In addition to the great speakers and the interesting workshops, other special activities were offered to attendees of the Midwest Birding Symposium. On Saturday morning we went to one of these, a songbird banding demonstration at Black Swamp Bird Observatory.

A good variety of birds were captured in the mist nets, and we got to see lots of birds in the hand.

Northern Cardinal female with wispy crest

See the orange feathers on the Ovenbird’s head?

American Robin

One neat thing was to see a House Wren and a Winter Wren side by side. Do you know which is which?

(ʇɥbıɹ ǝɥʇ uo sı uǝɹʍ ɹǝʇuıʍ ǝɥʇ)

Another cool thing was to see how they weigh the birds. At the MAPS banding station at Rollins Savanna, the birds are weighed by hanging the bird, still in the bag, on a hanging scale. At BSBO the birds were placed into a cone and then weighed in a cup standing on a scale.

Brown Thrashed being weighed

At one point several different thrush species were being banded, and we were shown three of the birds up close to see distinguishing markings that are difficult to spot in the field.

Learning about a Wood Thrush by examining its tail feathers

The best part of this demonstration, for me, was releasing a bird. I was minding my own business, taking photos of birds in the hand, when suddenly Dana Bollin was standing next to me, instructing me to hold my fingers just so – in order to take a bird to be released. Well, it all happened very fast and I don’t even remember which thrush it was, but it was pretty awesome. More of my photos from the banding demonstration can be seen here.

After learning about hummingbirds, watching how they are captured for banding, and learning about the process and tools involved, we finally got to see a hummingbird in the hand, being banded. While we were at the Hummingbird Festival at Camp Sagawau, nine different Ruby-throated Hummingbirds were banded.

The bander, Vern Kleen, handled every bird with care and speed. You could tell he has banded many thousands of hummingbirds throughout the years.

In this short video, Vern bands a hummingbird and measures its wings.

After the bird was banded and the measurements were recorded, Vern allowed spectators to feel the birds heartbeat. A hummingbird’s heart can beat up to 1200 times per minute! The hummingbird groupies stood and held their hands out, hoping to have a chance to feel the precious bird’s heartbeat. Vern took each visitor’s hand and placed it gently on the chest of the little bird.

At first I thought this was a rather charming part of the festival. However, after a while I felt uncomfortable on behalf of the poor bird being passed around and felt up by dozens of groupies. I know Vern has been doing these festivals for many years and I believe in the work he is doing to educate the public about these birds, but the fact is that one of the birds banded that day at the festival died. This was discovered when the spectator who was allowed to release the bird was still holding the lifeless bird in her open hand several minutes after it was given to her. Vern tapped under her hand, fully expecting the bird to awaken and fly off, but instead it fell lifeless to the ground. This was rather a shock to see and I wasn’t keen to see any more birds being passed around so everyone could feel a hummingbird’s heartbeat.

Later we learned from other (non-hummingbird) banders at the festival that it was typical to lose about 1 bird in every 1000 that is banded. I am not sure what Vern’s record is but I imagine losing a bird at a festival must not happen too often, or he wouldn’t do it.

To end on a happier note, here is another of the Ruby-throated Hummingbirds being released.

Here’s a bit more on the Hummingbird Festival we attended on Saturday (previous posts are here and here). The tools used for banding hummingbirds are similar to those used for banding passerines, only smaller. A lot smaller.

Here is a very organized bander’s toolbox. These are the tools an ‘ordinary’ bander uses – these are not the tools used on hummingbirds. The second photo is zoomed in on a container of bands from the first image.

Those number 2 bands are about 7mm tall and would be used on a bird like an American Robin or a Mockingbird. Here’s a hummingbird band:

That speck in the middle of the card I’m holding is a band for a Ruby-throated Hummingbird. It is about one and a half millimeters tall. Here are some of the tools Vern used during the banding demonstration.

