Duck decoys, with particular reference to the history of bird ringing

Abstract

The Dutch decoy of the sixteenth century is described. It was a sophisticated device for catching ducks that depended, for its effectiveness, upon the mobbing response that swimming wildfowl show to mammalian predators such as dogs and foxes. A great decline in the use of decoys for obtaining dead ducks for market occurred during the last century; however, in 1907, a decoy in Denmark was used for the first time as a trap to catch birds in order to release them individually ringed. The majority of ducks ringed in Britain have been caught in decoys, starting at Orielton in 1934. The results obtained have been valuable, and our knowledge of wildfowl migrations would be far less advanced had decoys not been available.