The study site is a small garden in the middle of Djursland, a peninsula situated on the eastern side of Jutland, in mainland Denmark, north-east of Århus. In the following account, the vast majority of observations of individually marked birds result from birds recognised whilst feeding at a bird table 2 m from our dining room window (see video on right hand side), with less than 0.5% from observations in the garden or in the general vicinity.
The Bullfinch project had a number of aims, although the primary objective was to gather base line information on local site residency and seasonality of use of the local habitat. The specific aims were as follows:
(i) Individual associations – from the resightings, it is clear that there are certain associations between marked individuals, and it would be interesting to see how long these persist, within and between winters, especially with respect to long-term mate fidelity in the population.
(ii) Feeding behaviour – it would be intriguing to see when and how often birds in good condition versus those in poorer condition visit the bird feeder
(iii) Local survival – resighting histories may hopefully provide some estimate of “survival” and determine when birds arrive and disappear from the area.
(iv) Colour bands may help show how far away from the immediate environs of the garden and trapping site birds forage.
Below is a recording made in the study area of the very different sounding large race bullfinches.
Annual reports