I'm a songbird - get me outta here! How much stress did BTO-trapped blackcap endure at Global Birdfair?

A bird in the hand - in this case, a blackcap which must have experienced unimaginable stress 

                                                         

AS in previous years, a 'highlight' of Global Birdfair was the BTO's  programme of bird-ringing demonstrations.

These always attract plenty of curious visitors over the three days.

But is what goes on right? Is it ethical?

The songbirds were being trapped out of sight, then ringed and retained for a few minutes to provide photo-opportunities for the public.

Unsurprisingly, event attendees seemed fascinated, but what about the stars of the show - the birds?

The stress on those small helpless creatures must have been immense. 

Earlier, as they fluttered and flailed in mist-net traps, waiting to be ringed and retrieved, some may have been subject to scrutiny, if not attack, by passing predators.

So it was at the corresponding event two years ago when a sparrowhawk itself ended up being caught in netting as it swooped for a finch.

The raptor then had the indignity of being incarcerated, temporarily, in an empty Pringles tube as its vital statistics were taken prior to ringing. 

These onlookers do not look entirely convinced that the wellbeing of the bird is being treated as priority

                                      

The Wryneck says: As the BTO surely knows full well, the welfare of the bird should always take priority. That is the first rule of ornithological research. Yet it seems to go  out of the window when it comes to ringing. Any scientific knowledge garnered from what went on at the BTO event at Global Birdfair over the weekend will have been somewhere been negligible and non-existent. What went on may have provided an entertaining peep show for observers, but it was a source of suffering for the birds.