Getting a band on a bird is trickier than it sounds

Published 1:10 pm Friday, August 28, 2015

A bird in the hand is worth two in the mist net, especially if it’s a chickadee whose sole purpose, other than escape, is to peck the hand that’s trying to untangle it. Make that my hand, trying to free the bird from the net but not let it go. It needed to be banded, aged, weighed and otherwise turned into useful data for researchers, data that could be used to preserve habitat and birds.

I was one of seven participants in a five-day beginning bird bander training workshop that started last weekend in Edmonds, taught by Chris Southwick and Cynthia Easterson of the Puget Sound Bird Observatory. We ranged from teen-ager to retired.

The realization that I may have been over my head arrived when I first looked at the 732-page “Identification Guide to North American Birds (Part 1)” by Peter Pyle. This book is not one of the colorful guides used to identify birds in the field. It is densely packed with text and black-and-white illustrations.

For each bird, Pyle offers detailed information on molting, the skull, ageing and sexing techniques while using terminology mostly new to me.

Being lost in the wilderness of words, I hung on to instructor humor. “Birding is a hoot.” “Who knew that bird clothing was so complicated.” “Once you start banding, you see birds in a whole different way. Identifying birds will never be the same.”

And instructor wisdom: “If you don’t know, don’t guess,” Southwick said.

We were reminded to never assume. After all, a male northern flicker can have a brood patch because he sits on the eggs, too.

All birds must molt once or twice a year to replace old, worn feathers. Birds either replace some of the feathers over several weeks (some raptors may take a couple years to replace all feathers) so that they can continue to fly, or molt in a relatively short time span, during which they are grounded.

Experts have tried to come up with one plumage theory that covers molting in all birds. “The experts are still fighting over it … they can’t do it,” Easterson said.

Out of the classroom, we learned about managing mist nets, the signs of a stressed bird, how to bag a bird, how to decide what size band to use, the banding tools, how to put on a band, how to hold a bird and how to fill in the banding sheet.

And never, never, lose a band.

A major challenge is to remove the bird from the mist net. This is a technique-and-patience issue done, counter intuitively, as fast as possible. Look for the tail to tell you which way it flew into the net. Get your hand between the net and the tail. If you release one foot, release the same-side wing, do the other foot and wing, then remove the net over the back of the head (the sweater method).

Last weekend banders netted an Anna’s hummingbird, a golden-crowned kinglet, eight black-capped chickadees, a Bewick’s wren, three song sparrows, a house finch and a common yellowthroat. The chickadees left no doubt that that species is the hardest to extract.

We also learned that if a bird appears to be stressed after banding, or at any point along the way, release it.

I involuntarily released my chickadee when it lulled me into a false sense of security right after banding it. It landed a few bites, and escaped.

Although I was the first to ‘lose’ a bird, I was not the last.

Columnist Sharon Wootton can be reached at 360-468-3964 or www.songandword.com.