Urdaibai Ringing Station 2013

In 2001 Urdaibai Ringing Station started up and after 12 uninterrupted  years, Urdaibai Bird Center goes on working on this station that monitories the migration, reproduction and wintering of the birds in Urdaibai Biosphere Reserve.

Mash habitat in Nekesolo Ringing Station

During 2013, there were 8 ringing stations spread by different ecosystems of Urdaibai, as marsh, Atlantic countryside and woods. 180 sessions were carried out and they gave data about 6,029 birds of 63 different species, being most of them passerines. From all this birds, there has been 4,946 new ringed birds and 258 captured birds were ringed on the previous years.

Great tit Parus major and European greenfinch Chloris chloris recaptured this year, 8 years after their ringing

Among the recaptures, there were 25 birds ringed in Netherlands, United Kingdom, Belgium, France and Norway and some birds ringed here have been captured in other countries, what indicates that Urdaibai is a important place for the migration and wintering of the European birds.

On 2013, the ringing began with the study of the wintering birds of Urdaibai. Along January and February, the greatest effort was dedicated to the station for monitoring of Fringillidae and Paridae of the wintering birdfeeders on Urretxindorra School and as in the previous years, the Eurasian Siskin Carduelis spinus were the principal actors.

In March, April and May, during the prenuptial migration of a lot of species, the migration of the Barn Swallow Hirudo rustica was monitored on a roosting created year after year on the marshes of Gautegiz Arteaga. There were marked more than 2,000 specimen and some of them were from different places from Europe.

Redwing Turdus iliacus the new species ringed this year. Author: Carmen Azahara

Among May and July, the monitoring was centered on the breeding of birds on the nest-boxes, in the EMAN constant effort sites on the reedbeds of Barrutibaso and the marshes of Arteaga. This year, the monitoring of the breeding colony of Little Egret Egretta garzetta and Yellow legged Gull Larus michahellis was carried out on Izaro island. During the spring, the second phase of the projects with geolocators of two emblematic species of the countryside, the Barn Swallow and the Red-backed Shrike Lanius collurio. After having surveyed all the breeding territories and the nests on the farmhouses of Urdaibai, some of the specimen carrying geolocators were captured and those devices contained the information about their travels from Europe to Africa.

Red-backed Shrike carrying a geolocator.

During August and September, as on the previous years, the collaboration project with the Atlantic Flyway Network, composed by groups of the estuaries of Loira, Gironde, Adour, Txingudi and Villaviciosa, was developed in Urdaibai with the aim of studying the migration models and tendencies of several passerines along the Bay of Biscay. This year the study was focused on the Bluethroat Luscinia svecica.

Little Grebe Tachibaptus ruficollis is a new ringing species for the station

Finally, during the whole year the constant effort site of Nekesolo was opened for studying the long-term evolution of the high marsh through the scientific ringing.