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Project partners

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JNCC logo
National Parks and Wildlife Service logo

Project partners

British Trust for Ornithology logo
JNCC logo
National Parks and Wildlife Service logo

Online Ringing and Nest Recording Report

Commonly referred to as the Ringing Report, these summaries provide information on the numbers of birds ringed and reports (recoveries) of ringed birds received for the whole Ringing Scheme, covering Britain and Ireland, as well as broken down by country and local bird recording area (in Britain) or county (Ireland). Information is included on birds reported to BTO during the selected year, though some of these reports will refer to individuals found in earlier years.

Useful notes about the Report

  • The bird recording areas used here are as outlined in this British Birds paper and are delineated by 1km grid square. A small number of squares are covered by two or more recording areas, individuals caught or found in these squares will appear in both summaries.
  • Recoveries for a particular year are only shown if they were received by the end of April of the following year.
  • When either the site of ringing or of finding is confidential, the coordinates given are deliberately inaccurate.
  • Maps are only provided for movements of 20 km or further.

For more details on the selections used, please see the Methods page.

Ways to explore the Report and associated data

The tools on this page allow you to explore ringing totals and recovery summaries by area and by species. On other areas of our website, you can also: 

What information do you want to find?

Ringing totals - by Area

Choose a bird recording area, county or country and a year and click 'Go!'
These totals are of ringing data that have been submitted electronically to BTO HQ. From 2010 this will include all records, totals for earlier years may be lower.

Ringing totals - by Species

Choose either a species or a year and click 'Go!'
These are the annual ringing totals for each species for each year since 1909 in which that species was ringed. If no individuals of a species have ever been ringed, then the species does not appear in the drop-down list.

Recovery summaries - by Area

Choose a bird recording area, county or country and a year and click 'Go!'
A summary of ringed birds found and recovered in the county or country in each year. Details are included for some of the most interesting recoveries.

Recovery summaries - by Species

Choose a species and click 'Go!'
Summary information on where birds ringed in Britain & Ireland have been found, and from which countries birds have been recorded here. Details are included for some of the most interesting recoveries.

Free and fair use of the Report data

You are very welcome to use the information in these reports in any publications, talks, etc.  Please use the following acknowledgement:

The BTO Ringing Scheme is funded by a partnership of the British Trust for Ornithology, the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (on behalf of: Natural England, Natural Resources Wales and NatureScot and the Department of  Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (Northern Ireland)), The National Parks and Wildlife Service (Ireland) and the ringers themselves. The Nest Record Scheme is funded by the BTO and JNCC.

The citation is:

Robinson, R.A., Leech, E.I. & Clark, J.A. (2024) The Online Demography Report: bird ringing and nest recording in Britain & Ireland in 2023. BTO, Thetford (http://www.bto.org/ringing-report, created on 17-October-2024)

Other data and information to explore:

We hope you will find these summaries useful and would appreciate any comments for further improvements and enhancements. These should be emailed to ringing@bto.org.

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