Bird in mist net at Patuxent Research Refuge

Gotcha! A ruby-crowned kinglet waits to be extracted from a mist net at the Bird Banding Lab's fall migration banding station. Powerlines that run through the Patuxent Wildlife Research Refuge, near Laurel, MD are managed as shrub habitat instead of mowed, which provides stopover habitat for migratory birds. Bird Banding Lab staff capture birds in mistnets each fall to contribute to the BBL's long-term dataset: over 76 million records of banded birds and counting!