Image Copyright: Foto: IfV

In the year 1909 Helgoland introduced bird banding as the island has a special importance for the bird migration due to its isolated location on the North Sea. The bird researcher Hugo Weigold (1886-1973) founded the Ornithological Station on the Oberland then.

Catching the flying
Catching migration birds with a net, scoop and the so-called 'Drosselbusch' was very painstaking and rather stressful for both sides - human and bird. The Helgoländer funnel trap was invented in the year 1922. It produced increasingly constant catching conditions. Since 1960 there are three of these instruments available so that comparable data is at hand.

Image Copyright: Foto: IfV

Statistics for the whole world
Since the introduction of the funnel trap 500.000 birds could be banded on Helgoland. For the statistical analysis, control and comparing the number of birds caught, banded and 're-founds' are being exactly catalogued and combined in an atlas. there are more than the 70 to 115 bird species, which are caught every year. Right now one talks about around 10.000.

Well worth knowing
The Ornithological Station Helgoland is actually a research facility of the county, Lower Saxony with the head office in Wilhelmshaven.

Contact
Institut für Vogelforschung "Vogelwarte Helgoland"
Inselstation Helgoland
Postfach 1220, 27494 Helgoland
Homepage

Recommendation about the topic: Ornithologische Arbeitsgemeinschaft Helgoland e.V.