NEWSLETTER OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN BIOLOGICAL SURVEY PROGRAM , SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, WASHINGTON , D.C. 
NOVEMBER 1965 NO 2 
HOW SMITHSONIAN BANDS PACIFIC SEABIRDS 
Banding seabirds is a back- 
breaking, tedious undertaking in- 
volving long hours of hard work. 
If anyone believes that banding on 
tropical islands involves getting 
paid for a tropical holiday, the 
following general discussion should 
correct any such misconception. 
Birds are banded with serially- 
numbered aluminum leg rings. The 
Smithsonian puts bands on the right 
leg and streamers, if used, on the 
left, but in some areas of the 
Pacific other banders put streamers 
on the right leg. 
In order to avoid handling 
previously banded birds in large 
colonies a second, third, or fourth 
time, a spray paint is frequently 
used to show either that the bird 
has already been banded or that 
a band put on at some former date 
has been read and recorded. This 
paint, in different colors for dif- 
ferent islands, normally is sprayed 
around the neck, but a cross or a 
straight line may be used occasion- 
ally on some other part of the 
body. Spray painting has proved to 
be a time-saving device, and the 
paint normally wears off within a 
month to six weeks. By the banders’ 
next visit the birds are in their 
normal unpainted plumage . 
At the time of banding a record 
is made of the bird's species, its 
age and sex (if these can be deter- 
mined), whether or not it was nest- 
ing and its exact location. Every 
attempt is made to make this record- 
keeping simpler by banding birds 
in lots of 100, all birds having 
identical data.. 
Although various methods have 
been devised to facilitate banding, 
the first requirement is still long 
hours of hard work. During the 
usual two to three days spent on 
an island, the bander normally 
works from eighteen to twenty hours 
out of each twenty-four (he catches 
up on sleep as best he can while on 
Smithsonian scientist places band 
on leg of Blue-faced Booby. Photo 
by A.B. Arne r son, Jr., P.O.B.S.P. 
