For several years now, a trained and qualified expert has come to Deri Woods to monitor the Pied Flycatchers that breed in the bird boxes. Usually, a tiny light-weight metal ring is put on one leg of the young birds before they leave their nest box. Each ring has a unique number so, if reported again, each individual can be identified.
On 29 May 2022 a young Pied Flycatcher in box 28 was given ring no. ANX8441. On the 1 June 2023 (368 days later) the same bird, a breeding female, was ‘caught’ on camera feeding her young in a nest box near Llanfyllyn, 14km from Deri Woods. Although that doesn’t seem very far, it is almost certain that, in the meantime, this remarkable little bird has been to West Africa and back - a journey of 7,000 miles or more, plus the 14km of course.
The ringing scheme is managed by the BTO (British Trust for Ornithology).