“Bird banding can be a really useful tool for science learning…Everything we know about bird migration comes from banding,” according to Bill Hilton, licensed bander and executive director of Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History in York, S.C. Banding is an essential technique for studying the survival and behavior of birds.
Banding is a means to an end according to Hilton. Banded birds illustrate site fidelity if the same bird returns to the breeding or molting site year after year. Site fidelity may bring the same bird to your feeder each year.
Banded birds give a picture of territoriality in non-breeding sites. Banded birds can be monitored for native plant foraging behavior or for targeting the primary pollinator for plants in the tropics.
Banders set nets and cages to capture birds. With a bird in the hand Hilton records data on each bird— age, sex, condition, plumage features, and measurements of wingspan, tail length, bill length, weight, and date, and location of capture.
Banding a tiny ruby throated hummingbird takes skill and practice.
Data is sent to the federal Bird Banding Lab in Laurel, Md., the repository for all bird banding data in North America. After banding and data collection, birds are released.
Learning how to handle birds no bigger than your thumb and that weigh no more than a penny or nickel such as the ruby-throated hummingbird is crucial to banding success. While there are 3,000 licensed bird banders in North America, only 200 are licensed to band hummingbirds.
Recently, Hilton presented a teacher workshop on Operation Ruby Throat™, a citizen science initiative he developed for formal and informal educators, their students, and anyone interested in hummingbirds.
Ruby throated hummingbirds have the largest breeding range of any North American hummingbird and are the sole breeding hummingbird species in eastern North America.
The workshop was held at Little Pee Dee State Park, a coastal plain mixed forest, and engaged teachers from Dillon and Latta, who have been studying biodiversity in their local ecosystems over the past 18 months in order to develop multi-disciplinary project-based learning activities for their students.
Bill Hilton discusses the details of banding Neotropical migrants while holding a string of aluminum bands.
The Biodiversity Project was funded by a grant from the SC Commission on Higher Education’s Improving Teacher Quality program and was coordinated by a three-person team from USC.
Teachers set up three 20’ mist nets in the field and a wire cage around a hummingbird feeder at the ranger station. Since birds are most active early in the morning, 6 a.m. is a good time to set nets.
While waiting for foraging birds to enter the nets, Hilton used his bird bander’s field kit to demonstrate how he prepares lightweight aluminum bands for various sizes of legs from tiny hummingbirds to warblers to owls and hawks.
Since bird legs develop fast, one can band most species of birds no matter the age. Each species has a pre-determined band size with a specific number. Correctly attached bands do not affect bird behavior or safety.
Hilton holds the tiny aluminum hummingbird band in pliers.
Operation Ruby Throat™ conducts educational tours to Costa Rica for persons interested in banding ruby throats during their molt season in the tropics.
For more information on tours, visit www.hiltonpond.org/TropicalTripAnnounceGeneral.html.
A wire cage surrounds the hummingbird feeder on banding days only.
Female ruby throated hummingbirds weight between 0.1 and 0.2 oz.
Teachers and Hilton set the mist nets.
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