Colour ringed Whinchat’s
Please report your sightings!
The Whinchat is a declining upland bird, with the UK breeding population having declined by about 50% since the 1990s. An ongoing RSPB Centre for Conservation Science research project is investigating the causes of this decline. In particular, to learn about migration behaviour and to find out where in Africa they spend our winter, in 2017 we fitted tracking devises to adult Whinchat’s breeding on Exmoor. We also colour ringed nestlings and non-tagged adults, with 140 colour ringed in total. Colour rings enable us to identify those individuals that have been fitted with tracking devices, which need recapturing to retrieve the tags and download the data.

During spring and summer 2018 the RSPB team will again be working on Exmoor locating colour ringed Whinchat’s and monitoring nests. To help us, we would greatly appreciate any sightings of colour ringed Whinchat’s. These Whinchat’s are ringed with a colour ring above a standard BTO numbered metal ring on the bird’s left leg, and two colour rings on the bird’s right leg. If you see one of these birds, please contact us with details of what you saw, when and where. In return we should be able to give you some history of the bird concerned.

Please report sightings to:
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)        or             mobile:  07816584083