Milvus Group specialists have managed this summer to catch, ring and release some quite rare birds for Romania: Greenish Warblers (Phylloscopus trochiloides), Pallas’s Leaf Warblers (Phylloscopus proregulus) and Yellow-browed Warblers (Phylloscopus inornatus).
Until now, these birds have been seen only a few times in Romania. For example, the Yellow-browed Warbler catch is only the fifth and sixth observation of this species for the country!
While the greenish warbler has a significant European breeding population, the Pallas’s Leaf Warbler and the Yellow-browed Warbler is nesting in northern and central Siberia, but their wintering grounds are located in north India and south-eastern Eurasia. From the ornithologists’ observations, some populations begin to choose other migration routes. This is why the specialists succeeded in catching two specimens from each of the mentioned warbler species at Chituc Ringing Camp near the Black Sea.
The Milvus Group ringing camp lasted for 16 weeks; 12 thousand birds of 102 species were ringed.
Although the ringing activity started with a month earlier than last year, the number of birds ringed is smaller than in 2014. For example, 551 specimens of the Great Reed Warbler (Acrocephalus arundinaceus) were ringed, half the last year’s numbers. However, the Paddyfield Warbler (Acrocephalus agricola) ringing was three times greater than the previous edition of the camp.
The Read-breasted Flycatcher (Ficedula parva), a priority species for Natura 2000 site, was the most abundant species of the camp. The Chituc is among the few places in Europe where this species can be studied in detail during migration. This summer we seized more than a thousand specimens.
The Coal Tit (Periparus ater) was another curiosity of the ringing camp; if in 2014 only 11 specimens were ringed, this year flocks of 80-100 individuals were recorded flying by, and 470 individual of which were also ringed.
The ringing camp organized by the Milvus Group aims to deepen the knowledge about the migration routes, survival rate and migration dynamic of the bird species that cross Europe on the way to the wintering grounds by passing near the Black Sea.
Chituc is a propitious area for these scientific observations, located along the Black Sea, near Razim – Sinoe Lagune, is a strip of land that plays the role of a conductor for small songbirds that prefer to bypass natural barriers, like mountains and large bodies of water in their migration routes.
Ringing camps have a tradition of almost 80 years in Europe. Chituc Ringing Camp is the largest camp in Romania, by means off its complexity (the number of ringed birds) and its duration. The Chituc Ringing Camp was organized in 1996, 1997, 2014 and 2015.
The list of ringed birds in Chituc Ringing Camp in 2014, 2015.
