Since the last photo of the owl getting banded had a lot of you thinking it was getting an amputation, I thought I’d share some of the gear that is used.
Firstly, here is a video about banding. This is the one I linked in the other post, but I don’t think many saw it. It’s a long video, but the first 5 minutes are banding the owl, then they measure it, determine sex, and do the UV light test to agree it. Lots of interesting stuff in here.
These are bands. You can see they come in a wide range of sizes. They’re just a ring of metal with an ID number on them. They are out around the Tarsus with banding pliers.
The pliers have a raised post (red arrow) to open up the band, and blunt holes (green arrow) matched to the size of the ring so it can only be closed to a safe size.
How do you know what size rings and pliers to use? There is a sizing gauge!
If a band does happen to be too snug, there is a tool to spread it back open.
I’d post more, but without native uploads working, I don’t want to make a big post and have it not work.
Some additional banding info:
Some birds can get very decked out with bird bling. This chart shows all the locations birds can be banded. When someone reports a banded bird, they’ll be asked for all the IDs they can supply to confirm the bird.
If you do report a bird and they can verify it, they’ll send you a certificate and info on that bird’s band!
Birds as small as hummingbirds are banded. Here is one tiny bird band.
Here is where you report a bird band in the US
“Bird bling” has just been added to my vocabulary.