Germany (Helgoland) - (federal states of Bremen, Hamburg, Hessen, Niedersachsen, Nordrhein-Westfalen and Schleswig-Holstein)
The birds marking itself has been traditionally in the main on volunteers base since beginning. We thank all the numerous ringers and helper in the last 110 years and nowadays who spent a lot of time and money for the scheme. Since 1946 the scheme was financed by the federal state of Lower Saxony as part of the Ministry for Science and Culture although the scheme is responsible for the bird marking in six federal states.
The ringing scheme Helgoland was founde d 1910 on the Island of Heligoland and is the second oldest still existing ringing scheme in the world. Luckily there was no real data lost during that time. More than 10 million birds were ringed by the scheme. In last years we ringed about 180.000 per year with about 80.000 recoveries/resightings a year. Traditionally the nestling ringing is an important component part of the ringing work. Therefore Great and Blue tits are the most ringed species within the Passerines and Little and Barn Owl and Common Terns within the nonpasserines. Beside other topics bird migration and population biology are the main research fields.
On the island of Heligoland the worldwide longest running ringing station with standardized catching 365 days a year is located. (~10.000 ringings per year). Heligoland was and is a hot spot of the research on bird migration.
Contact the scheme: ring@ifv-vogelwarte.de