Editing Bird ringing (section)

== History ==
The earliest recorded attempts to mark birds were made by [[Roman army|Roman soldiers]]. For instance during the Punic Wars in 218 BC a crow was released by a besieged garrison, which suggests that this was an established practice. [[Quintus Fabius Pictor]] used a thread on the bird's leg to send a message back. In another case in history, a knight interested in chariot races during the time of Pliny (AD 1) took crows to Volterra, {{convert|135|mi|km}} away and released the crows with information on the race winners.<ref>Fisher, J. & Peterson, R.T. 1964. ''The world of birds''. Doubleday & Co., Garden City, New York.</ref>

[[Falconry|Falconers]] in the [[Middle Ages]] fitted tags on their [[falcon]]s with seals of their owners. In England from around 1560 or so, [[swan]]s were marked with a ''[[swan mark]]'', a nick on the bill.<ref>Charles Knight (1842) The Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge: of the society for the diffusion of useful knowledge. Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (Great Britain) v.11 [n.s. v.2] (pp. 277–278)</ref><ref>Schechter, Frank I. The Historical Foundations of the Law Relating to Trade-Marks. New York: Columbia University Press, 1925. p. 35</ref>

Storks injured by hunting arrows (termed as ''[[pfeilstorch]]'' in German) traceable to African tribes were found in Germany and elsewhere as early as 1822, and constituted some of the earliest definitive evidence of long-distance migration in European birds.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Haffer, J. |title=The development of ornithology in central Europe|doi=10.1007/s10336-007-0160-2|year=2007|journal=Journal of Ornithology|volume=148|page=125|s2cid=38874099}}</ref>

In North America [[John James Audubon]] and [[Ernest Thompson Seton]] were pioneers although their method of marking birds was different from modern ringing. To determine if the same birds returned to his farm, Audubon tied silver threads onto the legs of young [[eastern phoebe]]s in 1805, although the veracity of Audubon's dates and methods has been questioned,<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.3366/anh.2018.0487|title=Audubon's famous banding experiment: Fact or fiction?|journal=Archives of Natural History|volume=45|pages=118–121|year=2018|last1=Halley|first1=Matthew R}}</ref> while Seton marked [[snow bunting]]s in Manitoba with ink in 1882.<ref name="study">{{cite book|last=North American Banding Council|title=The North American Banders' Study Guide|year=2001|publisher=North American Banding Council|location=Point Reyes Station, Calif.|pages=3–4|url=http://www.nabanding.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/STUDYGUIDE.pdf|access-date=18 July 2012|archive-date=18 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151018141606/http://www.nabanding.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/STUDYGUIDE.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> Ringing of birds for more extensive scientific purposes was started in 1899 by [[Hans Christian Cornelius Mortensen]], a Danish schoolteacher, using [[aluminium]] rings on [[European starling]]s. Mortensen had tried using [[zinc]] rings as early as 1890 but found these were too heavy.<ref>{{cite journal|author= Preuss, Niels Otto|year= 2001|title= Hans Christian Cornelius Mortensen: aspects of his life and of the history of bird ringing|journal= [[Ardea (journal)|Ardea]]|volume= 89|issue= 1|pages= 1–6|url= http://ardeajournal.natuurinfo.nl/ardeapdf/a89-001-006.pdf|url-status= dead|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110724161954/http://ardeajournal.natuurinfo.nl/ardeapdf/a89-001-006.pdf|archive-date= 2011-07-24}}</ref> The first ringing scheme was established in Germany by [[Johannes Thienemann]] in 1903 at the [[Rossitten Bird Observatory]] on the Baltic Coast of East Prussia. This was followed by Hungary in 1908, Great Britain in 1909 (by [[Arthur Landsborough Thomson]] in Aberdeen and [[Harry Witherby]] in [[England]]), Yugoslavia{{clarify|date=July 2014}} in 1910 and the Scandinavian countries between 1911 and 1914.<ref>Spencer, R. 1985. Marking. In: Campbell. B. & Lack, E. 1985. ''A dictionary of birds''. British Ornithologists' Union. London, pp. 338–341.</ref>  [[Paul Bartsch]] of the [[Smithsonian Institution]] is credited with the first modern banding in the U.S.: he banded 23 [[black-crowned night heron]]s in 1902.<ref name="tautinmetras">{{cite news|last1=Tautin|first1=John|title=The North American Banding Program|access-date=21 May 2012|newspaper=EURING Newsletter|date=December 1988|last2=Métras|first2=Lucie|url=http://www.euring.org/about_euring/newsletter2/namerican_banding_tautin_metras.htm|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120220111557/http://www.euring.org/about_euring/newsletter2/namerican_banding_tautin_metras.htm|archive-date=20 February 2012}}</ref><ref name="tautinlincoln">{{cite conference|last=Tautin|first=John|title=Frederick C. Lincoln and the Formation of the North American Bird Banding Program|book-title=Bird Conservation Implementation and Integration in the Americas|conference=Third International Partners in Flight Conference. 2002 March 20–24; Asilomar, California|access-date=21 May 2012|pages=813–814|url=http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/publications/documents/psw_gtr191/psw_gtr191_0813-0814_tatuin.pdf|id=Gen. Tech. Rep. GTR-PSW-191|publisher=U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station|location=Albany, California|date=2005|editor1-first=C. John|editor1-last=Ralph|editor2-first=Terrell D.|editor2-last=Rich}}</ref><ref name="tautin100">{{cite conference|last=Tautin|first=John|title=One Hundred Years of Bird Banding in North America|book-title=Bird Conservation Implementation and Integration in the Americas|conference=Third International Partners in Flight Conference. 2002 March 20–24; Asilomar, California|access-date=21 May 2012|pages=815–816|url=http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/publications/documents/psw_gtr191/psw_gtr191_0815-0816_tatuin.pdf|id=Gen. Tech. Rep. GTR-PSW-191|publisher=U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station|location=Albany, California|date=2005|editor1-first=C. John|editor1-last=Ralph|editor2-first=Terrell D.|editor2-last=Rich}}</ref> [[Leon J. Cole]] of the [[University of Wisconsin]] founded the American Bird Banding Association in 1909; this organisation oversaw banding until the establishment of federal programs in the U.S. (1920) and Canada (1923) pursuant to the [[Migratory Bird Treaty]] of 1918.<ref name="tautin100" />