Waterfowl bands: A conservation management tool
Every year the Canadian Wildlife Service and the United States Department of the Interior as well as other agencies travel to the furthest reaches of the North American continent to band ducks and geese. The most common type of band is the small aluminum band or ring that is placed around the leg of the bird and inscribed with a unique 8 or 9 digit number followed by a phone number to call to report the band. These bands have a wide range of sizes that can accommodate some of the smallest birds like hummingbirds to largest waterfowl species such as Trumpeter Swans.
Birds can also be marked with other more visual markers that allow researchers to identify these birds from a distance. These can include neck bands, wing markers, radio transmitters and others. However, as neck bands are highly visual, the mortality rate of these birds is quite a bit higher as hunters will selectively target these birds while out hunting. This can skew the data that is recovered and can lead to bias harvest and survival rate estimates.
The data that is gathered by reported bands plays a key role in understanding the life cycle of all birds, especially waterfowl, as a way to track migration patterns, population trends, survival rates as well as setting hunting regulations. The information gathered from reported bands has been invaluable to researchers. Even as early as the 1930s the four flyways of North America were more clearly defined through the efforts of hunters who reported their banded ducks and geese. This emphasizes the important role hunters play in the health of the North American bird population!
About 60 million birds have been banded in North America since 1904 and these represent hundreds of species of every type of bird. Waterfowl species represent approximately one-third of the bird species banded each year. However through the efforts of hunters who have reported their bands, roughly 87 per cent of all band recoveries come from just waterfowl.
In order to band waterfowl there are a number of techniques which biologists employ to capture these birds. For example, biologists will trap geese during the summer when the juveniles are flightless and the adults are molting. This is done by driving them into funnel mist traps. In the Arctic breeding areas such as the Hudson Bay, biologists use helicopters to herd flightless geese into these funnel traps. For ducks, bait is often use to lure them into traps that are set out in the water. Rocket nets are also sometime deployed to capture a large number of birds at a baited area. When banding, the researchers takes note of the sex and age of the bird, the location where the banding is taking place, and any other important observations, such as if the bird is already banded.
If you are lu cky enough to shoot a banded bird this year you can report it by calling 1-800-327-BAND, or reporting it online here. When reporting a band you will be required to answer a few questions that help provide data to researchers. You will not have to return the band.
To waterfowl hunters a band represents a keepsake of that day’s hunt and a memory they will cherish for years to come. To North American’s biologists and conservationists it represents a valuable tool in maintaining the health of the continent's bird population.
