Saw-whet Owls

Learn about the practice of bird banding 

Bird banding has been going on for most of the 20th and into the 21st century,and it allows scientists to very accurately track the flight and population of the birds without causing harm to the birds. There are countless bird banding stations scattered throughout the eastern coast of North America, and these stations are crucial in the observation of patterns in migration.

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The stations have mist nets set up which safely capture the bird without causing any harm. Once caught, the birds are evaluated and measured by professionals, with all of the information recorded. The light and durable bands are then placed on the leg of the bird, and they are small enough that the bird does not even notice. With the bands being individually numbered, we can literally follow the moment of one specific bird across the continent.

Bird banding is very effective at tracing the movement and location of hundreds of species of birds. It has been proven that the data received from bird banding actually represents the true population of the birds.

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For more information on bird banding stations, check out http://ornithologyexchange.org/resources/links/_/places/bird-obs-band-stn/

The art of bird banding