Central Nacional de Anilhagem

All scientific ringing of birds in Portugal is coordinated by the Bird Ringing Centre (POL), which is part of the Centre for Studies on Migration and Protection of Birds (CEMPA). CEMPA began its existence in 1975 with a small group of ringers who worked for the Portuguese government, who were trained by ringers from the BTO in 1976 and 1977. Currently, CEMPA is integrated into the Institute for the Conservation of Nature and Forests (ICNF), the Portuguese government's national nature conservation authority.

The Bird Ringing Centre coordinates the activity of around 270 ringers, which include specialists (with general authorizations), specific ringers working on a single species or for research purposes and trainees.

Up to the early 1990s, a very limited number of birds had been ringed, around 130,000, with an annual average of around 10,000 birds. During the 1990s to 2004 the annual average increased to 20,000 birds ringed per year, mostly migratory passerines and wintering waders. From 2005, the implementation of the PEEC as well as the development of new ringing groups, provided better opportunities for training new ringers, and the number of ringers increased as well as the number of birds captured and ringed annually, which rose to 30,000. In recent years, the annual average number of birds ringed has been between 40,000 and 45,000. The total number of  birds ringed up to the year 2000 was 370,000. In 2022 we are approaching the million.

Currently the CEMPA database also contains about 250,000 records of controls and recoveries of birds ringed with CEMPA rings. This includes data on recaptures, retrievals of dead birds and sightings of coloured rings. Extensive use of coloured plastic rings became an integral part of the ringing scheme from the mid-1990s, especially in species groups such as ducks, storks, gulls and waders. Since then, readings from coloured rings and nasal marks have become an increasingly larger part of our dataset. Today, this constitutes about 60 percent of the total number of records made of live birds.

In connection with the preparation of the Eurasian African Bird Migration Atlas project, the Portuguese scheme contributed a dataset of approximately 173,584 records.

CEMPA also coordinates two standardized  monitoring projects based on bird ringing: PEEC-Migration (ringing campaigns in the autumn migratory passage) and PEEC-Primavera (Scheme of Portuguese Constant Effort Sites). Furthermore, since 2002, these and all other ringing activities have been carried out following the same data collection standards.

Our network of PEEC-Primavera stations (our contribution to the EuroCES network) has 34 ringing stations, of which 20 were active in 2021, having captured and ringed 23,314 birds to date.

The migration project consists of standardized ringing campaigns lasting three months in summer and autumn, at the national ornithological station in Santo André, in addition to other stations which operate over a shorter capture periods. This project focuses on passerines, mainly in coastal wetlands, but is also carried out in interesting inland riverine habitats and  in mountain passes.

One of the most notable and recently ringed species in Portugal is Audouin's Gull. Thousands have been ringed with plastic rings in the Ria Formosa Nature Reserve, which has provided a large number of observations.

Other notable projects include ringing of colonial species, mainly storks, gulls, ducks, shearwaters, vultures and swallows. There are also programs for monitoring endangered birds of prey, such as the Bonelli's Eagle and the Lesser Kestrel. Another important study is that of the Monte Outeirão Ornithological Station, in the Santo André Nature Reserve, which has carried out ringing campaigns in autumn migration since 1977.

Our ringers work both on personal projects and as part of small ringing groups, many of them involving researchers from other institutions (Lisbon Natural Sciences Museum, Universities) and ICNF staff.