Humming Bird Banding at Indiana Dunes State Park - Indiana dnr
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We’re banding hummingbirds, which of course, bird banding is used to do all kinds of things.
To track birds’ migrations, longevity, things like that. We’re catching hummingbirds in
traps today and I have one here. The wing length, which on the young birds tells me
whether it’s a male or female – the males are smaller, the females are bigger – and
tail length and bill length. So these are just kind of standard measurements. We also
check for any breeding condition they might have, any fat deposits they might have, and
then I also check whether they’re molting their body feathers or not and then I give
them a score. And I blow the feathers aside, and this is I think the first female today
that’s not molting. Then I put them on a scale and weigh them. This is a highly regulated
activity. Fish and Wildlife Service bird banding lab issues federal permits for this. You have
to study under somebody else, you have to submit a proposal for the research plan, you
can’t just want to find out what’s in your neighborhood kind of thing, you have
to have a more broad study. An educational component is also helpful, but they don’t
just issue permits for that. Beyond that then you have to get a state permit from each state’s
DNR, and of course permission from the land owners everywhere that you band.
