Eagle72 - Colour Ring Project

History

17 of June 1994 is a very special day in the history of Eagle72. It was then the first golden eagle, in a nest in the middle of Sweden, were marked with colour rings. The juvenile bird, that had a weight of 3.55 kilos, got a metal (white) ring on the right leg and a red over blue ring on the left. The markers were Alf Nordin and Gunnar Lind

ringmärkning-5.jpg (15647 bytes)

ringmärkning-4.jpg (9143 bytes)

ringmärkning-4.jpg (9143 bytes)

ringmärkning-1.jpg (8759 bytes)

The eagle got the name Biggles, but unfortunately it was killed by a power line 5 February 1995. Sad and true, but the Colour Ring Project had started. 

A young Golden Eagle in the nest
Biggles 

Marking system

The marking system is similar to that for the white-tailed eagle.

The right foot is marked with an one-colour ring telling the area.
The six different areas are:

The left foot is marked with a two-colour ring to tell the marking year (age).
The colour combination is the same as Project White-tailed eagle and is read (for example) red over orange (see picture). An un-colour ring is called white or metallic.

  • Sweden (north)

  • Sweden (middle)

  • Sweden (south)

  • Norway

  • Finland

  • Estonia.

Markings

 The total number marked from the start in 1994 can be seen in table 1 below.

Table 1. The number of colure-ring marked golden eagles in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Estonia 1994-2009.
Year Sweden Finland Norway Estonia Total
1994 2 - - - 2

1995

 36 53 8 - 97
1996 44 81 10 - 135
1997 32 71 25 4 132

1998

58

85

31

4

178
1999 68 76 21 10 175
2000 88 89 30 11 218
2001 67 89 ? 0 156+
2002 103 97 44 12 256
2003 97 90 50 13 250

2004

 147 102 ? 6 255+

2005

 118 78 ? ? 196+
2006 67 84 36 ? 187+
2007 149 107 36 ? 292+
2008 129 84 43 ? 256+
2009 54 62 30 12 158
Total 1259 1248 364+ 72+ 2943+

Observations .

During the season 2008-09,  96 observations of ring marked golden eagles were reported. The ring number was identified on 82 of them.

Of the in total 1205 marked eagles (until 2008), 269 different individuals has been observed once or several times.

If you find a colour marked golden eagle, send a message to:
Bosse Haglund, Liden, 504 96 Borås, Sweden.
His telephone number is +46 33 244 2 44.
Mail: bossehaglund@telia.com

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toto.hedfeldt@telia.com
Latest date of change: 2009-12-11