Reseqrching birds qt q continentnlscqle r the role of EURINGMony conservotion problems offecting bird populotions need to be oddressed ot oContinentol or Flywoy scole. Stephen grilli" ond Wolfgong Fiedler describe how EURING

co-ordinqtes the'efforts of mony thousonds of bird ringers working throughouf Europe.

fhroughout Europe changingI agriculturaI practices and land use

continue ro have maj.rr impacts on ourbird populations. Global climate changeis already affecting the phenology,distributions and migrations of many birdspecies, and is set to have much greater

effects over the coming decades. Theconservation of many migratory birdpopulations also requires the protectionof site networks and other suitable habitatalong fly.,rrays under intemational treatiesand conventions such as the RamsaarConvention, Bonn Convention andAfrican Eurasian l7aterbird Agreement(AE\fA). To address these large.scaleconservation issues we need knowledge ofpopulation dynamics and migrationpatterns provided by internationally co-ordinated bird ringing. The EuropeanUnion for Bird Ringing (EURING) aimsto provide such information by co.ordinating the activities of European birdringing schemes.

Exchonging doto betweenringing schemesIt is always exciting for a ringer to catch a

bird with a foreign ring, providing a

personal link to the fascination of birdmigration, as well as another vital datapoint for migration research. But once thereport is sent in what happens behind thescenes to ensure that the information is

exchanged between both of the ringingcentres involved. A key role of EURINGhas been to establish rhe EURING dataexchange code (now in its third edition),which allows Ringing Schemes toexchange information using an agreedprotocol. EURING has recentlydeveloped a multi-language website that

can be use to report recoveries from across

Europe (BTO News 259, pZl), and trialsof the use of a common European web

address on bird rings are in progress.

A dqtobqnk of Europeonringing recoveriesBack in the early 1970s, EURINGrecognised the great advantages ofestablishing a central databank from whichanalysts could obtain computerized sets ofEuropean ring recovery data. TheNetherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO)has generously hosted the EURINGdathbank (EDB) since its inception. Duringthis period the EDB has supplied data formany research projects, inciuding severalrun by the BTO. Last year an EDB indexwas published on the EURING \febsite.During the next few months the BTO willbe taking over the stewardship of the EDBfrom NIOO, with Chris du Feu undertakingday-to-day management of the EDB on a

voluntary basis. EURING is very gratefulto NIOO for hosting the EDB over so manyyears and to the BTO for agreeing to takeon this role.

Getfing Europeon ringers lo\,vork togetherAnother feature of EURING's activities has

been the organization ofco'operative ringingprojects. The EURING Swallow project isthe most recent example of such aninitiative. The first part focussed onbreeding biology and population dynamicsand is now complete. The secondcomponent, co-ordinated by FernandoSpina, is a migration study, based on roostcatches during late summer and autumn. Ithas provided much new information onmigration and fattening strategies in relation

to ecological barriers.A further project that is

currently under developmentis a European Corutant EffortSites (CES) scheme. This aims

to monitor the abundance,productivity and survival of a

range of species bystandardized mist-netting.There are now some 15 CESschemes operating throughoutEurope, nearly all of whichfollow the design adopted inBritain & Ireland (and also

followed by the NorthAmerican MAPS programme).Guidelines have beenproduced to promote a

common approach while

allowing sufficient flexibility toaccommodate conditions in differentcountries.

Promoting the develoPmentond use of sfqte-of-the-qnqnolyticol methodsThink about the enormous effort that a

single ringing group puts into their workand multiply it up many hundreds of times

to get the total effort across Europe. It is

essential to match this effort by applyingstate-of-the-art analytical techniques so as

to obtain robust results for conservationand science. During the 1980s PerttiSaurola and the late Chris Mead had theforesight to establish a series of meetings toreview the best methods of analysing such

data. These EURING technical conferenceshave promoted much positive collaborationbetween statisticians and biologists, leading

to methods and software that provide betterinsights into migration pattems and thecauses of population changes.

Fulure plonsEURING's priority over the next year willbe ro move the EDB to BTO Thetford HQand to streamline its operation so thatEuropean datasets can be made availablemore quickly and easily. \7e will also be

completing the fieldwork for the EURINGSwallow project and look forward to a

series of interesting results. \7e already havethe basis of a European CES programme

and plan to develop this further over thenext three years.

EURING is keen to seek moreinvolvement from individual ringers across

Europe and to help them exchangeinformation and expertise. As a startingpoint we will be establishing a noticeboard area on the EURING \il/ebsite whereprojects needing help can be advertised.

To find out more about EURING please

visit our website (www.ewing.org), whichincludes information about projects, tables

and maps summarizing the holdings of theEURING databank and links to the websites

of all European Ringing Schemes. ).Stephen Baillie is Director of PopulationsResearch at the BTO and has recently been

elected as Chairman of EURING. WolfgangFiedler is Head of the Vogelwarte RadolfzellRinging Centre in southern Germany and is

General Secretary of EURING.

EURING data curation is supported by money

from "Birds in Trust, the BTO's legacy fund".

The BTO Ringing Scheme is funded by a

partnership of the BTO and JNCC, as well as

Drchas, the Heritage Service - National Parks

and \7ildlife (lreland) and the ringers themselves.

September-October 2005 BTONews260 - tI )l