migratory species such as the 

 Bobolink, Scarlet Tanager, or 

 Redstart, and various ducks and geese 

 are banded, we can nnap the general 

 route the species takes between its 

 wintering and nesting grounds. From 

 banding information we have learned 

 that some birds, as the Atlantic 

 Golden Plover, do not return south 

 in the fall over the same route they 

 took north in the spring. 



How did we learn that the Arctic 

 Tern makes the longest known migra- 

 tion flight of any living species? It 

 was from bands returned from such 

 faraway places as Nigeria, West 

 Africa, and Natal and Cape Province, 

 South Africa. It is now known that 

 this bird makes an annual round -trip 

 flight of about 25,000 miles. It nests 

 near the Arctic Circle and winters in 

 the Antarctic. 



Many ducklings and goslings are 

 banded each sumnner on their nesting 

 grounds. When hunters return bands 

 they find on these birds during the 

 hunting season they may be helping 

 to improve their own future hunting. 

 From the bands turned in from hunt- 

 ing areas, wildlife workers can figure 

 pretty closely just how numerous 

 certain ducks will be along the various 

 nnigration routes during the following 

 hunting seasons. Knowing approxi- 

 mately how many Redheads or Canvas - 

 backs or Mallards could possibly be 

 in an area during the hunting season 

 gives a pretty good basis for saying 

 how large a bag limit should be estab- 

 lished for the hunter. The game 

 managers want to be sure that enough 

 pairs of these birds escape the guns 

 to provide the next season's breeding 

 stock. Otherwise excessive shooting 

 could seriously reduce the number of 

 ducks. 



How Birds Are Banded 



Specially designed traps are used 

 to catch the birds for banding. The 

 bird bander must take extreme care 

 in trapping and handling the birds to 



avoid injuring them. The bander regu- 

 larly visits his banding trap each day. 

 If he has trapped a bird he removes 

 it from the trap, and if he can identify 

 it he carefully fits the alunninumband 

 to its leg and releases it. Birds 

 should not stay in the trap very long, 

 so the bander visits the trap about 

 every 2 or 3 hours on the days he 

 operates the trap. The last trip is 

 made at dusk- -birds are never left 

 in a trap overnight. 



Authorized banders receive bands 

 without charge from the Service's 

 Bird Banding Office. That office also 



A young conservationist helps band a male Pintail 

 Duck. 



A close look at a band being put on a duck's leg. 



