About the project

We have consulted with the British Trust for Ornithology, who actively encourage the monitoring of Red List species such as the House Sparrow, and this project had been registered with them as a Retrapping Adults for Survival (RAS) scheme, using ringing and colour-ringing birds to enable them to be individually identified by bird ringers, birdwatchers, or members of the public.The birds are captured (under licence) and are fitted with a BTO metal ring on their right leg, and with a colour ring on the left leg. The colour ring has a code (the rings are Black, with White lettering, and the code is 2 digits either numbers or letters) that can be easily read using binoculars. Anybody seeing a House Sparrow with a colour ring can contact us at shetlandsparrows@gmail.com. We need to know the code on the ring, and the date and place you saw it. Many thanks for your help!

Thanks to the support of the following:

Shetland Ringing Group for supplying the metal rings for this project

The Shetland Wildlife Fund for covering the cost of buying the colour rings

Plantiecrub Garden Centre and Shop (www.plantiecrub.co.uk) for supplying bird feeders and wild bird seed

Shetland Walking and Wildlife (www.shetlandwalkingandwildlife.co.uk) for allowing Graham time to put his surveying and bird ringing skills to good use

Saturday 22 December 2012

We're up and running!

House Sparrows are a common feature of the Westside of Mainland Shetland. Here in Walls, a small village at the head of Vaila Sound, we have a regular group of 150+ birds visiting our garden feeders each day.



Since October 2012 I've been ringing some of these intermittently in the garden, with 59 individual birds captured, ringed, and released so far.

It is hoped that from early 2013 I will be colour-ringing all birds captured, so that they can be easily resighted by myself, and by members of the public.

Keep an eye on this blog to be kept up to date with this project!
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