Mist Netting Kentucky’s Songbirds🐦

 In this weeks discussion I reviewed the video “Mist Netting Kentucky’s Songbirds”, which gives the audience a first-hand experience through an educational documentary into the process of humanly catching and releasing birds in order to place a  “band” on the bird’s leg as an identifier for researching tracking birds species, as well as migration patterns. At the beginning of the video, we are introduced to a park ranger who is conducting a research experiment that requires catching and banding songbirds. The park ranger further explains that the process of catching birds with the mist nets in the bird’s natural flight path is imperative for documenting and tracking nesting & migration habits. Furthermore, it’s essential for ecologists and park management staff to know more about the birds existing in their park from physical contact rather than just looking at them from afar.

🐦When the first contact is made with the bird, the direction in which the bird flew into the net must be identified, and the bird must be removed in the path that it came in.

🐦 Secondly, when handling the bird the subject must be treated with care, but control must be maintained on the animal so that you can keep the bird from flying away.

🐦 Thirdly, the bird is then placed in a comfortable aired clothe bag, so it can calm down until the ranger or scientist are ready to examine and document essential markings on the bird.

🐦 The bird is then branded with a plastic anklet identifier so that researchers will be able to keep track of the bird, as well as the code on the bracelet,  must be recorded before releasing the bird.

🐦 After the bird is banded; Subsequently the bird must be a check on its underbelly for signs of nesting, which can be demonstrated by blowing a fresh stream of air of the bird’s underbelly. If the belly of the bird looks naked with no feathers when you blow air on the bird’s stomach, then this is an apparent sign that the bird is nesting and has been keeping eggs warm. This gives the researcher a basic understanding of how far along the bird is in the nesting process. When the feathers start to grow back on the bird’s underbelly, then we know that the bird’s eggs have hatched.

   In the video, the park ranger states that Government Grants are extremely important in the process fo paying for maintaining the maintenance of the park, she also emphasizes the importance of purchasing a Hunting & Fishing License. Although some may view this as an advertising attempt, I believe the ranger posses a very valid point. Unfortunately, there are only so many ways the national parks make money; thus any funding that comes hunting and fishing licenses support Habitat Management and Land Acquisition.

References

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3T5pi18JADI (Links to an external site.)Mist Netting Kentucky’s Songbirds. 2010. Retrieved from