Subject: Bird Banding
Date: May 24 16:29:21 2002
From: Stuart MacKay - stuart at blarg.net


Here are my $0.02 about banding. I have a US Master Bander permit and
hold a British Trust for Ornithology permit and have been banding for
the past 20 years.

> I may be a bit out of my tree here, but is capture, handling and
> banding good for the birds? Don't they have tiny joints and bones which
> can be injured in the process?
>
> Banding is not good for individual birds. ?There is definite risk of
> injury, more likely in net capture than in handling. ?I would estimate
> that one out of
> several hundred birds captured die from things such as injuries,
> weather related stress, or predation (e.g. hawks or cats finding a net).

Capturing any wild animal has potential risk for the animal. However the
level of training, competence and circumstances under which the
capturing takes place greatly influences the outcome. In the UK banders
have to train for at least five years before gaining a license. Most of
the emphasis is on protecting the welfare of the birds being captured -
learning when weather conditions are likely to have an adverse effect on
birds; handling unexpected numbers of birds, coordinating mist-netting
sessions effectively etc.

Banding should have no effect on the bird otherwise the scientific
premise that a banded bird behaves no differently from an unbanded bird
would invalidate ALL information gained from banding. Birds sometimes
react to being banded by pecking the band. It is not clear whether they
are attracted by the shiny metal or whether they object to their new
attire. I suspect it's the latter however the effect is short-lived and
only a few species are known to do this - In my experience I have only
seen siskins so this.

There are many cases where birds have been repeatedly captured often
over the course of many decades - the recent posting on tweeters
concerning the age record for a manx shearwater is a classic example. At
many banding sites the same individual is repeatedly captured. Therefore
I would say that "Banding is not good for individual birds" is false.

> In the process are they separated from their mate or flock?

Certainly, however some common sense easily avoids an adverse situation
for the captured bird. Catching birds that are feeding young should be
avoided. Catching birds that might be carrying eggs is a really bad
idea. If such a bird is trapped it should be released immediately. With
species such as shorebirds, bushtits and chickadees that form close
flocks or family groups all birds caught at the same time should be
released together to avoid the situation where a bird loses contact with
other flock members and so becomes potential prey to a hawk.

Catching migrants at night using tape lures is banned in the UK since it
separates flock members migrating together and may draw them into
unsuitable habitat. Catching migrants during daylight hours has less
impact since the birds are probably feeding locally. Geese and swans
that migrate as family groups should not be captured since there is no
guarantee that all family members would be caught at the same time.

> The undeniable conclusion is that banding is harmful to some individual
> birds (although it has negligible
> impact on overall populations).

As a general statement this is utterly false. Banding is not, as a rule,
detrimental to the birds - there would be no point in doing it, if it
were so. Have birds been injured or killed as a result of being
captured - most definitely. However the vast majority of the training
required to become a qualified bander is learning to minimize the risk
to the birds being caught.

> To me this is a major issue. ?I believe there are banders who band
> without a purpose, and some data are
> gathered that will never be used.

No banding takes place without a purpose. All records are submitted to a
central agency, e.g. the Bird Banding Lab in the US, and a lot of
information on subjects such as migration routes, mortality, can be
gained from having populations of birds banded. Whether individual
banders undertake personal research is another matter, though certainly
it is encouraged. The logistics of undertaking a scientific study can be
daunting. In the UK banders often cooperate on projects to share the
effort and learn more than they could individually.

Banders could make more use of the data they collect and this is often a
concern of the agencies that manage the banding programs. This is
largely a communications problem - with more records being computerized
I believe the amount of useful data being gathered will increase.

> This may sound cold, but to me, the benefits to birds of knowledge
gained through banding far outweighs the "sacrifice" of some birds. ?But
in the
> end... as withissues like eating meat and using animals in scientific
experiments... whether banding is
> justifiable is up to your individual values an beliefs."

No bird is sacrificed during banding, however accidents happen. With
care and competence the vast majority of these can be avoided, though
the unforseen will always happen.

Stuart
--
Stuart MacKay, Seattle, WA
stuart at blarg.net