Colour rings

Colour rings on Herring Gulls and Lesser Black-backed Gulls

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The Royal NIOZ colour ring programme for large gulls is part of a long-term study of the migration, dispersal, foraging ecology, reproductive success and demography of gulls nesting in The Netherlands, notably at Texel. We ring Lesser Black-backed Gulls Larus fuscus and Herring Gulls Larus argentatus, both as adult breeding birds and as chicks or fledglings since 2006. This is currently the prime colour-ringing activity of the NIOZ next to our wader studies (see elsewhere), but our rings have been used in neighbouring gull colonies (Leiden, IJmuiden, and Vlieland), and we maintain a colour ring database for all these projects.

The NIOZ colour ring database is also a continuation of colour ring research initiated by Arie L. Spaans on Herring Gulls and Lesser Black-backed Gulls in the 1980s. Please follow the following links for additional information

(1) Green ring with 4-letter inscription on tarsus, metal on other leg (tibia or tarsus)

Kleurringen examples

Go to NIOZ colour ring programme

(2) Colour rings on both legs with 1-letter or other on tarsus, no metal ring on other leg

B	H	Z	A


YBGH		OZZA

[examples including notation protocol; Blue, Orange, Yellow, White, Green, Red and Black rings were used]

Go to the former IBN-DLO/Alterra ring programme

(3) �� Additional information on Dutch large gull colour-ringing programmes

Please download a PDF of a comprehensive description of Dutch ringing programmes, as this appeared in Sula in 2008 (in Dutch, with English summary)

Camphuysen C.J. 2008. Aflezingen van gekleurringde Zilvermeeuwen Larus argentatus en Kleine Mantelmeeuwen Larus fuscus in Nederland. Sula 21(1): 3-32.

Abstract: Several colour-ring programmes became established in The Netherlands, to monitor the dispersal, migration routes, use of foraging areas, annual survival, return rates and other parameters of Herring Gulls Larus argentatus and Lesser Black-backed Gulls L. fuscus. One of the more comprehensive studies was launched in the mid-1980s and this involved the annual ringing of c. 100 fledglings in 12 (later 14) colonies of Herring Gulls scattered along the Dutch coastline between 1986 and 1988. Nearly 90 000 documented sightings of Herring Gulls ringed in these years have been processed and are currently available for analysis. The current status of this and other ringing schemes in The Netherlands is described, some preliminary results are provided, and observers are kindly asked to continue reporting documented sightings, even if some schemes are seemingly discontinued with co-ordinators failing to provide life-histories to the observers. In several of the long-running schemes, gulls are monitored that are well over 20 years of age and scheme continuation is of great significance to enhance our understanding of the life-history of these long-lived seabirds.

PDF 1156 = black & white version as printed

PDF 1160 = full colour version as original manuscript

Contact address: C.J. Camphuysen �kees.camphuysen@nioz.nl

Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, P.O. Box 59, 1790 AB Den Burg, Texel, The Netherlands