peo neOeO-UrbsO Ne. Bisel LoleN 15 
Bird Banding Results 
By PAUL E. DOWNING 
“OUR ROBINS ARE BACK! I know it is the same pair that has been coming 
here for many years because they have built in that same spot as long 
as I can remember.” 
That statement indicates that the speaker notices the bird-life around 
his home, but it also indicates that he or she is not a bird bander. The 
bander KNOWS the bird is the same one which was here in previous years, 
not by the location of the nest or the habits of the bird, but by the number 
stamped on the aluminum band the bird is wearing. The identification is 
positive because there is no other band bearing the same number. 
The above speaker will then feel that he has attributed an unusual 
length of life to his birds, and his next sentence usually will be a question: 
“How long DO birds live?” I suspect that every bander has been asked 
that question many, many times. It is a hard one to answer. 
The publications of the bird banding organizations have listed age rec- 
ords for many of the species, and a few special studies have been made to 
determine the life expectancy of a few of the species, but we still cannot 
answer the question in a few words. Just to give you an idea: 
Mrs. Downing and I have been banding birds since 1935, and we have 
had several hundred birds return to our traps one or more years after 
banding. Most of these birds returned the first year after banding and were 
not heard from again, but a few were retaken several times in subsequent 
years. There are others which were recovered at some point away from 
the banding station and were reported by the finder to the Fish and Wild- 
life service. The recovery of these birds is then reported to the bander in 
order that his files may be complete. 
The word “return” is used to indicate a bird which is retrapped approxi- 
mately at the point of banding. A bird which is caught, found, or killed 
at some other place by a person other than the original bander is called a 
“recovery.” Most of the birds mentioned below were adults when first 
captured, so the age indicated is the minimum. 
There are very few mourning doves in our records, but we have had 
nine doves return to our traps. Two were one year old when last taken; 
six were at least two years old, and one returned when at least five years 
old. Three additional doves were shot, two of them only a few months 
after banding and one the following year. Of the 12 doves of which we 
have records subsequent to banding, only one is known to have lived more 
than two years. 
Although the blue jay is a persecuted species, the jays seem to have 
done better than the doves. Of the 81 jays producing records after being 
banded, 57 returned to our traps and 24 were recovered elsewhere. The 
minimum ages of those retaken as returns were two birds one year old, 
31 two years old, 10 three years, seven four years, four five years, two six 
years, and one jay was at least seven years old when last recorded. Of the 
24 recovered blue jays, 10 were dead within the first year, four more died 
