Why ring a Jackdaw? (1 Viewer)

I was sat eating my lunch during a birding trip to a local park (SW London, UK) on Saturday afternoon when I got surrounded by a bunch of birds all used to being thrown a few crumbs. A pair of Mallards climbed out of the pond to investigate, several Coots wandered along the bank for a better look and one or two Carrion Crows swooped in and looked menacing. There were also half a dozen or more Jackdaws - one of whom had a small silver ring on his right leg. This got me thinking - why ring a Jackdaw?

I don't know much about ringing but I know that ringed birds can tell us a lot about migration and so on. I normally associate ringing with less common (and captive) birds so I was a bit surprised to see a ringed Jackdaw. I guess we have to learn more about the common species too. I think of Jackdaws as resident but might some be ringed as part of a migratory Scandinavian population for example?

Many people ring for different purposes, some to study particular species, some to track migration, others to establish population estimates and local movements, others simply for the fun of it I guess. However, if any bird is caught during the process of ringing, regardless of purpose, most ringers would ring the bird in question.

I would guess the Jackdaw was not ringed specifically for any study into Jackdaws, but as a by-catch. However it is still worth ringing, there is always potential to learn something, this potentially including movements/migrations, longevity and long-term population trends.

If you saw it this weekend just gone, it is almost certainly not a continental bird (these should have already returned to breeding grounds), but a locally-ringed bird.

The 2014 Ringing report was published last month in Ringing and Migration:
Walker et al. (2015) Bird ringing and nest recording in Britain and Ireland in 2014, Ringing & Migration, 30:2, 84-147, DOI:10.1080/03078698.2015.1151647

The report states that there are 3 current RAS (Ringing Adults for Survival) projects on jackdaw in GB and Ireland and there were 682 adult jackdaws ringed in the UK in 2014, so there is certainly some intentional ringing of adult jackdaws going on. Jackdaw was added as a new species to the Bird Trends website (www.bto.org/birdtrends) on the back of this effort, so there is lots of useful and interesting information coming from jackdaw ringing, over and above migration information.

All useful information - thanks to you both :t:

I'd not looked at the BTO Bird Trends website before but it's fascinating & I can see myself spending quite a while reading about various trends on there - a great resource