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Archived Postings

June 19, 2008 – June 25, 2008

During the summer months, through the breeding season, the LSLBO bands at its MAPS stations. MAPS is an acronym for Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship. It is a program spearheaded by the Institute for Bird Populations with the purpose of long term population monitoring on the breeding grounds. MAPS is a North American wide project with over 500 active stations. The LSLBO has been contributing to the MAPS program since 1994 and currently operates four stations. Banding takes place at each station once every ten days and each station is visited six times throughout the summer. It is a more relaxed banding schedule compared to daily migration monitoring, but the data gathered on bird productivity and survivorship is very useful and important. MAPS is a unique and effective method of population monitoring. It collects and analyzes demographic information to monitor the stability of breeding populations. The first step is to determine the annual size of the adult breeding population. This is done by sampling stations before the nestlings have fledged. Estimates of adult survival rates are made by comparing age classes and the return rates of previously banded birds. If a bird has had a successful breeding season, and survives migration, there is a high likelihood that it will return to the same breeding location. We see a high number of birds banded in previous years during the MAPS banding. Estimates of recruitment of new adults to the breeding area are also made. Finally, productivity estimates are made by comparing the number of adult to juvenile birds banded. All this information, combined with habitat monitoring and species breeding status, can help determine if changes observed in a bird population is a result of changes to the breeding grounds. We have finished the second round of MAPS and the banding has been good. We have banded 100 birds and have had another 43 recaptures. All of the birds captured have been adults; it is still early to see juvenile birds in the nets. The most commonly captured species were: white-throated sparrows, Tennessee warblers, American redstarts and Swainson’s thrush. These are abundant breeding species in our area. We have also captured winter wrens, three species of woodpeckers, a sharp-shinned hawk, a male rose-breasted grosbeak, and a beautiful western tanager. It was the first western tanager captured this year and it was a returning bird. It was originally banded at the LSLBO in 2006 during fall migration. One of the winter wrens we captured provided an interesting and unique experience. Winter wrens are small birds, about the size of your thumb, and have boundless energy and enthusiasm. I recently discovered that they are good climbers. One wren managed to dart up the sleeve of my sweater. It ran up my arm, then all around my front and back. I ended up having to ask for help to get the bird out. It is a weird feeling to have a bird run around inside your shirt. Unfortunately, the bird escaped out of my cuff without a band on its leg.

2010