Banding commences at dawn, and finishes 6 hours later (unless the wind or the rain causes us to close the nets early). There are ten nets at a banding station, and these are checked every 40 minutes.  If there are a lot of birds in the nets, it sometimes is difficult to get them identified, banded, aged, and all of the data recorded before it is time for the next net run.

Here is Zoey Meissner, an IBP intern, working hard on a Rose-breasted Grosbeak.

The process starts when you find a bird tangled up in the mist net, just like this Indigo Bunting.

The bird is carefully extracted from the net, as Zoey Meissner demonstrates to Ellen Welti in the photo below.

Back at the banding station, the bird is banded with a uniquely numbered band from the Bird Banding Laboratory.

Besides just banding the birds, we gather lots of useful data. By careful examination of the plumage, one can age most passerines (juvenile, after-hatch-year, after-second-year, etc.). The primary coverts are a good place to start, and examination of the wing plumage of this Indigo Bunting allows you to say that this is a one-year old bird.

Body fat condition, molting, and feather wear are also estimated and recorded. Breeding condition is recorded as well,  based on brood patches in the females (and some males), and cloacal protruberances in the males. In some birds (e.g. Bell's Vireo, Carolina Wren) this is also the only way to determine the gender of the bird, since these species do not have different male and female plumages. Here is a good example of a brood patch in a female Indigo Bunting.

We also measure the wing chord and weigh the birds. Here is Jethro Runco, another IBP intern, measuring the wing of a Kentucky Warbler.

Also note the book in some of these pictures. This is the "Bible" for bird banders in N. America ("Identification Guide to North American Passerines : A Compendium of Information on Identifying, Aging, and Sexing Passerines in the Hand", Peter Pyle, Steve Howell, and Robert Yunick, 1997, Slate Creek Press 1997). Additional tools are kept in the "banding kit", which holds bands of various sizes, pliers, rulers, scales, and a host of other goodies.

One of the more useful ways to pass the time between net runs is to kill the many ticks that seem to frequent the net trails.  Here are some closeup photos of a few of those.

Female dog tick


 

Male dog tick


 

and Lone-star tick


 

Finally, since you are outdoors all morning, you can enjoy some of the other natural wonders of the region. Here is a very substantial Butterfly Milkweed at the height of its blooming season.

And a Regal Fritillary, a tall-grass prairie endemic butterfly, defending an ironweed blossom from an in-your-face hoverfly.


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