From member Sarah Trent: Bird banding, the act of putting metal bands around bird legs for identification, has been invaluable to ornithologists. The Bird Banding Lab – a program of the U.S. Geological Survey’s biological research arm has been instrumental in such efforts and also may not survive to next year. This is owing to the massive reduction in both funding and workforce from the Trump Administration. This particular office has been key to bird banding in the United States as its workers are responsible for distributing every permanent band in the country. Furthermore, they maintain the database for said bands in North America since the early 1900s and are the only office that issues permits for scientists to conduct banding. Banding isn’t just simply wrapping a band around a bird’s legs. Weight, sex, and age are recorded and sometimes samples are taken. Avian data also has other downstream impacts regarding conservation, land development and many other fields and industries. Join Sarah Trent as they pen about the impacts to bird banding.
Photo: Charles J. Sharp via Wikimedia Commons
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