What we’ll lose if bird banding ends

Scientists have tagged birds for more than 100 years. That preservation program might be defunded.

||| FROM THE WASHINGTON POST |||

I did not know much about bird banding until I signed up to take part in an owl study in my neighborhood outside Portland, Oregon. A federally licensed bird bander named Alexander Lauber installed a wooden owl box in a cherry tree in my backyard. Owl boxes re-create the tree cavities where owls nest in nature.

Later on, long after I’d given up hope of ever hosting owls, I saw a feathered head of a Western screech owl poking out of the box, surveying my yard. A female had decided it was a good place to lay her annual clutch of eggs.

Screech owls are tiny birds — weighing about five ounces — that have done relatively well living in proximity to humans. They’re more often heard than seen: Contrary to their name, they make beautiful sounds, such as the bouncing-ball melody I often hear in the night, and the only “screech” comes when they are defending their nests or young.

After the eggs hatched a month later, Lauber came back, set up a ladder and climbed the tree. He laid a simple trap and caught the adults — each about the size of an open hand — as they came back with food for their young. A few days later, he bagged the owlets and brought them down the ladder one by one.

Lauber weighed the owls, measured their wingspans and jotted the details on a spreadsheet. Then he opened a box of small metal bands with numbers stamped on them. Think of the bands as tiny, wearable license plates. I held an owl, all hot feathers and heartbeat, while Lauber closed the band around a leg and noted down the number. If people found the bird again, they could report the number online, and Lauber would get an alert. That helps us understand where owls go, how well they grow and how long they live.

Then Lauber climbed the ladder again and returned the owls to their nest.

We might think of owls as hunting rodents and other small game, but here was this small, angry owl, his yellow eyes cursing at us, with a moth and an earthworm in his claws. What else could we learn about these nocturnal birds that live among us?

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