How can I get bird banding and encounter data from the Bird Banding Laboratory?
Banding and encounter data are available for research purposes. Individual banding data records exist electronically starting in 1960. Pre-1960 banding data are available only for birds that have been encountered. Individual encounter data are available from 1913. To make a data request go to the Banding and Encounter Data page.
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Who can band birds?
The U.S. Geological Survey Bird Banding Laboratory: an integrated scientific program supporting research and conservation of North American birds
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Bird Banding Laboratory (BBL) was established in 1920 after ratification of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act with the United Kingdom in 1918. During World War II, the BBL was moved from Washington, D.C., to what is now the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center (PWRC). The BBL issues permits and bands to permittees...
Smith, Gregory J.
Banding waterfowl
The captured waterfowl are gently banded with a unique number that can be read if and when it is captured again.
Banding a Least Common Tern Chick
A member of the field crew holds a recently banded least tern chick, displaying both its metal permanent band and its plastic field readable band.
A whooping crane mother and her two chicks in Louisiana, 2016
Female whooping crane L6-12 and chicks LW1-16 and LW2-16, April 13, 2016. These are the first wild-hatched whooper chicks in Louisiana since 1939. Their parents, a four-year-old female and a three-year-old male, were raised at USGS’ Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Maryland, where researchers work to rebuild free-flying populations of the bugle-voiced, endangered birds
Iiwi banded at Hakalau 1
Adult Iiwi being banded at Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge, Hawaii
Banded Greater White-fronted geese flying in northern Alaska
Banded Greater White-fronted geese flying in northern Alaska.
PubTalk 10/2011 — Migratory Connectivity in a Changing Climate
by Susan Haig, Wildlife Ecologist
- Scientists are studying global migratory animal movements throughout their annual cycles to improve conservation efforts
- Changing climate conditions have accentuated this need, as species movements and their ranges are fluctuating every year
- Technology being used to study the
PubTalk 3/2011 — Unraveling the Mystery of Avian Navigation
New research indicates that birds are listening to the landscape to find their way
By Jon Hagstrum, Research Geophysicist
- For nearly 40 years, biologists have been unable to agree on how birds find their way over great distances during homing or migrational flights
- Do birds use their olfactory senses, the Earth's
Osprey with bird bands
Osprey, Pandion haliaetus, with bird bands in nest with mate
Location and abundance of ducks captured and banded in Suisun Marsh
Location and abundance of ducks captured and banded in Suisun Marsh during the late summer (May-September), and recovered (N=9,368) since 1932 in North America. The main map shows recovered mallards (orange) in the western U.S., and the inset map shows recovered mallard (orange; N=8,367), northern pintail (green; N=670), gadwall (blue; N=246), and cinnamon teal (yellow; N=
...
Bird Bands in a Variety of Sizes and Types
Photo of Bird Bands in a Variety of Sizes and Types
Bandit Software
Bandit is the latest in a series of desktop applications aimed at helping bird banders manage and submit their data for banded birds. We have tried to make the process of maintaining banding records as simple as possible. Bandit was created by the Bird Banding Laboratory (BBL) at the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Laurel, MD.