Summary of raptor banding records at the bird banding lab

Abstract

The USGS Bird Banding Laboratory (BBL) maintains a database of all bird-banding data from North America. These files contain more than 70 million records. Data that are stored electronically (i.e., from 1960 and later) comprise 61 million records. Of these, 1.86 million represent raptors. As expected, the more common species are the more commonly banded. Sharp-shinned Hawk (Accipiter striatus), American Kestrel (Falco sparverius), Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis), and Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii) are the most commonly banded diurnal raptors. Among owls, Northern Saw-whet Owl (Aegolius acadicus) is by far the most commonly banded. Most raptor banding has taken place at migration monitoring stations, with nestling-banding making up another large percentage. Although banding data are most valuable when associated with subsequent encounters, much interesting distributional and migration information can be found in the banding database itself. Because the BBL stores information regarding the status of banded birds, we can demonstrate the increases or decreases over time in the use of auxiliary markers such as coded leg bands, geolocators, or transmitters. © 2012 The Raptor Research Foundation, Inc.