Manifesto against plastic
This document describes the problem of relationships between man and bird regarding methods of the colour marking. The text is available in French and in English now. Also you can say your opinion on the subject making the comment on the Manifeste anti-plastique blog in French or right here in English. As Short-toed Eagle researchers use the colour ringing and the alar marking methods in their work the question must be topical for them.
As for me this is the question of two points of view: birdwatchers’ and researchers’ ones. As I’m sooner a birdwatcher than a researcher I don’t like any kinds of the marking and don’t want to use anything to fix it on a bird. Such methods can be used if we have a valid reason for that. Like in medicine some our actions can be justified if their help, for example, to save life is obvious. Birds get the main information about outworld by vision. More than we do. So the visual impression is more important for them. Do marked birds look intact for others? Do we have enough full data to answer this question? Do we have rights to change massively visual impressions of birds for them and for us?