Our Institute's Ringing Scheme (BeBirds) has a new website where you can follow the migration of more than 270 bird species. The site gathers data of our extensive network of ringers since 1927.

You'd like to discover where the barn swallows that build their nest in Belgium go to in winter? Want to know where the black headed gulls that steal your bread along the Meuse come from? Did you know that the lapwing that nests near the Chinese border in eastern Siberia is observed every July in the Flemish polders? And blackcaps do not migrate south in fall, but move to Iceland. From now on, you can follow bird migration patterns on the BeBirds website.

International network

Bird migration allows birds to use the resources of our planet in the best possible way, depending on weather and the availability of food. It is an incredible but fragile equilibrium.

For generations, ornithologists observe and monitor this phenomenon. Ornithologists at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences belong to the most dynamic in the world. Since 1927, BeBirds organises the ringing of wild birds from Arlon to Ostend and from Turnhout to Couvin, for science and for the preservation of nature. A network of volunteer ringers measure, weigh, file and ring every year nearly 700,000 birds of over 270 species. It is an observation system that is well organised at international level. Birds that were ringed in Belgium have been found in 51 different countries through Europe, Asia, Africa and even America. The collected information is available to researchers and authorities for a better understanding and conservation of endangered species.

New website

To share this knowledge, we have launched a new website. You can browse in our database, one of the five largest in the world, and discover where the ringed birds have been observed in Belgium. Or where the birds have passed by: the Russian tundra, the mangroves of Senegal or even the Kenyan savannah...

Participate

You can also participate in our research: if you find a ringed bird, please let us know via the contact form. In return we will send you a document with all the available information about the bird. Every observation counts!

Click the image to see more pictures.