Brambling (1 Viewer)

[Gomphus]

Well, a suprise today, we have had a flock of up to 36 Brambling at our feeders over the winter here in Derbyshire UK. A lot have left us to head north but we still have had between 5 and 10 over the last week. Today however a new bird arrived. Now this is a weird one as it is a male (1st summer at a guess?) bearing 2 colour rings, red and yellow and no metal ring.... and it is in a bit of a state, feathering around the bill is damaged as are the primary tips, I suspect strongly it is actually an escape from somewhere that has teamed up with our wild ones but I thought I'd ask for opinions? Just to make sure its not a CR scheme somewhere.....

Steph'

 

[Jon Turner]

They look like closed rings - put on as a pullus, so almost certainly a cage escape. Good for him! I caught a Siskin here in N Devon with a closed ring once - a Dutch ringed bird. It had teamed up with some wild Siskins too!

 

[Gomphus]

They look like closed rings - put on as a pullus, so almost certainly a cage escape. Good for him! I caught a Siskin here in N Devon with a closed ring once - a Dutch ringed bird. It had teamed up with some wild Siskins too!

Thats what I thought about the rings, cheers!

Just had a similar discussion with my other half, hopefully he will now head north with my chaps and get to where he should be! There are still females here too so you never know he may be lucky:-O

Interesting about the Siskin too!

Steph'

 

[stonechat1]

They look like closed rings - put on as a pullus, so almost certainly a cage escape.[...]

Not absolutely, we own rings like these (for our canaries) and they are open.
Open bands doesn´t look always like this one with the flap:
http://bit.ly/107j3Vr
They are now made from hard plastic and are looking like this:
http://bit.ly/XORxQ8

 

[AlfArbuthnot]

They are not closed rings, and it's definitely not an escape. It has been caught and ringed illegally by someone playing at being a proper ringer.

Bramblings must be closed ringed if bred in captivity and you ever want to sell them. The closed rings are coloured metal and bear an inscription (year, code). It is not required to close-ring them if you never intend to sell them, but as it is your only proof of legal ownership virtually all captive-bred birds are close-ringed.

So this bird has not escaped, which means it is wild. But a legally ringed wild bird must have a metal (silver-coloured alloy) BTO ring, or ring from their own country's scheme. You can only get these rings if you are a qualified and legal ringer.

But anyone can legally buy colour rings on the internet. What you CANNOT legally do is catch a wild bird and put rings on it if you are not a licensed ringer. And you cannot catch a bird but NOT put a metal ring on it (as well as colour rings) if you ARE a legal ringer.

As such, any native bird only wearing colour rings is 99.999% an illegally-caught wild bird. These seem to turn up surprisingly often, and I'm guessing that 'wannabe ringers' are catching birds in their garden using home-made traps and ringing them for their own interest, which is idiotic.

Ringers are licensed and trained because ringing is not easy, and an untrained and unsupervised 'pretend ringer' is highly likely to fatally injure a high proportion of the birds they catch.

 

[Gomphus]

They are not closed rings, and it's definitely not an escape. It has been caught and ringed illegally by someone playing at being a proper ringer.

Bramblings must be closed ringed if bred in captivity and you ever want to sell them. The closed rings are coloured metal and bear an inscription (year, code). It is not required to close-ring them if you never intend to sell them, but as it is your only proof of legal ownership virtually all captive-bred birds are close-ringed.

So this bird has not escaped, which means it is wild. But a legally ringed wild bird must have a metal (silver-coloured alloy) BTO ring, or ring from their own country's scheme. You can only get these rings if you are a qualified and legal ringer.

But anyone can legally buy colour rings on the internet. What you CANNOT legally do is catch a wild bird and put rings on it if you are not a licensed ringer. And you cannot catch a bird but NOT put a metal ring on it (as well as colour rings) if you ARE a legal ringer.

As such, any native bird only wearing colour rings is 99.999% an illegally-caught wild bird. These seem to turn up surprisingly often, and I'm guessing that 'wannabe ringers' are catching birds in their garden using home-made traps and ringing them for their own interest, which is idiotic.

Ringers are licensed and trained because ringing is not easy, and an untrained and unsupervised 'pretend ringer' is highly likely to fatally injure a high proportion of the birds they catch.

