~ Green Creek Wildlife Society ~
~ Green Creek Wildlife Society ~
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Belted Kingfisher ~ Ceryle alcyon ~~~~~~~~~~ Welcome to the Green Creek Wildlife Society Website! We are a conservation and research organization based in NW Ohio. Founded by Tom Kashmer over 20 years ago we are highly involved in the area with research projects and educational programs year round.
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What is Bird banding?
Bird banding is a system used by researchers all over the world to help them identify individuals of a species. The bands are small light weight pieces of aluminum that are closed like a bracelet around one leg of the bird. They don't affect how the birds fly and most birds don't even notice that they are there. Each band is etched with an individual number, kind of like a social security number. It identifies the bird as an individual and no other bird in the world has that number. Most birds are caught in mist nets, which range in size greatly. The ones that GCWS uses are about 40 feet long and 8 feet high. They are made out of a very fine material that is very hard to see. The birds fly into the nets and fall into pockets where they are cradled until we come and extract them. The birds are then banded and measurements are taken. We record their sex and age if it can be determined and record their wing cord. A wing cord is the length of the wing from the tip of the "shoulder" to the longest feather. This measurement can be helpful in determining what sex the bird is. The birds weight is also taken and we blow on their bellies to expose their skin so we can see how much fat they have. Birds skin is very transparent and the fat appears as yellow and rather globby looking. A birds fat level can tell us about it's health and weather it is in migration or if it is nesting. A birds fat can change greatly throughout the day, as we have observed in our cabin banding research. Early in the day birds will score low on the fat scale (which ranges from 0-6. 0 being no fat, 6 being so fat it can't fly) Later in the morning the birds have been chowing down at the bird feeders and have put on fat, and we see more of the mid range numbers. After these measurements the birds are released near where they were captured completely unharmed. The data we get from these birds is extremely useful, and recapturing birds (that is catching birds that were previously banded) gives us even more information. By getting recaps we are able to document how long individuals live, where they travel to, how they change over time in weight and wing cord and other important information. Bird banding operations all over the country give people a great opportunity to get involved in research and to see birds up close and personal. Details that are difficult or impossible to see in the field often become apparent in the hand. Anyone interested in learning more about bird banding or helping with a project should contact Tom Kashmer : gcws@nwonline.net |
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For problems or questions regarding this website contact Auriel Van Der Laar
- aurielvdl@yahoo.com
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