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May 26, 2022

Title: The USGS National Bird Banding Laboratory: a century supporting and advancing management and conservation science

Date: June 10, 2022 from 2:00-2:30 p.m. Eastern time

Speaker: Antonio Celis-Murillo, Chief, Bird Banding Laboratory, Eastern Ecological Science Center

Antonio Celis-Murillo, Ph.D.

The USGS Bird Banding Laboratory (BBL) is an integrated scientific program established in 1920, for the collection, archiving, management, and dissemination of information from banded and marked birds in North America. Data from banded birds have been used to study avian behavior and ecology, monitor populations, set hunting regulations, address concerns about human health, safety, and economy (e.g., West Nile virus, Avian Influenza), assess bird hazards at airports and crop depredations, and even educate people about wildlife and the natural environment. Overall, the resulting data has been used to inform management and conservation practices, and to support national and international conservation programs such as the North American Waterfowl Management Plan. Today, in collaboration with the Bird Banding Office in Canada as part of the North American Bird Banding Program, the BBL manages more than 80 million archived banding records and more than 5 million records of encounters. In addition, each year approximately 1.2 million bands are shipped from the BBL to banders in the United States and Canada, and nearly 120,000 band encounter reports are submitted into the BBL database. Banders include federal and state conservation agencies, university associates, ornithologists, bird observatories, environmental centers, non-governmental organizations, environmental consulting firms, and other private sector businesses. This presentation will provide an overview of the BBL’s key role of supporting and advancing management and conservation science over the past 100 years. Additionally, what is next for the BBL over the next decades, as technology advances and new research, management and partners needs develop.

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