WHSRNews: 14 April 2010 (in full)

Courtesy of BandedBirds.Org

Editor’s note: As many of you know, scores of researchers throughout the hemisphere spend hours in the field putting tiny metal or color bands and/or color-coded flags on the legs of migratory shorebirds to track specific individuals or cohorts. What some may not know is what exactly to look for or whom to tell when you see a bird sporting one or more of these small, scientific accessories. As northbound migration begins, we thought this would be a good time to provide our readers with some basic information (or a refresher) on the subject. Many thanks to Jeannine Parvin, Database Manager for BandedBirds.Org; Kevin Kalasz, Wildlife Biologist for Delaware Division of Fish and Wildlife; and Danny Bystrak, Wildlife Biologist for U.S. Geological Survey’s Bird Banding Lab, for providing the information in this article.
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Under the Pan American Shorebird Program, researchers use a specific color flag to indicate the country in which a shorebird was marked. Unique codes were later added to flags to identify individual birds. / Courtesy of Delaware Division of Fish and Wildlife

The centuries-old practice of putting a small, inscribed, metal band on a migratory bird’s leg to mark and track its location and movements for research purposes still continues today. This method of marking largely relies on recapturing the bird in order to read and record the band data. Country-specific, plastic color bands and flags (without inscriptions) were eventually developed, allowing researchers to know by sight where a bird was first marked, without having to recapture it. In more recent years, uniquely coded color flags were developed, making it possible to identify individual birds, not just cohorts, by sight. 

Through established research programs, trained observers conduct regular, concentrated “resighting” efforts at known breeding, migratory, and wintering locations. However, a great and largely untapped source of data are the resightings made by recreational birders, wildlife photographers, and even casual observers.

Basic Tips
Many markers can be read from quite a distance away (50 yards), depending on the resolution of your telescope or camera lens. However, with stealth and patience, you can also angle cautiously towards a flock in order to get within good resighting distance for most scopes, binoculars, and camera lenses. Tide and habitat conditions should be taken into consideration to optimize your viewing. For example, birds that are hungrily feeding are usually easier to approach; therefore, at coastal sites try to observe shorebirds during a falling tide when food is first exposed. In general, markers can more readily be seen on birds that are spread-out and active instead of roosting in a tightly packed flock.

Courtesy of Delaware Division of Fish and Wildlife

What to Look for and Record
Notice the position of any bands or flags first in relation to the bird’s body (its left or right side), then relative to its “knee” joint (above or below it). For example, the diagram illustrates a bird with a lime-green flag as well as red, blue, and metal bands in the following positions:

Upper Left: red band
Lower Left: blue band

Upper Right: lime-green flag with “AB” inscription
Lower Right: metal band

Sometimes a leg segment will have more than one color band on it. Pay attention to the order in which the colors are stacked—this is often a meaningful identifier for a particular research effort.

The following levels of detail are most helpful to researchers:

Essential: Date of observation, location, species, marker type and color, and inscription on flag. Observers often use abbreviations; for example, the flag on the bird in the diagram would be recorded as “FL (AB)” for Flag that is the color Lime-green with the code AB.               

Good:  The above information plus time of observation and your name and email. Contact information allows follow-up if there are questions about the report.

Better:  The above information plus the rest of any band combination on all leg segments. The bird in the diagram would be recorded as:
Note: Any leg section on a flagged or banded bird that clearly does not have a marker should be recorded as “ – ” in the appropriate place on your grid or sequence. If a leg section is out of view, and therefore unknown or questionable, record it likewise as “Q”.

Super:  The above information plus tide stage, wind and weather conditions, how well the flag was seen, and a count or estimate of the number present of this species along with how many others may have had flags. Flock counts of other bird species are valuable, too. Written comments about habitat and flock activity are appreciated.

Best:  The above information plus a photo.

Whom to Tell

Everyone knows the now 17-year-old shorebird superstar “B-95,” thanks to his unique flag and resightings of him by researchers and photographers. / © Jan van de Kam

BandedBirds.Org
The web-based initiative www.bandedbirds.org was developed by partners in New Jersey and Delaware (USA) to incorporate resightings of banded and/or flagged shorebirds by the public into a centralized database. To start, they entered nearly 72,000 banding records and 84,000 resighting records from established research programs conducted in the Delaware Bay region and Florida, and in Chile. Since its launch in May 2009, these and other programs have submitted an additional 5,300 banding records and over 30,500 resighting records! Even more exciting has been the public response, with over 7,000 resightings reported in less than a year by recreational birders spanning the Western Hemisphere from Canada to Chile. Use of the website has far exceeded expectations, with observations from new locations being reported almost weekly.

To report a marked bird, first-time users need to complete a free, one-time registration online. Thereafter, just log in to report your resightings and to use the “Map Your Resightings” page to track where else an individual bird has been seen. Many users say that the instant gratification of seeing the history of “their” bird inspires them to keep looking for other banded shorebirds to report from their favorite locations. Each report adds significantly to our collective understanding of the critical habitat needs, migratory routes, and the importance of various sites for different species of shorebirds.

ReportBand.Gov
Most of the marked shorebirds you see will have a metal band, either as its only marker or in combination with a color band(s) or flag. Metal bands are each inscribed with a unique 9-digit code issued and tracked by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Bird Banding Lab, which administers the North American Bird Banding Program in partnership with the Canadian Wildlife Service (CWS).

If you are able to see all, or even part, of the 9-digit code through your scope or camera lens, please report it at www.reportband.gov. The USGS Bird Banding Lab also issues the permits required for researchers to use color bands, and has included a section on the website for reporting these as well.

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To learn more about the Red Knot shorebird superstar “B-95,” see previous WHSRNews articles about him in our October 2008, July 2009, and December 2009 issues.

Willet with multiple color bands. / © Don DesJardin for USGS

For more information about bird banding in North America, visit the USGS Bird Banding Lab or Canadian Wildlife Service’s Bird Banding Office. For information or assistance in Spanish, please contact Jennifer McNicoll (jmcnicoll@usgs.gov); from Mexico, call 1-800-327-2263.

For more information on resighting banded birds, including practice photos, see the training module on the Delaware Division of Fish and Wildlife’s Shorebird Project webpage. 

To join the expanding network of volunteer shorebird data contributors, please visit www.bandedbirds.org or email Jeannine Parvin (bandedbirds@comcast.net), Database Administrator, Cape May Court House, New Jersey.

Special thanks to the following partners for supporting the BandedBirds.Org initiative: Clear into the Future: a DuPont Delaware Estuary Initiative; Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey; New Jersey Audubon Society; New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s Endangered and Nongame Species Program; Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control - Division of Fish and Wildlife; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Delaware Estuary Program; and USFWS Division of Migratory Bird Management.