Golden Eagle, Goshute Ridge, NV Copyright © 1996, Don Baccus (dhogaza@pacifier.com)
WHY
BAND
HAWKS?
Bird banding is a proven, low-cost, low-tech means of providing information on the
distribution of birds. Without banding data, ornithologists would know little of
the details of migration, or breeding and wintering ranges. Simple obserservation
can tell us whether or not a species is in a certain area at a certain time of
year, but is of no help to ornithologists seeking answers to certain details of
its life history, for individual birds of a particular population of a species
are often indistinguishable.
Banding can help us understand whether or not different populations share wintering
ranges, return to the same breeding site in multiple years, use the same migratory
pathway each year, return to the same area to winter, etc. These are just examples,
the use of banding data in ornithology is so pervasive that listing all the uses of
it is an impossibility.
Since banding requires that the bird be captured and handled, most bird banders also take morphological measurements of them, contributing to our collective database of the variance in size, plumage, and other characteristics. We collect data on over a dozen morphological features of the hawks we band, except on very busy days when we feel that doing so would cause birds to be held captive too long.
A step-by-step description of the banding process can be found by clicking
here.
CAPTURE
TECHNIQUES
Our capture stations use techniques developed over the centuries by falconers. Lures
are used to attract hawks to the capture station, where they are netted in several
types of nets.
Each station is led by an experienced trapper/bander, and staffed with from one to five
helpers. After capture, birds must be removed from nets, transferred to storage tubes,
and capture data must be recorded. Then, processing - banding and the taking of measurements - can
begin. Afterwards, the hawk is released unharmed, though perhaps embarrassed by the
shiny new jewelry adorning its right leg.
On an average September day, our busiest stations band about thirty-five hawks. On the busiest days during the short "peak" which occurs in mid-September, the most active stations will band in excess of one-hundred hawks. In 1994, we banded a total of 900 hawks in three days, and 3,000 for the month, in our five stations, record numbers for the Goshutes.
Details on our capture stations can be found by clicking here.