Livingston Weekly: A Bird in the Hand:Tracing Patterns in a Changing Climate

During one of the recent late-spring thunderstorms here in Livingston, a small group of dedicated wildlife enthusiasts gathered in a classroom at Washington School to increase their awareness about birds and learn about bird conservation through a special lecture by master bird bander Neil Travis, titled “A Bird in the Hand.”

In the prelude to the final lecture of a weekly series celebrating International Migratory Bird Day, bird bander Travis milled among the crowd answering questions and preparing for his presentation.

Even the steaming coffee offered on a side table was certified “bird friendly,” from farms in Latin America that provided “good forest-like habitat for birds” according literature from the Smithsonian National Zoological Park displayed alongside the carafe.

As the birders took their seats, Rachel Feigley, a bird biologist for the National Forest Service, introduced herself and the topic soon to be discussed: “Tundra to Tropics: Connecting Birds, Habitat and People,” the theme of the 2008 International Migratory Bird Day.

“I see many familiar faces,“ Feigley noted, indicating a number of individuals and couples who had previously been present at Migratory Day field trips and lectures held over the past month. She then turned the floor over to Travis, a naturalist who has held a master bird banding permit since 1964.

Travis traced a long history studying birds, from a youth in the midwest in Michigan to the Rocky Mountains and the American southwest. A seasonal summer resident of the Livingston Area, he maintains a mountain bluebird trail along Trail Creek Road and bands birds in the area. During the winters, he volunteers as an interpretive naturalist in Saguaro National Park near Phoenix, Arizona.

In his long bird banding history, Travis said he had experienced close encounters with “hawks, owls and big birds all the way down to the hummingbirds,” which he affectionately referred to as “hummers.”

Travis is one of only 2,000 master bird banders in the United States and Canada, and admitted that since otherwise it is a federal offense for any unlicensed person to handle or disturb migrating (not game) birds, he considered his volunteer position “a great privilege.”

From the Time of the Pharaohs

“Bird banding started originally with falconry, and was initially used to mark trained birds,” said Travis, introducing a short history of the banding of birds. He indicated te origins of falconry went all the way back to ancient Egypt, but the first record of a metal band (or “ring” in Europe) used to mark a bird could be traced to the reign of Henry IV in France in the late 1500s. According to the tale, one of the king’s peregrine falcons took off after a large swift-running bustard. The banded falcon was recovered 24 hours later 1,350 miles away on the island of Malta, meaning the falcon would have traveled at least 56 miles per hour in the overnight flight.

By 1710, bird banders were beginning to realize that birds were moving around quite a bit when a German bander captured a banded heron from Turkey. The first purely scientific banding ever noted can be traced to John J. Audubon who tied thin silver wires to the legs of a brood of eastern phoebes in new England and discovered the following year that many returned to nest in the same location. However, it was Hans Mortensen, Travis said, who set the current standard for present banding procedures. In 1899, Mortensen placed bands inscribed with his name and address around the legs of waterfowl, starlings and hawks in hopes the bands would be returned to him if found.

Throughout the early 1900s, more bird banders tested effective techniques for banding and identifying birds and began to get organized in conjunction with the 1916 Protection of Migratory Birds Convention. In 1918 the Migratory Bird Treaty Act was established between the United States and Canada insuring that all migrating birds (not game birds) were protected, making it a federal offense for any unlicensed person to handle or disturb birds.

Shifting Patterns

“Birds have fascinated man since the earliest dawn of time...because they can do something we all wish we could do,” said Travis, “They’re the only creature that, under their own power, can fly.”

Man has always wondered where birds go when they fly off, especially for a season, continued Travis. He explained that among many of man’s early theories as to where the birds might have been going included the idea that the birds in the winter and the summer were the same and just changed their appearance with the season or the once widely-accepted idea of spontaneous regeneration.

Many may have even thought the birds could have been hibernating, said Travis. But eventually as people traveled around the world and across continents they realized that birds migrated, or moved from one region or habitat to another each season. Then the question arose as to how some of the smaller birds such as the “hummers” were migrating; were they nestling in the feathers of larger birds?

Decades of work by dedicated bird banding volunteers has helped to dispel many myths and strengthen scientific evidence about bird migration patterns. Banders have tracked individual birds, looked at general species distribution patterns and determined how numerous any given species may have been in any particular area. And while bird banders continue this work, “We pretty well know where birds go and where they are concentrated now,” Travis said, indicating the major flyways of the Atlantic, Mississippi, Rocky Mountain and Pacific in the western hemisphere.

Now, banders are looking more at the condition of birds the capture and release. “Migratory birds are in trouble,” said Travis. Due to fragmented habitats and obstacles that make it difficult for birds to migrate, some bird species are in steep decline.

