FAQ

Nets are opened half hour before sunrise – it is still dark when we start opening them! We keep the nets open for 4-6 hours depending on the conditions. The first hour is magical as the birds begin to wake up and start singing. At the height of the Fall migration, you will hear migrating birds overhead giving their call notes in the dark. As the sun begins to rise they will head for earth to rest and feed.

If it is raining, we do not open the nets and there is no banding. If it is excessively windy, it is too dangerous for the birds to open the nets and so there may be limited or no nets open. Sometimes if it is very hot or very cold we will not be able to catch birds in mist nets because it is not safe for them. If you are unsure if there will be banding due to weather conditions – just ask the BIC for that day (found on the season schedule).

We have seen a large increase in the number of birds banded after we started our prairie restoration project. In the fall we now band ~2000 birds each season, mostly sparrows that are attracted to the prairie grasses for feeding. In the spring we catch much fewer birds, usually 1/2 – 1/4 of what is banded in the fall.

Bird banding helps us understand the lives of birds, including how long they live, where they go, and how their populations change over time. By safely placing a small, uniquely numbered band on a bird’s leg, we can track individual birds across years and locations. This information is important for protecting species, documenting migration routes and informing conservation decisions. For HBO, we have recently been able to document an increase of migratory birds after our native prairie restoration.

You can reach out on our social media or contact Rick (email on home page) for information on volunteering! We welcome all people with an interest in learning about our local nature!

Birds are safely captured in mist nets, soft nylon nets that are set up around our site each morning. The nets blend into the vegetation so the birds cannot detect them, and they fly in as they are moving around. They rest safely in a pocket of the net until we retrieve them. We check the nets every half hour to carefully take the birds out of the nets and bring them back for banding.

A Savannah Sparrow (a grassland specialist species that we infrequently catch) safely hanging in the pocket of a mist net. Experienced banders extract the birds, bring them to the station for banding and measurements and then they are released! This bird was captured in our prairie net, which gives valuable information about what species are using this space.