Stavanger Bird Ringing Centre

All scientific bird ringing in Norway is organized by the Bird Ringing Centre at Museum Stavanger (NOS). Ringing started in Norway in 1914. Until 1950 a very limited number of birds had been ringed, but in 2022 we are approaching 10 million. The total number ringed during the first 35 years was less than 100.000, mainly nestlings. In the 1950s and 1960s more efficient trapping methods came into use. With the introduction of mist-nets, the average number ringed per year increased to 25-30.000. Good numbers of migrants (mainly passerines) could be trapped at strategic places, and several new bird observatories were established in the 1960s and 1970s. Since the 1990s 200,000 to 250,000 birds are ringed annually in Norway.

As of today, the NOS database also holds close to 1 million recoveries of Norwegian-ringed birds. This includes data on retraps, recoveries of dead birds and colour-ring resightings. The extensive use of colour rings became an integral part of the ringing scheme during the mid 1980s and 1990s, especially on species groups like geese, gulls and waders. Since then, data on colour-ring readings has become an increasingly large part of our data set. Today this constitutes about 60 percent of the total number records made of live birds.

In connection with the preparation of the Eurasian African Bird Migration Atlas project the Norwegian scheme has contributed a data set consisting of approximately 800.000 records, comprising 91 percent controls of live birds and 9 percent recoveries of dead birds. The majority of all records made are local controls and recoveries, which are not included in the atlas. Only 19 percent of resightings and recoveries consider birds that travelled a distance between ringing and recovery site that exceeds 50 km.

The ring-recovery data has revealed a range of different migratory strategies between species. The predominant flyway between Norway and wintering grounds in Europe or Africa are along the western part of continental Europe, through the Iberian peninsula or via a trans-Mediterranean route, to Africa. However, Norway spans a large latitudinal and longitudinal range, from 58°N/4°E to 71°N/31°E. For many bird species, populations from the northern parts of Norway travel a more easterly migratory route than poulations from southern parts of the country. The south-easterly flyway pass through CEE-Europe, via E-Mediterranean to East Africa, and is a glimpse into a historical distribution pattern of populations that once colonised Scandinavia from the east. A large effort from the Norwegian scheme has been put into ringing in seabird colonies, both on the Norwegian mainland and also on the arctic islands of e.g. Spitsbergen. This has proven that several seabird species migrate west to Iceland, Greenland and the east coast of Canada. Norwegian scientists have also ringed a considerable number of seabirds in Antarctica.