Every year millions of birds are banded across the Americas for various monitoring and research goals. Each bird banded receives a unique nine-digit number on an aluminum ring marking that bird apart from the billions of other birds we share our planet with. If found again, this number can be used by anyone to trace that bird’s history back to its banding location and date.
Recapturing a bird we banded at one of our stations is not unusual since a songbird can return to nest within 10 m of where it successfully nested last year. Thus we recapture 6-10% of the birds we band per year. These internal recapture records provide important data on stop-over rates, year-to-year survivorship, local breeding activity, and longevity records which suggest how long these natural wonders may live despite traveling thousands of kilometers over dangerous terrain.
Recapturing a bird banded by another researcher (‘foreign’ to our station) is exceptionally rare and only 0.1% of our recapture records are of birds that were banded by someone else. Even more uncommon is for one of our banded birds to be found outside our study area. Just 0.05% of our bands have been rediscovered elsewhere. Despite how few recoveries exist, they provide invaluable information about potential migratory routes or even rates of travel.
How you can help
Any bird that can be handled should be checked for a band on its leg just above the toes – usually on the bird’s right leg. The only way to check healthy birds may be to take many photographs from a distance with a camera and telephoto lens. If handling a stunned or injured bird, take care not to injure it further or jeopardize its chances of survival. Road and window casualties, predator victims (including birds caught by cats), and weather moralities after a storm may all provide the possibility to find a banded bird.
Found a banded bird? Make your contribution to avian research at: www.reportband.gov where you will be asked to submit the band number with when, where, and how you found the banded bird. You won’t have to identify the bird species.
To-date foreign recapture and recovery map
Legend
 | LSLBO: Location of our research station. |
 | Band Recovery: Where a bird banded by the LSLBO was found by another researcher or a member of the public. |
 | Foreign Recapture: Where a bird was banded by another researcher before being recaptured by us. |
 | Zoom: Open a new tab with just the map (top-right corner of map). |
Map last updated: 7 October 2024
