Geolocators and Swallows

Banding has played a large role in bird research for over more than a century.

Banding consists of catching a bird in a mist net and then taking it out and putting a band on one of the bird’s legs.

The bird is also sexed and its wing’s and weight are measured.

Recently I had the chance to help band and put geolocators on Bank Swallow at a local colony. Here’s a summary on how the banding went:

Starting the Day

It all started when a local birder, Bud Dodrill, got a call from a bird bander, Ron Weiss, from Chipper Woods Bird Observatory who wanted to band and put geolocators on Bank Swallows at a local colony.

We were excited about this opportunity, so after talking to the bander we decided we would help band on Thursday of that week at 9 a.m.

Once arriving at the colony at nine o’clock there were many Bank Swallows flying around the area.

After looking at the area, Ron decided that we might be able to hold a net in front of a number of nests and catch birds exiting or trying to enter their nests.  So for the next twenty minutes we stood there waiting for birds to fly into the net.

This method didn’t work, but we did catch a female Indigo Bunting that was resting on a scrub on the cliff.  Because we were focusing on Bank Swallow, we set her free.

It seemed that our presence was scaring the birds away, so we decided to put the net up.  After we had set the net up we backed off and waited by the processing table to see if that would work.

First Bank Swallow

Almost immediately after backing off the net we got out first Bank Swallow.  Ron, being an expert bander, was able to take the bird out of the net fairly quickly so the bird could get banded and have a geolocator placed on it.

After a band had been put on it and the bird had been sexed and had its wings and weight measured Ron began the process of putting a geolocator on it.  Now a geolocator is small device that has a chip in it.  This chip reads light so it can tell what latitude and longitude the bird is at.  This helps us know where the bird migrates to and back each year.

In order for the geolocator to work it has to be recovered again the next year to get the data off it.  This is why Ron had wanted to put geolocators on Bank Swallows since they come back to the same colony every year.

Anyway, Ron put the geolocator on by placing the device on the bird’s back and then having string that ran through the device looped around the bird’s wings.  After that the string is tied and then glued.

This can be tedious work because if it isn’t put on correctly the bird will not be able to fly.  This is why you have to have a permit to put geolocators on birds.

After Ron had placed the geolocator on the bird the Swallow was released.

The Banding Action Picks Up

For the next two hours we continued to band and put geolocators on Bank Swallows.  Actually after putting the net up we had ten birds within a half hour.

At one time we had six birds in the net even though we had just taken birds out!  Because putting a geolocator can take a while to put on we stopped catching birds once we had caught ten.

Of the ten swallows that we caught, nine were Bank Swallows (one which was a recent fledging) and the tenth swallow was a probable juvenile Northern Rough Wing Swallow that had nested at the edge of the colony.

Overall, it was a great experience to be a part of research and hopefully some of our birds come back next year so we can get the data off the geolocators.

-Landon

(Photos by Bud Dodrill)