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using wing tags on gulls

Posted: Mon Dec 16, 2013 9:05 pm
by Strahil
Dear all,
First I would like to thank you for the opportunity to join your group.
I am gull interested birdwatcher and ringer from Bulgaria. Here we have a group of ringers who rings around 400-500 juvenile YLGs (L. michahelis) per year. The project began before 10 years. From three years we use also and color rings. Recently we are wondering about tagging wing tags on juvenile and in future on adult YLG. After quick searching in internet I saw that it is not very popular in Europe.
Can you tell me what are the reasons? Is this method harmfull for the birds or the method is not useful for any other reasons?
I think that the wing tags are much more visible than color rings from distance and much more cheaper than gps transmiters.

Please help me with your opinion and the experience from your work!

Regards,
Strahil

Re: using wing tags on gulls

Posted: Tue Dec 17, 2013 1:08 pm
by Ronald Klein
Wing-tags will be lost or broken after a few years. In my opinion colour-rings are better for long-living species like gulls.