Report the finding of a ringed bird

Your details

Your first and last name

Your street and street number

Your locality

Your postal code

Your country

Your email

Metal ring number

Address of the ring

Type of bird

Other type of bird

Sex

Unknown Female Male

Age of bird

Unknown Chick Juvenile Full grown

Circumstances of the find

Latitude

Longitude

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Locality

Closest estimated address

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More information about the location

Date

Enter the date of the find in DD/MM/YYYY format. Example: 31/07/2015

Further information

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Send the information

You have found a ringed bird!

Ringing is a method for the study of movements and demographics of wild birds. To do this, ornithologists mark birds with numbered rings. For each bird species, there is a ringtype, perfectly adapted to the diameter of the leg.

Each ring is engraved with a unique code and the address of the scientific institution concerned. The code consists of numbers or a combination of numbers and letters.

When a ringed bird is found, data at ringing are compared with data at recovery. This allows to collect information on migration routes, stopover sites, longevity, fidelity to nesting sites, etc. This data are then madeavailable to researchers and authorities in order to enlarge knowledge and therefore better conserve wild bird populations. And that is our main goal !

This principle of data sharing explains that ringing of wild birds is organized by public scientific institutions. In Belgium the Royal Institute of Natural Sciences organizes the study.

Bird ringing is special inter alia because it is mainly based on the participation of volunteer ornithologists. There are more than 350 of them in Belgium. They all were trained for several years by experienced ringers and were successful in exams before being issued an official permit to ring wild birds. But this work would represent little if we could not rely on public participation to inform us of the finding of ringed birds.

Each finding is important! The bird was ringed thousands of kilometers away or next door, be it rare or very common, all information is interesting because each species is potentially threatened today.

If you find a ringed bird, thank you to complete this form. With the information you provide, we will edit a recovery sheet compiling all available data about the bird in question. This recovery sheet will be sent to you as soon as edited.

Thank you for your cooperation to a better understanding of wild birds.

Location of the find

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