This page presents information on recoveries of Oystercatcher that have been ringed or recovered in Britain & Ireland. The table summarises the number of birds that have moved between different counties of Britain & Ireland and between other countries and then gives a selection of recoveries. First are listed the number of birds found in each county, then the number of birds ringed in each county. In the next two columns are listed the number of birds ringed abroad and found in Britain & Ireland and the then number of birds ringed in Britain & Ireland and found abroad. NOTE: Some older records (mostly pre-1979) of foreign ringed birds recovered have not been computerised so these will not appear in the table and many older records did not have place names input. We aim to update these in due course.

A selection of recoveries are given in full because they represent particularly long-lived birds (the national longevity is indicated with a link to details of this record), birds which have moved a long distance within Britain and Ireland, birds which have gone to, or come from countries with few such recoveries, or because few birds of this species have been recovered, or because the report has been flagged as interesting, usually from having moved a long distance in a small number of days. NOTE: For some sensitive species, co-ordinates may be inaccurate (by up to 5km) in which case they are preceded by a c. or witheld. In this case the county is given, in a small number of cases this too may be inaccurate. For birds that have moved more than 20km a link is provided to a map showing ringing and finding locations. Ringing location is marked by a blue (R), finding locations are numbered in sequence, if there are more than ten finding locations, subequent markers will be labelled (x). Finding markers are coloured red for birds found dead and green for birds seen alive, for those where this is not known the marker will be white. If a bird is found multiple times at the same site only one marker will be visible.

If the map links do not work, you may need to enable ActiveX controls or click to allow Blocked Content depending on your browser.

For longevity and distance records an individual is only included once, for reports to and from countries an individual may be reported multiple times, particulary if it bears a colour mark or other means of identification in the field. Some older (mostly foreign) recoveries are also included where these were received in the year reported on. For full details of how these birds have been selected click here.

For other information, have a look at the BirdFacts page for Oystercatcher

Number of birds ringed or recovered in counties of Britain & Ireland, or countries overseas

Foreign location of birds ringed or recovered in Britain & Ireland:

Colour of location: Ringed in Britain & Ireland, Found Here; Ringed Here, Found in Britain & Ireland

A selection of interesting recoveries:

Citation:Robinson, R.A. & Clark, J.A.(2012) The Online Ringing Report: Bird ringing in Britain & Ireland in 2011 BTO, Thetford (http://www.bto.org/ringing-report, created on 7-Septemb-2012)

The BTO Ringing Scheme is funded by a partnership of the British Trust for Ornithology, the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (on behalf of: Council for Nature Conservation and the Countryside, the Countryside Council for Wales, Natural England and Scottish Natural Heritage), The National Parks and Wildlife Service (Ireland) and the ringers themselves. 

Terms & Conditions of use | Privacy Statement
© British Trust for Ornithology, BTO, The Nunnery, Thetford, Norfolk IP24 2PU, Tel: +44 (0)1842 750050 Fax: +44 (0)1842 750030 Email: ringing [at] bto [dot] org. Registered Charity Number 216652 (England & Wales), SC039193 (Scotland).