Meet the people preserving the practice of bird banding | The Narwhal

It’s a windy night and unusually warm for October, as visitors gather at the Prince Edward Point Bird Observatory in Milford, Ont., for the “Starry Nights with Saw-whets” event. One barred owl was caught early in the evening, before any of the participants arrived, and is being kept in an owl carrier for closer observation later in the night. But now, word is getting around: it’s probably too warm to see any saw-whet owls, a disappointment to the attendees who have come to see them up-close and learn about nighttime migration monitoring. “South wind,” station manager Ashley Jensen mutters as she checks her phone for radar weather updates. It’s not the right kind of wind current for the migrating owls that are making their way from the north. Volunteers gather regularly at the Prince Edward Point Bird Observatory in the Prince Edward Point National Wildlife Area in Milford, Ont., to band birds with numbered metal rings — a scientific technique used as a knowledge and conservation tool.At the observatory, volunteers gather for bird banding, a scientific technique in which a small, uniquely numbered metal ring is attached to a bird’s leg to track movement, migration routes and lifespan. Jensen is the bander-in-chief, while another bander, Ketha Gillespie, has donned a felt owl suit for the public event. Other visitors are humming with excitement despite the unpromising weather.Prepared with thermoses and blankets, they gather in front of the banding station as Mira Furgoch, the observatory’s vice-president, gives a presentation about the owls and the station’s conservation efforts using a television that will also show live footage of the birds being handled. That is, if any are found. Visitors at the “Starry Nights with Saw-whets” event at the Prince Edward Point Bird Observatory watch a presentation about the owls, hoping to spot one themselves as the evening progresses.Bird-banding stations like Prince Edward Point collect data and conserve natural spaces that are invaluable habitats. They respond to factors affecting avian populations like disease, climate change, birth rates and more, while engaging the public in the natural world and promoting conservation. As of July 2025, the North American Bird Banding Program database includes 85 million banding records and 5.5 million encounters with banded birds.

That includes both encounters reported by the public and recaptures reported by bird banders. Unlike people, birds cross borders freely, and the program relies on migration data collected and shared by both Canada and the United States. But the stability of American bird-banding efforts is at risk. The 2026 U.S. federal budget proposes eliminating the Ecosystems Mission Area, the parent agency overseeing scientific bird-banding efforts.Station manager Ashley Jensen holds a banded barred owl that was captured before the ”Starry Nights with Saw-whets” event at Prince Edward Point Bird Observatory in Milford, Ont. Because the barred owl is a predator, it was held in a carrier and released at a distance from the observatory.Barred owls have larger legs than some other migratory birds banded at the observatory, so they take a specifically large and sturdy band.The possibility of disruption to scientific efforts in Canada as a result of what’s happening in the United States is real, and it is causing anxiety among some Canadian banding stations. If there were to be a shutdown on the U.S. side, Matthew Fuirst from Birds Canada explains that it would affect the collection of data that promotes conservation efforts. “If there was no U.S. bird-banding program, Canada would lose a crucial part of North America’s migratory bird science. It would really hinder our data availability, past and future, for population estimates, habitat protection and hunting regulations,” Fuirst says.Despite these looming threats, the mood among the group waiting for owls at the Prince Edward Point observatory is peaceful. Engaging the publicUnder the stars in Prince Edward Point, an audio lure designed to draw in saw-whet owls plays on repeat into the night. To everyone’s delight, one owl is caught before the event ends. A member of the public symbolically adopts the owl, makes a donation to the observatory and spends a few extra moments with it before it is released into the night.Owl bander Gillespie, who also runs a youth ornithology program that introduces bird observation and banding to school-age children and teens, began her volunteer journey with a casual interest in birds. “I didn’t know a huge amount when I started here. I just came as a volunteer one day and was like, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s so cool,’ and I saw birds I didn’t know.”

From there, she started volunteering and “put my mind to learning.”Station manager Ashley Jensen photographs details of a banded saw-whet owl in a dedicated photo area at the Prince Edward Point Bird Observatory. The observatory’s Standardized Photography Lab uses a standard background and lighting as banders quickly take photos of birds in predefined positions to create “digital specimens.” Each photo is paired with a nine-digit band number.

