Last month the ringing of around 200 gull chicks took place in Veta La Palma, in the Doñana Natural Area. The activity has been organized by the ICTS-RBD Natural Process Monitoring Team and has had the support of the University of Seville and volunteers from SEO / BirdLife. This species began to be tagged in Doñana in the early 1990s, and observations of ringed birds have generated a large amount of data on their movements and other ecological parameters.

The slender-billed gull (Chroicocephalus genei) is a rare species in the peninsula and is very localized in a few wetlands in the Mediterranean basin and in Doñana. However, the evolution of its population has experienced an increase from the end of the last century to the present.

Among the ringed gulls, chicks of the black-headed gull (C. ridibundus) and two Mediterranean gulls (Larus melanocephalus) have also been tagged. This last species used to visit Doñana as a wintering place but in recent years it has been detected that it has begun to nest in the area. For this reason, these first markings acquire relevance when monitoring the population using scientific banding as a tool.

After capturing the birds, the chicks are marked with a metal ring and a plastic ring that can be read from a distance. Any observation of one of these marked birds can be sent to the EBD Ringing Office anillamiento@ebd.csic.es. It can also be done directly in the Office application http://anillamiento.ebd.csic.es where you can obtain the history with all the information of the life of the individual.