The pliers are used to open the bands in order to place them around the bird’s ankle and close it again once it is in place. The magnifying glass is used to read the bands, while the ruler is for measuring the bird’s wings. The sheet of aluminum on the left of the photo is an uncut sheet of hummingbird bands. Hummingbird bands don’t come from the USGS already assembled like other bird bands – the hummingbird bander has to prepare the bands himself.

This means cutting the bands to the proper size (different species require slightly different cuts) and sanding the rough metal edges. Once the bands are ready Vern placed them on a safety pin, in the right numerical order, until they were needed. There are 20 bands on the safety pin pictured below.

As we were migrating to Camp Sagawau, we heard that Vern Kleen was starting his talk on hummingbirds. When we arrived, there was already a crowd of hummfans listening to Vern.

Vern Kleen is one of two licensed hummingbird banders in Illinois. Throughout the summer he has conducted banding demonstrations – after the last fest on September 5th he will have done sixteen hummingbird festivals throughout Illinois!

Vern told us all about hummingbirds, from banding and how to attract hummingbirds to backyard feeders to facts & figures and all about hummingbird behavior, as well as taking questions from the crowd. We learned that there are approximately 340 species of hummingbird. 25 of these have been seen in the United States, but just the Ruby-throated is a regular in eastern North America. Ecuador is home to over 160 different species!

As Vern was speaking, members of Illinois Audubon were busy with two hummingbird traps. Normally there are 10+ hummingbird feeders set up at Camp Sagawau, but during the festival they were all removed except for two which were used for trapping the hummingbirds for banding. Spectators watched the feeders, waiting for a bird to fly inside. The traps are hanging on either side of the large tree just left of center:

The doors on the mesh traps were rigged to close on a remote control similar to remote lock devices for cars. Here’s a closer look at an open trap:

Because there were normally so many feeders at the preserve, there was no shortage of hummer activity. However, the trappers had to be careful and not trip the door until the bird perched on the feeder. Hummingbirds flap their wings up to 100 times per second and fly 25-30 miles per hour on average. Male birds can reach speeds of nearly 60 mph during courtship display dives!

Once the bird entered the trap and was actually perched on the feeder inside, the chance of them flying into the trap door as it was closing was greatly reduced. Here’s a male bird (notice the ruby throat) caught in one of the traps:

After capturing a bird in the trap, the next step was to remove the bird from the trap. A net ’sleeve’ allows the trapper to get his or her hand into the cage without the bird escaping. Still, it’s a delicate procedure and patience is needed in order to avoid extra stress on the bird. Here’s a video of a bird being removed from the trap:

Next, banding a hummingbird!

Keeping with the waxwing theme today… Yesterday I observed the bird banding team again at Rollins Savanna. It was the last MAPS session for the season. Like last time, it was quite busy when I arrived, with over a dozen birds having been pulled from just one net.

Most captures were Common Yellowthroats. They were pretty calm while being handled for the most part. The mosquitoes were flying all over and once a yellowthroat tried to grab a mosquito in its beak while it was being processed, which was extremely cute.

Many of birds were going through molt and were missing head feathers. They were very difficult to age and sex. The bird books were consulted for each bird and there was a lot of discussion among the team.

Two Cedar Waxwings were also caught in the nets. They were both juveniles who did not yet have the red wingtips for which the species is named. Neither bird was happy to be there.

The bird above was especially feisty, locking its feet together to make the bander’s job extremely difficult. It was biting the pliers, the bander’s hands, everything in sight during the entire process. When it came time to be released, it was so intent on biting the bander’s finger it didn’t realize it was time to go, until it got a tap on the rear:

MAPS will start up again in the spring and I hope to join the team as a volunteer. So hopefully that was my last visit to the team as an awkward bystander.

Following the banding demonstration we attended earlier this month, last week we were able to observe at the MAPS team banding station at Rollins Savanna for a while. The team has 10 mist nets set up in one part of the preserve; the nets are checked at least every half hour. When we arrived we joined team members as they checked nets 9 and 10. Everyone was very excited to see that a Ruby-throated Hummingbird was caught in #9.