Interesting thoughts, I had assumed that it had to be an escape with all the feather wear and damage evident as well as the colour rings. I had no idea this sort of thing went on?:eek!:

I assumed it had been rung in captivity to just identify the individual perhaps. Hence the lack of closed ring.

Its interesting as its actually the most advanced male present now (not seen so far today though, then again neither have any more! Most of the more advanced plumaged males left last week.)

Steph'

 

[stonechat1]

[...] And you cannot catch a bird but NOT put a metal ring on it (as well as colour rings) if you ARE a legal ringer.

There are a few exceptions of this rule:
1. Recatching a already banded bird from your own program (happened last weekend, a Nightingale flew in the same net within two hours).
2. If one catches a bird and can not determine the species.

As such, any native bird only wearing colour rings is 99.999% an illegally-caught wild bird. [...]

Agree

Ringers are licensed and trained because ringing is not easy, and an untrained and unsupervised 'pretend ringer' is highly likely to fatally injure a high proportion of the birds they catch.

I`m not so sure. Many people can handle birds very good, and AFAIK there are many canary- and other bird breeders in the UK.

NO doubt that I dislike illegal banding!

 

[AlfArbuthnot]

I`m not so sure. Many people can handle birds very good, and AFAIK there are many canary- and other bird breeders in the UK.

Cararies are domesticated, and easily caught and extracted from a cage or aviary. Wild birds are a different matter, being much more highly-strung and wriggly. If it was so easy, there would not be an average 2 year training period for ringers.

I had assumed that it had to be an escape with all the feather wear and damage evident as well as the colour rings. I had no idea this sort of thing went on?

I assumed it had been rung in captivity to just identify the individual perhaps. Hence the lack of closed ring.

Its interesting as its actually the most advanced male present now

I can't see any damage at all. But it's spring so feathers are getting quite old anyway. It might have also been kept in captivity for a period (days/weeks) before being released. Birds born in captivity do not have damaged feathers, they are usually pristine as they don't have the wear of wild birds, and a bird hatched in an aviary doesn't feel the need to bash up against the wire like a wild bird would.

It could feasibly be a captive bred bird that was not closed-ringed, and then escaped or was released deliberately, but this is almost inviting prosecution by the RSPCA. They are very active in raiding keepers of British Birds to try and catch illegals, and anything without a closed ring is viewed by the courts as wild-caught. There have been several high-profile cases lately. So virtually everything legal is closed-ringed, and it has to be anyway if they ever want to sell it. You can swap without colour-rings, but nobody in their right mind would take it off you and risk a court appearance and confiscation all of their birds.

So the chances of it being legal in any way are vanishingly small. But we don't know if this happened in the UK or somewhere else (I'm not sure if it's illegal in e.g. Russia)

 

[Gomphus]

Cararies are domesticated, and easily caught and extracted from a cage or aviary. Wild birds are a different matter, being much more highly-strung and wriggly. If it was so easy, there would not be an average 2 year training period for ringers.



I can't see any damage at all. But it's spring so feathers are getting quite old anyway. It might have also been kept in captivity for a period (days/weeks) before being released. Birds born in captivity do not have damaged feathers, they are usually pristine as they don't have the wear of wild birds, and a bird hatched in an aviary doesn't feel the need to bash up against the wire like a wild bird would.

It could feasibly be a captive bred bird that was not closed-ringed, and then escaped or was released deliberately, but this is almost inviting prosecution by the RSPCA. They are very active in raiding keepers of British Birds to try and catch illegals, and anything without a closed ring is viewed by the courts as wild-caught. There have been several high-profile cases lately. So virtually everything legal is closed-ringed, and it has to be anyway if they ever want to sell it. You can swap without colour-rings, but nobody in their right mind would take it off you and risk a court appearance and confiscation all of their birds.

So the chances of it being legal in any way are vanishingly small. But we don't know if this happened in the UK or somewhere else (I'm not sure if it's illegal in e.g. Russia)

On both wings the primary tips are broken off and when compared to the normal birds there is feather loss/damage around the bill base and on the crown and throat areas. Maybe not all that apparent perhaps in the pics but definite in the field! Compared to all the other smart looking finches present it is quite scraggy! It could be normal wear I suppose but along with the rings I am very suspicious

I find it odd re damage in captive birds as I have seen pristine obvious escaped birds in the wild (and sadly in captivity) and ones with damage varying between slight to bad. So I don't think either way is a given.

Steph'