INFORMATION ON THE RINGING OF MULES & HYBRIDS

A Mule, is the Hybrid produced by pairing a British hardbill with a canary

A Hybrid is the crossing of two British hardbill species

The Wildlife and Countryside Act, Ringing Regulations are very prescriptive in terms of the ringing requirements of our native hardbills.

But in terms of the law and ringing of Mules or Hybrids there is absolutely no legal requirement to ring any offspring produced. The reason being is they are not native species of birds and thus are not covered by any law (other than the requirement that any native bird used in producing a Mule/Hybrid is of course legally held in captivity)

However, many breeders do still ring their Mule/Hybrid chicks and the reasons are;

• The use of a closed ring is a good method of identifying your birds and an aid to record keeping (of course, this also could be achieved by the use of a split ring)
• If you are planning on showing your Mules/Hybrids, then the use of a closed ring is of course proof of age and it may be required to show the bird in a current year class.

You do of course have to weigh this up against any potential rejection of your chicks caused by ringing, especially if you have produced a particularly rare or difficult hybrid!

The next question is what size ring should be used?

The general guideline is that the ring should not be able to be removed from an adult bird, So the first rule is to use the ring size that fits the largest bird of the Mule or Hybrid pairing.

Because the ring size is not prescribed by law, we can be more generous in the sizing.

An example being, if producing a large mule with a Greenfinch x Norwich Canary - then use the canary ring - which is a size J.

If producing a miniature mule, i.e. a Siskin x Irish canary - then the canary ring size is an E.

If producing a Redpoll x Bullfinch Hybrid - then a size D or E would be suited as that is the Bullfinch size.

The above are guidelines as there are many permutations and pairings you could use, but always use the ring sized for the larger of the birds.