Very few people are permitted to band hummingbirds in the United States so the objective here was to safely remove the bird from the net, perform a quick examination and then set the bird free. When hummingbird banding is the objective, special feeder traps are set rather than using mist nets to capture the birds. Vickie Henderson has a great post about the banding of hummingbirds at her blog: Hummingbird Mysteries Uncovered through Banding.

As you can imagine the process of removing a hummingbird from a misting net is a delicate process. In this case it took about 5 minutes and we could hear the juvenile male Ruby-throated Hummingbird crying during part of the procedure. The bird was not harmed and was released shortly after we all arrived back at the banding station.

We went on the next net run but no birds were recovered. We learned that earlier in the morning two birds were lost to deer – the deer ATE two birds that had been caught in the nets. This was shocking to hear and even more shocking to discover for the banding team members! We were glad we missed that bit of ‘excitement.’ Can you imagine coming upon such a scene? ::shudder::

A later net run yielded over 10 birds and by the time they were brought back to the banding station it was time to go check the nets all over again.

This left the two remaining banders at the station extremely busy. They were processing birds very quickly and there was not much time for photography poses or even to explain everything that was going on to us observers.

It was still a total treat to observe and I did manage to take a few banding action photos. Here’s a Field Sparrow being banded and processed:

“What are you lookin’ at?!

Here’s a Common Yellowthroat being processed, along with a rare photography pose.

Several juvenile Bluebirds were also banded, including one recapture from earlier this year who was processed rather quickly and then sent on his way. A Red-bellied Woodpecker provided some comic relief when it fiercely pecked at the bander’s thumb while in the hand. The most common bird found in the mist nets were Song Sparrows.

It was great to be able to observe the banding team doing their work, and I hope we didn’t get in the way too much! I’m really interested in bird banding and hope to learn more about it.

Last Saturday we went to a bird banding demonstration. In talking with the banders, we learned that we could observe their actual field work when they set up at Rollins Savanna today. Yippee! I’m really looking forward to it!

Bird banders attach small numbered and/or colored bands to birds as an aid to research. Bird banders are known as bird ringers in parts of Europe (I can never remember who calls them which term, they both sound natural to me). The highlighted shirts for this week have all been designed just for bird banders!

This design has a collegiate style. Property of Banding Dept is shown on a hoodie. Also available in Property of Ringing Dept.

This design, iRing, spoofs a popular iPod ad campaign. It has the silhouette of a songbird with a white ring around one leg. Also available in iBand.

This last shirt is the word Bander made of elements.

This morning we attended a bird banding demonstration held at Nippersink Forest Preserve. Two mist nets were set up by researchers from CLC including professor and bander Cindy Trombino. Her team is working at Rollins Savanna this season as part of the MAPS (Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship) program. We actually saw them from a distance the other day on a walk, where they had set up signs to announce their presence.

At the demonstration today we first learned about the banding process and why birds are banded as an aid to research. We also got to see tools of the trade, including detailed guide books, pliers and the bands themselves.

The first couple of times the nets were checked, there were no birds. It was decided to move one of the nets to a different location and soon thereafter a Song Sparrow was caught. Here’s a photo of the net before it was moved:

Cindy showed us how the birds are removed from the net. Carefully removing the bird from the tangles of the net is usually the most difficult part of the process. In the video you can hear her mention that Northern Cardinals are notorious biters when being handled.

The Song Sparrow was brought to the work table in a bag where it was then banded and processed. After banding the next step is to try to age and sex the bird. To age the bird, feather wear and skull condition are two of the criteria checked, and these were the factors Cindy used to determine the bird was a hatch year bird.

Next Peter Pyle’s Identification Guide to North American Birds was consulted to determine how to sex the bird. According to the book, sexing a first year Song Sparrow is not possible. The sparrow was then weighed and measured.

Lastly it was time for a close-up (using the ‘photography hold’ as opposed to the ‘bander’s hold’ shown above).

Then the bird was released, with the help of two girls that attended the demonstration.

We learned from Cindy that they will be banding at Rollins again on Tuesday and we are welcome to observe – which we really look forward to!