Long-term bird ringing in Palestine

Abstract This paper reports the results of mist-netting of birds, mainly passerines, at the Talitha Kumi ringing site by the Environmental Education Center (EEC), supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land. Bird catching/ringing has been conducted there since 2000, but the data presented here are limited to ten years of work (2004-2013), mainly for compatibility reasons. During this time 6,810 individuals of 70 species were caught, of which 16 migrants and 8 local species caught most frequently are discussed. Data on seasonal (all year) and long-term (10-year) dynamics are given. The following general conclusions were drawn: (1) Even infrequent sampling of the local population by netting provides important information on seasonal and long-term patterns and trends; (2) the same is true of migrating species, provided that the work is carried out using the same methods over a long time span; (3) in migrants, very differentiated relations are observed between numbers of individuals caught during the spring and autumn migration seasons; (4) during the ten years of the study negative trends in the number of captured birds were observed for 14 species, including significantly negative trends for 4 species, while positive trends were observed for 10, none of which was significant.