Wednesday 5 February 2014

SURPRISING TALES OF TRAVELLING BIRDS



Pintail (Anas acuta). Female 2º year. Carrying a pale blue nasal band [12]. It was marked in the Gargáligas reservoir (Badajoz) on 11th December 2012 and was seen in northern France on its first spring migration (2nd March 2013) and at Galisteo (Cáceres) eon its second autumn journey (25th September 2013, photo). Most of the Pintail that winter in Spain originate from northern Russia.

During 2013 SEO/BirdLife brought its vast databank from ringing up to date (more than seven million birds ringed and about 400,000 recoveries). With this information now updated, members of the public can now access it through a new app www.anillamientoseo.org through which one can consult the information, which is updated every day. Furthermore, it allows one to enter recoveries as well as requesting data on ringing and recoveries for scientific study.

In 2013 SEO/BirdLife took over the tracking management from ICONA, which had been responsible for the scientific ringing of wild birds, following a pause of two years, because of lack of funding from the Ministry of the Environment. During 2013 59,500 data were handled, that is to say 59,500 tales of travelling birds. Amongst them, we would like to highlight two related to Extremadura. Sadly, in both cases, the information came from birds killed by hunters.
The first, a Pintail (Anas acuta) was ringed by the University of Extremadura in Badajoz province in 2009 and recovered in June 2013 in Archangel (in the north of European Russia) a distance of 4,243 km. It represented the longest distance recovery from Extremadura in 2013 and the second longest from Spain.

The second, a Song Thrush (Turdus philomelos) was ringed as a nestling in Estonia (in Toolse, Laane-Virumaa) on 20th June 2013 and recovered on 17th November the same year in Olivenza (Badajoz) after 3,307 kms from its place of origin and 168 days afterwards. This was the second longest journey recorded in 2013.