Banding Program
The Origins of Banding
The first band used for scientific purposes was put on a European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) in 1899 by Hans Mortenson, a Danish school teacher. Since then, the use of lightweight metal bands to study birds has been widely used all over the world and most countries have access to a banding scheme to supply bands and manage the data collected. Bands have been used to study migration, population biology, monitor survival rates and understand many other aspects of avian biology, in a range of species, including many of the shorebirds. A band is a lightweight metal band, that can be closed around the leg of the bird, it has a unique code on it and an address to which the code can be sent if the bird is recovered, or found dead, providing encounter information for that individual.
Banding in Australia
The Australian Bird and Bat Banding Scheme was started in 1953 and holds a central repository for all records of birds banded in Australia and its Territories, plus all recoveries of banded birds from either our region or abroad. Large scale shorebird banding started in the 1970s when cannon nets were first used in Australia, although there had been some limited banding before that time.
Banding of shorebirds has been conducted in all Australian states but with a focus in Victoria, North- Western Australia and Queensland.
Shorebird Banding in Queensland
Several thousand shorebirds have been banded in Queensland, mainly in Moreton Bay but also in the Great Sandy Strait. The flags used have been plain green leg flags and since 2006 all shorebirds caught have been fitted with individually engraved leg flags. The group conduct banding operations each year aiming to catch and leg flag a sample of all the species using Moreton Bay, both resident and migratory so that comparative data is collected over many years, allowing trends to be monitored.
In the late 1990s the QWSG was one of the first group in the world to use satellite trackers successfully. Since then, the group has been using trackers to follow waders both internationally and locally thereby extending our knowledge of the birds’ movements. The local movements are now becoming more important to the understanding of the usage of the whole of an area facilitating better management and protection of wader habitat.
Geolocators were used for a short period but their limitations and the advances in satellite technology meant their use was ceased.
Today it is possible to follow an individual in real time!
Banding and Tracking
We do not catch birds that have just arrived back to our shores nor when they are getting ready to migrate.
We use two methods to capture shorebirds:
Mist Netting:
The waders are able to see the mist nets during the day so mist netting takes place at night. A couple of hours before dusk and on a rising tide, the nets are set between poles across the pathway the shorebirds take to the roost site. The nets are checked every 30 minutes. Because the nets are set for the night we have recently used thermal binoculars to view them, reducing the disturbance to the birds on the roost. The birds are processed, measurements are taken and a flag attached to a leg. If there is a suitable bird a satellite tracker is also attached.
Cannon Netting:
The nets are set about four hours before a high tide at a roost site. We wait for the birds to move in front of the net. The safety of the birds is checked, if all is OK the cannons are fired. People rush to secure the birds. The birds are extracted from the net and they are placed in holding cages. As with the mist netting the birds are processed; measurements are taken and a flag attached to a leg. If there is a suitable bird a satellite tracker is also attached.
How to get involved with the banding
The setting up of the equipment for mist or cannon netting takes time and people to make it successful. So, everyone is encouraged to come to a session to find out what is involved. To do this there is no requirement to take part. However, if you would like to take the experience forward to band birds it will be necessary to register with the Australian Bird and Bat Banding Scheme (ABBBS) for a licence to handle the birds.
The QWSG’s banding program is very closely allied with the Queensland Bird Research and Banding Group.
If you are interested please contact the leg-flag co-ordinator: contacts page
What do I do if I see a wader with a leg flag?
Advice on how to report a leg flag can be found here: https://waders.org.au/about-waders/shorebird-migration/reporting-leg-flag-sightings/
Further Information
For further information on the banding program, navigate to the following links.
Satellite transmitters and geolocators
Watch a YouTube video featuring Dr Jon Coleman, our banding co-ordinator here