Bird Banding high school field trip

A BIRD IN THE HAND...

4/25/2019

Thursday, April 25 - I was privileged to be allowed by my teenage daughter (with the promise, of course, that I wouldn’t embarrass her by being a “bird nerd”) to accompany her on a field trip to the Whitehall Forest. Having spent many, many hours of field study in this same forest in the 90’s, I was excited to return. I hope the experience not only sparked some bird-nerdiness in my daughter, but may have also planted a seed to study at the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources like her father.

A Hooded Warbler, Setophaga citrina, is measured and photographed during the banding process.

A BIRD IN THE HAND...

“A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”… especially when teaching high school students about ecology and conservation. Two groups of Ms. Carly Chandler’s AP Environmental students from Cedar Shoals High School in Athens, Georgia participated in a bird banding field trip in April, 2019.

Bird banding is the attachment of uniquely numbered metal bands to the leg of a wild bird to help scientists study the migratory movements, population dynamics and life histories of birds. The excited group of students not only saw first-hand how the birds were caught and removed from mist nets in the Whitehall Experimental Forest, but also participated in the band recording process.

Bird ringing or bird banding is the attachment of a small, individually numbered metal tag to the leg of a wild bird to enable individual identification, track migration movements of the bird and its life history.

Carolina Wren being banded by Dr. Richard Chandler of UGA Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources.

During the trip, the students met with Dr. Richard Chandler, Associate Professor of Wildlife Ecology and Management from the University of Georgia’s Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources. Dr. Chandler demonstrated safe handling techniques and offered several students the opportunity to hold and release a few of the captured and banded birds.

Kentucky Warbler - a life bird for me!

In addition some common Georgia birds like the Brown Thrasher and Carolina Wren, the groups caught two brightly colored warblers, a Kentucky Warbler and a Hooded Warbler, that recently arrived during the spring migration. Dr. Chandler explained how habitat destruction, either here in their North American breeding grounds, or in their southern over-wintering territories could greatly affect the overall health and numbers of migratory bird populations.

“The field trip was an amazing experience”, said Cedar Shoals student Amanda Wise. “It was a very insightful trip that taught us about the biodiversity of birds and how big of a world we are in. It is definitely not every day that you can catch, hold and band a bird!”