first 2 with the same female but this time he's with a different one etc. and one year he received a letter from some school children in Zambia where a swallow had been killed by flying into a window in their school and they'd sent the ring with the letter to the British museum who passed it on. He also ringed Swifts and with these I used to collect the Ticks off them for him to pass on to I think Bradford university where someone was doing a study on them.You might not think it but sometimes a single Swift would have several Ticks on some when gorged as big as a small grape I never found any on the Swallows though
just thought I'd share cheers all Danny

 

[harryhawk]

Cheers Dan
Having worked in "Bird Control" for a number of years, it was amazing the amount of dead birds people used to bring to us and hand them over! It was like well what do you want me to do with that!!!!!
BoP with rings we used to send off and we were always interested on how far they travelled. It's a very interesting subject especially if there's little tale to go with the bird. Thanks, Harry.

 

[_scorpio_]

do they ring wood pigeon? because people tend to shoot these a lot for food and if you do shoot a ringed one are you supposed to put that you shot it?

 

[_scorpio_]

A friend of mine has been feeding birds at her birdtable like the rest of us over this very cold period. However, in the last 3 weeks she has found 2 dead birds, both had rings on and were of different species. Does anyone know if the ring on these birds can expose them to greater risks of freezing in this weather?

feeding them what? does she have cats? or the neighbors have cats? what species? what looked like their cause of death (lots of missing feathers could mean cat, if there large with bits missing it could be a sparrowhawk that cant carry off its catch)?