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Pennsylvania Game
Commission
K. Klimkiewicz
J. Tautin
The North American bird banding program has expanded greatly from its small start in 1902 when one person with simple objectives banded one species at one location. Today, the program stretches from the Canadian Arctic to the tropics of Latin America, from Newfoundland to the far Pacific islands, and beyond to places like Siberia, Greenland, and Antarctica. Wherever North American birds go, bird banding is there.
Virtually all species are, or have been, banded. Currently, 1,200,000 birds are banded, and 85,000 recovered, each year. More than 63,000,000 birds have been banded since the beginning of the program, and 3,500,000 have been recovered and reported to the banding offices. Millions more have been recaptured or resighted by banders.
These banders include federal and state conservation agencies; university associates; avocational ornithologists; bird observatories; environmental centers; nongovernmental organizations; environmental consulting firms, and other private sector businesses. Currently, more than 6,100 banders are operating in US and Canada.
Today's banders augment traditional capture and banding methods with advanced technology. Most use auxiliary marking techniques such colored leg bands, coded neck collars and radio transmitters. Many take blood and feather samples for assays and DNA analysis, and many use sophisticated statistical models to analyze their data. Some use satellite transmitters track birds in real time over long distances.
Migration was the focus of the earliest banding studies. Migration studies continue, but today banding has much broader application. Data from banded birds are used to: study avian behavior and ecology; monitor populations; restore endangered species; assess the effects of environmental disturbances; set hunting regulations; educate people about the environment; and to address concerns about human health, safety and economy such as West Nile disease, bird hazards at airports and crop depredations. Results from banding studies support national and international conservation programs such as the North American Waterfowl Management Plan, and Partners in Flight.
Tomorrow's bird banding program will differ from today's as technology advances and new research and management needs develop. But as the banding program evolves, the past, present and foreseeable future will remain linked by one fundamental element: that band that uniquely identifies the individual bird and leads to knowledge of its movement, survival and behavior.
The knowledge gained from the first 100 years of bird banding in North America has led to remarkable accomplishments in ornithology and the conservation of birds. Few, if any, other tools available to the ornithologist have been as productive.
May there be another 100 years of bird banding in North America, for as Bartsch said in the beginning, "There are still many unsolved problems about bird life…."
J. Tautin
U. S. FWS - NCTC
D.
Zimmerman
Steve Kress