Bird Banding

The Delaware Valley Ornithological Society has donated funds to the Trust for purposes of establishing a bird banding station at Rushton Woods Preserve. Banding activities began at the preserve in the fall of 2009.

Join Us for Bird Banding at Rushton Farm!

You are invited to join the Trust's bird banding team where you can learn all phases of bird banding research which include:

* setting up and taking down mist-nets
* capturing, handling and releasing wild birds
* taking birds from nets
* identifying, aging and sexing each bird
* weighing and measuring birds
* documenting research into the federal data bank
* documenting with photography

Led by the talented Doris McGovern, a federally licensed bird bander, our staff is available to help you whether you want to come for the day to observe or should you want to become part of the program as a regular volunteer.  

The banding station is located at the Rushton Woods and Farm Preserve and you may park in the Rushton Farm parking lot, located at the corner of Goshen and Delchester Roads, with the entrance on Delchester Road .  You can walk towards the hedgerows opposite the parking lot and follow the path to the right which eventually turns left and cuts through the hedgerow.  Take the left path and follow until you see our research table.  

Our program will run every week during fall migration beginning August 31 through the end of October and will occur every Tuesday and  Wednesday as weather permits-we don't band if it rains or if temperatures fall below freezing.  Although the nets go up at sunrise, visitors wishing to see the most birds should arrive no later than 8 am.  Action is often constant until about 11am, after which the nets are closed.  In October, once the neo-tropical migrants have left our region, we will begin the first season of our northern Saw-whet Owl research, capturing migrating Saw-whet Owls in the evenings.  This schedule will be available later in the season.

Teaching children and adults a conservation ethic, the importance for preserving open space, and the value and use of scientific research skills are the passions which we strive to share with all of the participants that visit our bird banding station.

If you'd like to participate and get on an email list to hear about upcoming bird banding events, send email to Lisa Kiziuk.  We hope to see you throughout the season!

Why Band Birds in Willistown?
Bird banding provides valuable information that helps us study dispersal, migration, behavior, social structure, life span, survival rate, reproductive success, and population growth. At Rushton Woods Preserve, we band to study the seasonal and long term population patterns of migratory, wintering and year-round resident birds. Banding allows us to track individuals, which is important in factoring survival, migratory turnover rates, and longevity.

Additionally, banding birds allows us to examine bird population response to the various initiatives undertaken by the Trust, all of which impact bird habitat. These initiatives include further protection of land from development; creation of native wildflower meadows and grasslands; sustainable farming; streamside tree planting and riparian restoration; promotion of reduced mowing; and reduction of the local deer herd via our deer management program.

As more and more habitat in the Willistown area is protected and sustainably managed, bird banding data are important for homeowners, land managers and those designing future projects to create habitats that can support healthy, vibrant bird populations.

Bird Banding Contributes to Global Conservation Efforts
The bird banding center at Rushton Woods Preserve, along with most other banding facilities in North America, sends its banding data to the Bird Banding Laboratory of the United States Geologic Society, which stores all of this information. This collective of information tells us how far a bird may travel during migration and which path it chooses to take.
 
If you happen to come across a dead bird with a band on it, call the Bird Banding Lab at 1-800-327-2263 with the band number and information about when and where the bird or band was found. This could give provide important information to both those who originally banded the bird and the bird community. 

Training
Our own Lisa Kiziuk Rubin is working towards her federal banding permit. In 2009 she attended a bird banding workshop at the Powder Mill Avian Research center in western Pennslvania in May 2009. These amazing photos below were taken by Lisa and her colleagues at the workshop.

See photos from recent banding activities at Rushton Woods Preserve.

Magnolia Warbler.

Common Yellowthroat.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird.

Solitary Sandpiper.

Magnolia Warbler.

Mourning Warbler.

Catbird.

Indigo Bunting.

Wing of a Black-throated Blue Warbler.

Female Cardinal getting banded. A small metal band is secured around the bird's leg.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird getting its wing measured.

Banding equipment.

Scarlet Tanager - male.

Lisa banding a Magnolia Warbler.

Pair of Scarlet Tanagers, female and male.

Baltimore Oriole.

Baltimore Oriole.

Golden-winged Warbler.

Canada Warbler.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird.

Cedar Waxwing.

Hummingbird bands are teeny.

American Redstart.

Pair of Indigo Buntings, female and male.

Lois holding a Canada Warbler.

Spotted Sandpiper.

Wilson's Warbler.

Banding starts early. Here is that bird banding station at 5:00 am.

Aging a Swainson's Thrush.

Eastern Towhee.

Lisa with her black-billed cuckoo.

Cedar Waxwing. Notice the waxy wing tips.

Black-throated Blue Warbler.

Pileated Woodpecker aka Woody Woodpecker.

Golden-winged Warbler.

Bird-banding workshop participants.
.
Black-billed Cuckoo.

Magnolia Warbler.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird getting its wing measured.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird.

Solitary Sandpiper.

Indigo Bunting.

Pair of Yellow Warblers left is male, right is female.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird.

American Red Start.

Birds are captured in nets, placed in paper bags and taken to the nearby banding station and processed. The processing includes identification, aging, weighing, measuring, sexing, banding, and then release. The processing does not harm the birds.

Wood Thrush learning to read the word "Bird".

Swamp Sparrow.

Scarlet Tanager - male.

Scarlet Tanager - male.

Pair of Scarlet Tanagers, female and male.

Baltimore Oriole.

Blue-winged Warbler.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird.

Wing of a Cedar Waxwing, note the orange-waxy wing tips, for which it is named.

Dr. Andrew Vitz aging a Ruby-throated Hummingbird.

Releasing the bird from the station after identifying, aging, sexing and measuring.

Cones are used to weigh and then release the birds from the station after processing.

Sometimes the birds are manually released out the window without a cone.

Lois and a Chestnut-sided Warbler.

Tracy holding an Indigo Bunting.

Canada Warbler.

Wilson's Warbler.

Men at work / three bird nerds.

Lisa's cabin, where workshop participants sleep.

Louisiana waterthrush.

Brown Thrasher.

Eastern Towhee.

Black-billed Cuckoo.

Cedar Waxwing.

Black-throated Blue Warbler.

Indigo Bunting.

Mourning Warbler.

Olive-sided Flycatcher.