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A Brief History of Bird Banding

People have been banding (or ringing, as it is called in Europe) birds for centuries. The first record of a metal band attached to a bird's leg was about 1595 when one of Henry IV's banded Peregrine Falcons was lost in pursuit of a bustard in France. It showed up 24 hours later in Malta, about 1350 miles away, averaging 56 miles an hour!

Duke Ferdinand placed a silver band on a Grey Heron about 1669: the bird was recovered by his grandson about 1728, indicating the heron lived at least 60 years. In 1710 in Germany, a falconer captured a grey heron with several rings on one leg. The bander was unknown but one of the rings was apparently placed on the heron in Turkey, more than 1200 miles to the east.

The first records of banding in North America are those of John James Audubon, the famous American naturalist and painter. In 1803 he tied silver cords to the legs of a brood of phoebes near Philadelphia and was able to identify two of the nestlings when they returned to the neighborhood the following year.

A system for bird banding did not really develop until 1899, when Hans Mortensen, a Danish school teacher, began placing aluminum rings on the legs of European teal, pintail, white storks, starlings and several types of hawks. He inscribed the bands with his name and address in the hope they would be returned to him if found. His system of banding became the model for our current efforts.

In 1902 Paul Bartsch, a well-known conchologist whose hobby was the study of birds, began the first scientific system of banding in North America. In that year he ringed more than 100 black-crowned night herons in the District of Columbia with bands inscribed "Return to Smithsonian Institution". The real pioneer bander in the Americas was Jack Miner who established a waterfowl sanctuary near Kingsville, Ontario. Between 1909 and 1939 he banded 20,000 Canada Geese alone, many of which carried bands returned to him by hunters

By 1909 the American Bird Banding Association had been formed to organize and assist the growing numbers.  In 1920 the Bureau of Biological Survey and the Canadian Wildlife Service accepted the offer to jointly take over the work of the Association. Frederick Lincoln was assigned the task of organizing the banding program in the USA in the Bureau of Biological Survey (now the United States Geologic Survey). The North American banding program has been a joint effort to oversee the activities of dedicated banders all over the world ever since.

More on the first 100 years of banding in North America