Croatia
Zagreb ringing scheme covers all scientific bird ringing in Croatia. It is organised and coordinated from the Institute of Ornithology in Zagreb (Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts). The ringing scheme was founded in 1910 by Dr Ervin Rössler, who was inspired by ornithological centres in Rossiten (1903) and Budapest (1908). From its foundation to the end of WWI, the Zagreb ringing centre organised ringing only in Croatia. After WWI and the formation of Yugoslavia, coordination of ringing was expanded to the whole Yugoslavia except for Slovenia. This scheme operated for more than 70 years until the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991. Afterwards, Zagreb ringing scheme continued as the national scheme of Croatia.
Bird ringing in Croatia started with the aim of discovering facts about bird migration, but nowadays its aims have broadened to the monitoring of populations for conservatory purposes, and to research on phenology, behaviour and other scientific purposes that require the individual marking of birds. Zagreb ringing scheme contributed approximately 20,000 records of ringed birds to the Atlas.
In recent years, the Institute has coordinated the work of about 50 ringers who annually ring around 30.000 birds. In the ringing scheme history, more than 700 ringers have contributed to the work of the scheme with more than 1.5 million birds having been marked with Zagreb rings in Yugoslavia and Croatia. We thank all our ringers, past and present, for the contributions they made to our knowledge of the ecology and natural history of birds, and particularly to our understanding of their movement patterns.
Contact the scheme: hrz.scheme@hazu.hr