ARK Ringing Course

Mr. Colins: The Lord of the Rings

Director Jackson returns to the Rings

by Dave Bruinsma, ARK Volunteer & CIDA Intern

A Rocha Kenya director and East-African birder extraordinaire Colin Jackson taught a two-week course on bird ringing this past October (’07). It was attended by four trainees and some of the ARK volunteers that were on hand at the time of the course.

Two of the trainees, Haile Yineger and Kitessa Hundeta, are lecturing professors at the University of Jimma, Ethiopia. They hope to eventually incorporate bird ringing data into their botanical studies of seed dispersal between forest fragments in their home country. The other two trainees, Moses Odhiambo and Paul Omonge, are recent biological science graduates and members of the Lake Victoria Sunset Birders Site Support Group based in Kisumu, Kenya.

The basic goal of ringing is to catch birds, examine them, and attach metal rings with unique codes to their legs before releasing them. Analysis of ringing data then allows for the deduction of information about individual birds and perhaps entire species of birds, especially when ringed birds are recaptured in the future.

The course stressed the importance of ringing as a tool for conservation, as it can be used to gain valuable information about the migratory movements, population demographics, and life-histories of birds. This information can then be used to inform management decisions regarding bird habitat and greater ecological systems.

The students and volunteers realized very early on that ringing is a very complex activity. To begin with, a ringer needs to be competent in the identification of the various bird species that could be encountered – no simple task given the diverse avifauna of Kenya (1,095 species)! Once a bird is caught and identified, there are seemingly endless details to which an accomplished ringer must be attentive. The course thus covered a wide range of ringing activities....

The mist nets used to catch the birds present challenges in themselves: the setting up and taking down of nets, and selection of net site and habitat, must be done effectively if birds are actually going to be caught. Extracting entangled birds from the nets and handling them safely is also key in order to avoid damaging their delicate feathers or injuring them – while still holding them firmly enough to prevent their escape before they are ringed!

In order to increase the amount that can be learned from each ringed (and hopefully recaptured) bird, various biometric measurements of each bird are taken and recorded before they are released. Learning how to properly assign age and moult scores to individual birds was probably the most difficult and complicated of these biometrics for the trainees to learn how to properly assess. However, age and moult data can contribute immensely to discovering the details of birds’ lives and should be given due consideration.

Over the two weeks, ringing was done at three different sites: first at the Mwamba property of A Rocha Kenya in Watamu, and then at the Gede tree plantation and Gede Ruins, both of which are adjacent to the bird-rich Arabuko-Sokoke Forest. It was hoped that the ever more endangered Spotted Ground Thrush could be ringed in the forest surrounding the Gede Ruins National Monument; unfortunately none were even seen, let alone caught in the nets.

In total, 143 individual birds composed of 30 different species were ringed. Thirty-eight individuals were “re-traps” previously ringed by Colin and other ARK team members. One of the re-traps, a Grey-backed Cameroptera, had been ringed by Colin in October of 1998 – meaning the bird was over nine years old and one of the first birds that he ringed after having come to Watamu to set up A Rocha Kenya.

Other highlights included ringing two Peter’s Twinspots, two Yellowbills, and one Dark-backed Weaver. The latter of these species is rarely caught in mist nets due to its normal preference for inhabiting the upper canopy of the main forest rather than secondary habitat on the forest edge.

The real “prize specimens,” however, were the large and brilliantly coloured Fischer’s Turaco (Colin’s first ever turaco of any species!) and two Eurasian Bee-eaters. The day of the turaco, we’d caught a reasonable number of birds in the first round but numbers were clearly dropping as the morning warmed up. Colin therefore asked Kitessa if he could go and check the nets and take the radio to report if anything was caught so we could go and extract it. Three minutes later, Kitessa pipes up on the radio with a “There ees a larrrge berd een the net – a very large one. Should you come for eet?” A rapid and disorganized exodus from the ringing site ensued followed by shouts of “glowry!!” as the turaco was seen in the net and Colin safely extracted it. Small flocks of bee-eaters were seen and heard migrating high overhead on the first few mornings of ringing at the Gede plantation. On the third morning, a speaker system playing the call of the bee-eaters was set under one of the mist nets (a technique called “tape luring”). The bee-eaters soon began circling lower and lower, showing definite interest in the recorded call. Sure enough, when the nets were next checked, two had been caught.

Given the immensity of knowledge that one must have to be a ringer, Haile, Kitessa, Paul and Moses will need a lot more training and practice beyond what they did during this course before they can begin to ring on their own. They all hope to pursue further ringing training in the future, either with A Rocha or elsewhere. That being said, everyone involved learned a remarkable amount in these short (and exhausting) two weeks packed with birds, the study of God’s creation, and a lot of early mornings.