It’s said that in 1595 a peregrine falcon owned by Henry IV pulled a u-turn while chasing a bustard over a field in the French countryside, flew all night and the next day before finally landing in a tree in Malta, 1350 miles away.
How did anyone know the bird belonged to the king? Old Henry had had one of his serfs attach a metal band on the bird’s leg identifying it as royal property, that’s how. Whether or not the king wanted the bird returned to its royal coop is lost to history, but one can imagine any falcon not able to outfly a lumbering bustard wouldn’t be worth the price of international return postage.
For present-day biologists, bird banding is an indispensable tool used to not only identify one bird from another, but also to study a variety of subjects linked to avian conservation not the least of which are bird dispersal and migration patterns.
In 2014, US Fish and Wildlife Service staff recovered a Ross’ goose from a wetland unit of the Merced National Wildlife Refuge. The goose wore an aluminum leg band numbered 1847-62565 and had apparently succumbed to avian cholera.
After submitting the band number to The North American Bird Banding Program (Bird Banding Laboratory at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Maryland) it was learned that particular goose was a male banded on August 6, 2008, courtesy of wildlife biologists in the Simpson River Delta, Nunavut, Canada, 2500 miles from the Merced refuge.
Besides toxicology and disease research, sometimes colored leg bands are used when information about local movement and behaviors is needed. Banding is also an invaluable method of determining species populations and for estimating survival and productivity when certain populations are exposed to unusual environmental threats such as oil spills.
While the band of a bird in the hand is easy to read, a big bird in the bush is another story. Wing tags fill the void when identification from a distance is required.
In 2015, a frequent visitor and wildlife/nature photographer at the San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge in Stanislaus County near Modesto captured some wonderful images of American white pelicans, three were sporting wing tags. Information from the three tags was sent to the USGS Banding Program.
Research found that two of the pelicans were banded during the summer of 2012, as juveniles before they could fly. The birds were two of the young in a breeding colony at the Minidoka NWR in southeastern Idaho. The third bird was banded during the summer of 2013, also as a juvenile in a breeding colony of 55,000 American white pelicans on Gunnison Island in the Great Salt Lake, Utah – the Gunnison Island State Wildlife Management Area. The pelicans on Gunnison Island fly every day to the nearby Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, another federal wildlife refuge, to feed on fresh fish.
Young American white pelicans typically make their first migratory flight to their wintering grounds after fledging and then stay put, travelling only as far as they need to find food, until they reach the age of three. It is possible the pelicans photographed near Modesto had just returned to their wintering grounds following their first summer as breeding adults.
Neck bands are also used to facilitate identifying banded birds from a distance. The Aleutian cackling goose is one example of a species where large plastic bands are placed on a bird’s neck like a collar. The bands bear an alphanumeric code in a light color that corresponds with a darker-colored background, making the numbers easy to read by someone using binoculars or a spotting scope. The Aleutian cackling goose was listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act in 1967 and later removed from protection in 2001 because the species’ population had grown, or recovered, to the point biologists determined it was no longer in danger of extinction. That decision was made, in part, thanks to data collected from annually banding Aleutian cackling geese and then monitoring their population, for more than 30 years, by observing and recording information from their neck bands.
Banding also plays an important role in establishing degrees of hunting pressure for waterfowl as hunters report banded birds they’ve shot at local hunt stations.
All birds banded in North America are done under the authority of the North American Bird Banding Program. The program is directed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the Canadian Wildlife Service. The USGS recognizes that the most important partner in the program is the person who voluntarily reports a recovered band. Anyone who spots a banded bird, can contribute to its conservation by reporting the sighting either online at www.reportband.gov or by phone, call 800-327-BAND.
As an aside, the first scientific system of bird banding was created in 1902 in North America by Paul Bartsch a professional conchologist (a person who studies and collects mollusk shells). One can only suppose he was flexing his scientific muscles by pausing his study of mussel shells and lifting research methods of ornithologists.
National Wildlife Refuge and the San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge comprise the San Luis National Wildlife Refuge Complex. Its headquarters and visitor center are located just north of Los Banos off Highway 165 at 7376 South Wolfsen Road.
The refuges are open to visitors daily from one half-hour before sunrise to one half-hour after sunset. The visitor center is open Monday through Friday except federal holidays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. For more information, call the refuge visitor center at 209-826-3508, ext. 127 or check out the upcoming events on the website at fws.gov/refuge/san-luis.