After studying bird populations for over 40 years, Travis said he has a clear indication that something in the climate is changing, “I don’t know why it’s changing, but I know that it is...Birds are coming north earlier and we are seeing species in places they have not been before.” Travis noted as examples the turkey vulture and the common crow in Park county, “30 years ago you never say a turkey vulture here, and never a common crow and now they’re all over the place...something is happening.” He also indicated the disappearance of once-plentiful species such as the nighthawk, but noted that the reason for the particular species scarcity may have nothing to do with the local climate, but perhaps changes to one of the other climates the nighthawks call home.

Some of the changes Travis noted have been ongoing and subtle for the last 30 years, but recently he said has seen changes “so rapid and accelerated things cannot adapt to them.” He also indicated weather patterns that appear to be changing, and since most birds migrate during the spring or the fall—two of the most violent seasons of the year—this could disrupt migratory patterns. He also stressed the importance of darkness for night migration patterns in a country that is becoming rapidly illuminated.

Presently, banders are still accumulating longevity records and endeavoring to establish averages to see if the averages are changing, said Travis, as well as accumulating nesting and breeding information with an emphasis on sexing and aging but the continuing data collection will provide scientists with a barometer of the change currently being experienced by migratory birds.

Catch and Release

Originally, bird banding started out with simple traps, said Travis as he displayed a number of traps he said he still sometimes uses. But the traps had many limitations, among them the ability to catch flying birds (as the traps were located on the ground), and the fact that the traps could only hold a few birds at a time.

Another option for catching birds in the wild would be to find a nest and weigh, examine and band hatchlings. Travis said that although the method could be successful for banding large colonies of birds like seagulls, it limited the age range of the birds dramatically.

With the advent of the Japanese-developed fine nylon net in the 1940s, bird banders finally had the perfect tool for humanely netting and releasing birds. “It changed bird banding in ways we never could have imagined,” said Travis.

The mesh-like net is stretched between two aluminum poles and suspended in the air where it may catch everything from snowbirds and turkey hawks to sparrows.

After netting a bird and getting it in the hand, Travis explained that banders record data of the weight and possible pollen cover on the bird before attempting to determine the age or sex, which can be a near-impossible challenge in some cases. Some breeding females have a “brood patch” on their chest, or a small featherless area where they nest close to their eggs to indicate their gender, but without such a patch some birds are difficult to sex.

“There are some birds you still cannot identify in the field,” said Travis, holding up a large and thick manual and flipping through it to display microscopic text. He explained that the manual in his hand described minute differences in feathers and beak measurements, among many other indicators, that made it possible to gain a good identification.

Banders also perform fat studies on the bird to determine health and age and sometimes collect blood samples or DNA data to aid in population studies. Some banders even track avian pathogens such as bird flu while gathering the regulation banding data. Once data is collected, the birds are set free to fly away

All data collected is entered into a computer program that feeds information to the USGS Bird Banding Laboratory. The government provides the computer software and the bird bands, but it is up to the banders to come up with their own nets, safety glasses, gloves and other tools of the trade. Regardless of the investment, Travis admitted, “Its just fun to handle birds; it’s every birder’s dream...warblers, terns, gulls, screech owls, long-eared owls...”

In order to gain a master bander’s permit Travis explained that a birder must not only know birds, but must be willing to learn much technical information. Interested banders must serve an apprenticeship before being endorsed by a licensed bander. The process can take up to two years, and is a completely volunteer effort.

The Migratory Mystery

Once Travis had prepared the group for the upcoming early morning trip to net, band and release birds on DePuy’s Spring Creek, he shared his deep affinity for the avian species with all assembled in the small classroom by telling the story of the bristle-thighed curlew, a bird that nested only in a small part of western Alaska, and its phenomenal journey from birth to follow a genetic migration route from the tundra to the tropics with no roadmap, fellow bird or parent to show it the way. How did they do it? He asked.

“We will never know how they do it, and it is that marvel that keeps me coming back,” said Travis, “Despite all of our human intelligence, birds do something we are unable to do,” or even understand, when they follow their natural migration routes. He then closed the lecture with a reading from “Living on the Wind: Across the Hemisphere with Migratory Birds” by Scott Weidensaul.

“In our lifetime, migration as we know it will fade away,” read Travis.

As he continued with the excerpt, the crowd was visibly moved by the rhythm of the Earth Travis described evident in observing the patterns of birds.

Regardless of the unknown future of migratory birds and the uncertain climate of the world, Travis said he still has great hope for bird populations, and stressed that education is key to a healthy future. “If people get an affinity for something,” he said,” they are inclined to preserve it.”

—Reilly Neill
news@livingstonweekly.com