Nature Bulletin No. 470-A   November 11, 1972
Forest Preserve District of Cook County
George W. Dunne, President
Roland F. Eisenbeis, Supt. of Conservation

****:BIRD BANDING

The migration of birds, southward in autumn and northward in spring, 
has excited the wonder of man since the dawn of history. Observations 
on their comings and goings were recorded repeatedly in the Old 
Testament and by the ancient Greeks. Some curious beliefs were 
common, such as the idea that hummingbirds crossed the Mediterranean 
by riding on the backs of wild geese.

One of the marvels of nature is the unfailing exactness with which birds 
follow established routes year after year, generation after generation; 
the ability of many kinds to find their way over trackless seas without 
landmarks to guide them; and the enormous distances traveled by some 
species, apparently without stopping. These travels, once a mystery, and 
many other questions about the life histories of birds, are being 
gradually solved by numbered bands placed upon their legs, because 
individual birds may be identified wherever found -- often many years 
later.

The first banded bird was a great gray heron which, several years after a 
silver ring had been placed on its leg in Turkey, was recaptured in 
Germany in 1710. Audubon, in 1803, attached silver rings to the legs of 
a brood of young phoebes near his home in eastern Pennsylvania and, 
the following spring, found two of them nesting in that neighborhood. 
Beginning in 1899, a Danish schoolmaster named Mortensen pioneered 
the use of numbered bands on storks, herons, teals, starlings and birds 
of prey -- demonstrating that it was a valuable scientific tool.

Bird banding was begun in America by Dr. Leon J. Cole in 1902. By 
1920 it had outgrown the resources of amateur banders and was taken 
over by the U. S. Biological Survey, now the U. S. Fish and Wildlife 
Service. This bureau issues the permits to trap and band birds, which 
every qualified bander must have, and supplies the numbered bands. It 
maintains a central clearing house in its Patuxent station at Laurel, 
Maryland, for the records and exchange of banding information. The 
bands are aluminum and of twelve sizes: from those 1/16th inch in 
diameter, for hummingbirds, up to 7/8th inch diameter for our largest 
birds.

At present there are over 2300 banders in the United States, Canada and 
Mexico, including 30 in the Chicago region. Since 1920, at least one of 
every species of American bird has been banded and more than 50,000 
of some a total of over 7-1/2 million. When a banded bird is reported as 
recaptured by a bander, or found dead, or shot by a hunter, the records 
at Patuxent show the species; its sex; often its age; when, where and by 
whom it was first banded; and other recaptures, if any. By the piling up 
and study of such information, the migration routes traveled by our 
common species have almost all been worked out, as well as the 
wanderings or local movements of those which, we now know, follow 
no definite path. Similarly, many other important facts of birdlife have 
been learned.

Most banding of songbirds and other non-game species is done as a 
hobby but, because most of them are protected against hunting, the 
percentages of "recovered" bands is quite small. These enthusiasts urge 
everyone to examine any bird found dead and, if it wears a band, 
carefully copy the band number which, with the exact place and date 
should be sent to the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Washington, D.C.

You will receive a thank-you letter with all details about the bird.