Bird Banding Lab, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service—Centennial Presentation

This year marks the 100-year anniversary of the establishment of the USGS Bird Banding Laboratory. The lab hosted a live webinar to highlight the long history between the Bird Banding Lab and US Fish & Wildlife Services, and how they have impacted avian science in the past 100 years. Over the past 100 years, there have been significant advances in banding science. One milestone was the creation of the Endangered Species Act in 1973. The act helps guide research priorities, while data from the USGS lab also helps inform decisions on which species should be considered for listing. In addition, the number of applications to become a bander has continued to grow, and this expanded network brings more robust data that are essential to the protection and recovery of birds. Laboratory staffers manage more than 77 million archived banding records and more than 5 million bird encounter reports. Many of these data are used by USFWS for avian conservation and management.