Golden Pliers Awards

The Golden Pliers Awards aim to recognize the lifelong dedication of bird ringers who have made outstanding contributions to communication, training, knowledge exchange, scientific ringing, and bird conservation. The award honors decades of tireless fieldwork at ornithological stations, as well as initiatives that promote ornithology, environmental awareness, and the importance of scientific bird ringing across continents.

Each year, an international council of ringers — made up of leading experts from every continent — nominates and selects the award recipient, who is then formally honored for their achievements.

The tribute is held each year on a different continent, organized by the Bird Observatory network.

Sandro Brina

He began his remarkable work in 1971 ringing wading birds and is currently probably one of the ringers in Europe and the world who has ringed the most birds (more than 150,000). He founded the OasiCostiera ornithological station on the Adriatic coast of Italy in 2004, and since then the station has operated continuously, now serving as a benchmark for bird ringing during migration and international projects such as Piccole Isole.
Young people from Europe, America, and Africa travel to Italy to learn from him.
A long illness prevented the award from being presented to him in 2024; it will finally be presented in Barcelona on June 19, 2026.

Calibration between Bird ringers

Pictured are participants in the first international calibration. November 2019. Peruvian Amazon.