Summer Advanced Bird Banding

This advanced class is designed to help participants fine-tune the banding skills they already possess and to advance their comprehension of molt strategies and ability to recognize molts limits and plumages on birds in hand. Classes are very individualized and the rate of progression will be dependent upon the skill level of the participants. There will be a concentration on details of feather morphology, plumages, and molt limits. Participants stay at the Wolf Ridge campus in Finland, MN.  Lodging and meals included.

This class requires previous bird banding experience.

Prior to attending this course participants should:

• Be able to handle and set up mist-nets
• Be able to  extract birds from mist-nets
• Have familiarity with aging hatch-year versus after-hatch-year birds

Some of the skills that will be reviewed include:

• Operation of and removal of birds from mist nets so that extraction speeds and safety are increased
• Bird-handling skills, e.g. using proper grips and minimizing bird stress
• In-hand aging and sexing techniques, e.g. fine-tuning of skulling, scoring on the datasheet, recognizing molt limits

Lectures and discussions will cover:

• Avian life histories
• Energetics
• Molts
• Plumages
• The role of banding in research and monitoring

Participants should come prepared with questions that have arisen during their banding operations and work with the instructor to focus on the particular skills they would like to improve upon.

For further details, see the Institute for Bird Populations website or contact instructor Danielle Kaschube.

Register for this Workshop

Lodging Information

Dining Information

Directions to Wolf Ridge