Carnegie Museum of Natural History

One of the Four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh

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Hummingbird Bands

tiny hummingbird band similar in size to the point of a pencil

At Powdermilll Nature Reserve, researchers use different sized bands for different sized birds, which helps them track the movement and lifespan of populations.

The band pictured above is a hummingbird band. It is so small that the customary nine-digit band number is reduced to five digits with a letter prefix.

Powdermill Nature Reserve’s avian research center is part of Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s biological research station in Rector, Pennsylvania.  The research center operates a bird banding station, conducts bioacoustical research, and performs flight tunnel analysis with the goal of reducing window collisions.

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1,400 Miles in Three Weeks

hummingbird with a bright red throat and black head

We received word this spring from the National Banding Lab that a young male ruby-throated hummingbird banded at Powdermill Nature Reserve on September 18, 2014 was recaptured three weeks later (October 10) in Lake Jackson, Texas.

A journey of 1,425 miles in three weeks is pretty astounding when one considers that this male weighed in at just 3.5 grams, not much more than a penny. His wings measured 42 mm (a little over 1.5″).

The hummingbird’s wing beat has been measured at 50 times per second. Now we’re not sure exactly when he left our banding area or if he was caught the day he arrived in Texas, but if he used every day in the interval to fly south, he would have averaged 65 miles per day. Pretty impressive!

Once the data was collected in Texas, the bird was released and probably spent a few days fattening up for the next leg of its migration—a nonstop crossing of the Gulf of Mexico!

Powdermill Nature Reserve’s avian research center is part of Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s biological research station in Rector, Pennsylvania.  The research center operates a bird banding station, conducts bioacoustical research, and performs flight tunnel analysis with the goal of reducing window collisions.

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Powdermill Antennae Helps Track Migration

Antenna being put up in a field

 

by Scott Pruden

Ever wonder where birds and butterflies go on those long, seasonal migratory journeys? So do scientists, and the installation of several new antennae at Powdermill Nature Reserve will help them find out.

The three arrays are part of the Motus Wildlife Tracking System. Motus (which is Latin for “movement”) is an international collaborative research network that tracks small flying organisms, like birds, butterflies, and bats, that have been fitted with digitally encoded radio transmitters.

These “nano-tags” broadcast intermittent radio signals, which the antennae scan for and detect. Scientists use the data collected to track the migration patterns of tagged animals. The network includes more than 350 receiving stations throughout Canada, the United States, Mexico, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean.

Data from 2016 shows that about 40 percent of nano-tagged tagged birds are tracked using Motus, compared with about one in a thousand birds tagged with leg bands.

Powdermill Avian Research Center is located near Rector, Pennsylvania, at Powdermill Nature Reserve, the environmental research center of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, and is one of the longest continuously operating bird banding stations in the United States.

Powdermill Reserve, which encompasses 2,200 acres of ponds, streams, woodlands, open fields, and thickets, allows scientists to monitor and study changes in the local ecology and wildlife populations. The reserve is home to a wide variety of plants and animals facing habitat destruction in the region.

Installation of the Motus antennae is supported by a grant from the Richard King Mellon Foundation, which helps support conservation efforts in southwestern Pennsylvania and throughout the United States.

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Fall Bird Banding at Powdermill

bird banding at Powdermill Nature Reserve

Fall is an exciting and busy time for our avian researchers at Powdermill Nature Reserve, Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s environmental research center in Rector Pennsylvania.

As birds migrate south, thousands fly through Powdermill, where they are identified, banded, and studied before they continue their long journey to their winter nesting grounds.

Researchers band anything from worm-eating Warblers to brightly colored purple finches in their nets each year.

This fall alone, more than 4,000 birds representing 150+ species have been studied and banded since September. Researchers catch the birds in specially designed mist nets that are cast each morning before dawn. Caught birds are carefully transported to a banding station, where they are identified, measured, and given a small band issued through the US Geological Survey.  Bands provide information for other researchers and don’t affect the birds flight, nesting, or eating habits.

Above all else, the well being of every bird is Powdermill’s top priority at all times. The entire banding process takes less than a minute, and the vast majority of birds are actually quite calm during their short visit at the banding station.

But why band birds at all?

The fundamental goal of bird banding has always been to record the age, sex, wing length, fat deposits, and body mass of captured species as a way of monitoring, year to year, how avian populations are faring in the wild.

Banding gives us insight into many things like the life cycles and longevity of birds, habitat use, and how disease and environmental toxins are affecting wild bird populations.

Want to learn more? You can see monthly and annual banding summaries online or follow Powdermill Nature Reserve on Facebook for weekly updates and stunning pictures.