The sheer joy of sharing a moment, up close and personal, with a bird, and then watching it return to the wild, is at the heart of what makes every bander love their job. But the really big deal is figuring out how to effectively use the information obtained from “banding” — what we call this process of capturing, putting something on and/or taking something off, assessing, and then releasing birds – to better protect the birds that we love.

Meredith will take us through the evolving world of bird banding — from the basics of tagging the birds with numbered bands, to cutting edge technologies like automated radio telemetry and genomics. She will share information about what Bird Conservancy of the Rockies and partner organizations are learning that will help us be more successful at conserving birds.

All bird handling and banding is done under state and federal permits and data are submitted to the USGS Bird Banding Laboratory.