OUR PROJECTS

West London Birding is also involved with a number of national scientific projects, Details of these and further information about them can be found found below. 

Further information from these projects will be publicised on the ‘Snippets‘ tab and through our social media. 

Report a Ringed Bird

Some of our projects use colour-rings. The colours and codes that we are currently using are as follows: 

  • GREYLAG GOOSE colour-rings are with black lettering. These are 4-character alpha-numeric codes starting with ‘U3’ followed by 2 numbers. 
  • MUTE SWAN colour-rings are with black lettering. They are 4-character codes starting with ‘4’ followed by 3 letters;
  • MOORHEN colour-rings are with black lettering. They are a 3-character alpha-numeric code starting with ‘A’ followed by two numbers;
  • COOT colour-rings are with black lettering. They are a 3-character alpha-numeric code;
  • BLACK-HEADED GULL colour-rings are  with black lettering. These are 4-character alpha-numeric codes starting with either ‘2V’  or ‘2X’  followed by 2 numbers. 

Birds with colour-rings from other projects may vary in colour from the above.    

If you see one of these birds please report it to us using the Contact form. The information we require is:

  • The inscription on the ring
  • Where you saw the bird (e.g. Serpentine, Hyde Park or Round Pond, Kensington Gardens). If you can provide a grid reference or drop-pin that would be great!) 
  • The date (& approximate  time)  you saw the bird.

UK & ireland COOT STUDY

West London Birding is contributing to a national colour-ringing study on Eurasian Coot, through a ringing project in the  Central London Royal Parks.

Whilst many of the birds we ring are relatively sedentary, our birds have tuned in in Surrey, Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire and, most surprisingly of all, Russia!

More details about this project can be found here

Black Headed Gull orange 2V27 . Photo: M. Andersson

Colour-ringed Black-headed Gull project

We also  colour-ring Black-headed Gulls in the Central London Royal Parks. Our rings are orange with a four alphanumeric code starting with ‘2V’or ‘2X’.  

So far, our colour-ringed Black-headed Gulls from this study have been re-sighted in UK away from the Royal Parks (5 individuals), Germany (two birds), Latvia, Sweden, Finland and Poland.

Please report any colour-ringed gulls you see to us via our Contact form on this website, e-mail or through the BTO Report a ringed bird link.

GREYLAG GOOSE COLOUR-RINGING STUDY

In September 2021, we started colour-ringing Greylag Geese in the Central London Royal Parks. Geese in general, can present a problem including puddling grassland and fouling footpaths. By understanding where the geese in the Parks spend their time and where  different individuals move to at different times of year (including those that arrive in the Parks to moult in late summer) management strategies can be set up that will benefit both the geese and the public.

The colour-rings we are using are white with a 4-character alpha-numeric code starting with the letter ‘U’ followed by three numbers. 

Please report any colour-ringed Greylag geese you see to us via our Contact form on this website, e-mail or through the BTO Report a ringed bird link.

MOORHEN COLOUR-RINGING STUDY

We have a project running at the WWT London Wetland Centre where we are colour-ringing Common Moorhen to look at distribution around the Site and movements of this common but sometimes skulking species. So far one of our birds has moved up to Enfield.

More recently, this project has expanded to other parts of west and central London and now forms a part of the  new National Moorhen Project (NMP). Further details about the NMP to follow…. 

SAND MARTIN MONITORING

West London Birding has been monitoring the nesting success of the artificial Sand Martin Nest Bank at the WWT London Wetland Centre since 2013. 

We also ring the pulli. To date we have ringed over 1,500 chicks with birds being recaptured in France and elsewhere in the UK. 

CES AND OTHER MIST-NETTING RINGING STUDIES

Bill runs a Constant Effort Site (CES) and undertakes regular mist netting around central and west London.

This includes a collaboration with ZSL whereby he takes out students from their Masters courses for introductory ringing sessions.  

Report a Ringed Bird

If you find a ringed bird or observe a colour-ringed bird you can report it via the button below:

Report a Ringed Bird