Heligoland Trap - Rybachy Trap

Rybachy Trap

The Rybachy trap is a variation or expansion of the Heligoland trap in that it is a large, passive trap consisting of linked funnels terminating in a small chamber from which the birds are extracted for banding and measuring before release. It differs in being larger - it may have an entrance some 30 m wide by 15 m high - and by having a non-rigid body made of netting rather than wire mesh. It was developed in 1957 by Janis Jakšisat under the leadership of Lev Belopolsky at the Rybachy Biological Station (formerly the Rossitten Bird Observatory) at Rybachy, Kaliningrad Oblast in Russia, on the Curonian Spit.