US Bird Banding Laboratory Organizational History

Timeline reflecting the historical organizational shifts through time for the U.S. Bird Banding Lab 

Bird Banding Laboratory Organizational History 

1920: Federal bird banding program established as the Bird Banding Office, in the Division of Biological Investigation under the U.S. Bureau of Biological Survey and within the U.S. Department of Agriculture.  

1934: U.S. Bureau of Biological Survey regionalized and created a new hierarchy. The Bird Banding Office moved within the Distribution and Management of Game and Other Birds unit, under the Division of Migratory Waterfowl section, in the Division of Game Management. 

1939: U.S. Bureau of Biological Survey, including the Bird Banding Office, moved to the Department of the Interior and merged with the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries to become the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS).    

1942: Bird Banding Office moved from Washington, D.C. to the Nelson Laboratory building at Patuxent Research Refuge (PRR) in Laurel, MD.  

1961: Due to a reorganization with PRR, the Bird Banding Office renamed the Bird Banding Laboratory (BBL) and its leader designated with the title “Chief.” Titles still used today.   

1967: Plans to construct a Bird Banding Record Center at Patuxent announced and, by 1968, the BBL moved to its new home next door in the newly constructed Gabrielson Laboratory.   

1993: BBL moved from USFWS to the newly formed National Biological Survey (renamed shortly after its creation to National Biological Service).   

1996: National Biological Service moved to U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and renamed the Biological Resources Division. BBL moved to USGS.   

2010: Biological Resources Division reorganized and the branch remaining under USGS, encompassing the BBL, renamed the Ecosystem Mission Area.   

2020: Patuxent Wildlife Research Center (PWRC; Laurel, MD) merged with Leetown Science Center (Kearneysville, WV) to create the Eastern Ecological Science Center (EESC). BBL and PWRC became part of a larger science center.   

Today: The BBL is housed in EESC at Patuxent’s Gabrielson Laboratory in Laurel, MD under the USGS’s Ecosystems Mission Area in the Department of the Interior.