From observing owls’ wings, banders can gain information about their plumage and molt patterns and determine the age and sex of a bird.She also sees banding as a way to promote conservation, and to enrich the lives of people who live near the bird observatory but might not know about it. This reflects a public engagement challenge for many observatories: their remote locations. In the Prince Edward observatory area of Ontario’s Prince Edward County, tourism and wineries play a big part in the local economy. Gillespie sees an opportunity to expose the migrant workers who labour in these industries to bird banding, giving labourers the chance to see new birds as well as birds they may already be familiar with from their home countries. There have been changes to improve accessibility at the Prince Edward Point Bird Observatory, including the addition of walking canes and foldable seats to accommodate mobility needs, and a taxidermied owl display offering a tactile way to interact with bird bodies for visitors who might have limited vision. Most bird-banding observatories are in remote locations, making public engagement a challenge. But in places like Ontario’s Prince Edward County, which is a popular tourist destination, banders see an opportunity to engage the community in their efforts. Some banders can recall a negative experience with the public, owing to an unfavourable perception of bird banding that is usually cleared up with education and an explanation of the process. Birds waiting in nets can look alarming to someone unfamiliar with banding, which is why net lanes at bird-banding stations are closed to the public. “They may try to remove or cut the birds from the net if they don’t understand what’s going on,” Jensen says, which adds an extra layer of stress for the bird. “Once people know what you’re doing and get to see birds up close, or even get a chance to hold a bird and let it go, then they’re really usually pretty good with it.

”A day of bandingOn a fall day at the Bruce Peninsula Bird Observatory in Lion’s Head, Ont., as a beaver swims across the bay, three bird banders take note of bird migration patterns from their temporary home in Wingfield Cottage.It’s not easy to get here. The location is remote and currently not open to the public, only accessible by a closed unpaved road. But the cabin, perched on the water and surrounded by trees peppered with colourful autumn leaves, is the perfect pit stop for migrating birds, and the banders who stay on-site can expect to interact with a variety of species each season. This is just one of the stations that bring people together to monitor migrating birds in the fall and spring, deepening their knowledge of the natural world. Volunteer Michaela Parks extracts a bird from a mist net at Bruce Peninsula Bird Observatory in Lion’s Head, Ont. Birds will fly into the nets, where they are removed by volunteers and placed in small cloth bags to be processed. The banders at Bruce Peninsula wake up before sunrise, put up the mist nets and wait for birds to fly into them. Weaving through well-trodden but narrow forest trails, they check to see if any birds have been caught before carefully extracting them, placing them in a small cloth bag and carrying the birds back to a small shed for processing. During processing, the bird is identified and its data recorded: species, weight, wing-span, age and sex (where possible) and the date and location of capture. To determine the amount of fat the bird is carrying, banders blow lightly on its chest to separate the feathers for observation. Lastly, a metal band is attached to the bird’s leg before it’s released to continue its migration.

A volunteer extracts a golden-crowned kinglet from a net before taking it to be banded at the observatory.Volunteer Annika Wilcox, who is a trained scientist, extracts a bird for banding at the Haldimand Bird Observatory in Dunnville, Ont.In between net checks, banders cast a trained eye for birds. A small shuffle in a faraway bush might catch everyone’s attention: in moments, they’ve identified a bird that an untrained eye may not even see. “Junco.” “Hermit thrush.”

They peer through binoculars.The banders also take census on observation days: a walkthrough at the start and end of the day, slowly and attentively, identifying as many birds as they can. Volunteer Catherine Lee-Zuck looks through binoculars to identify birds at the Bruce Peninsula Bird Observatory. Volunteers have managed to identify birds that untrained eyes may not see.Bruce Peninsula’s bander-in-charge and station scientist, Stéphane Menu, has been doing this for nearly 20 years. His colleagues Michaela Parks and Catherine Lee-Zuck bring their own set of skills: Parks is also a photographer who donates her work to the organization, and Lee-Zuck is an ornithologist who has been banding for three years. They share the work of observing, documenting and banding birds during the fall migration season.  Menu describes the importance of the information being gathered: “We provide a lot of data that we think is very useful for not just general knowledge, but also for the government to make management decisions on the cheap.”

Bander-in-charge Stéphane Menu holds and weighs a blue jay during processing at the Bruce Peninsula observatory. Menu says the work banders do is useful not just for general knowledge, but to help inform government decisions, saving money in the process.Much of the bird-banding labour is done by volunteers, who may receive a small daily food stipend like they do at the Bruce Peninsula Bird Observatory. In more remote areas, some locations offer accommodations, but banding stations in more urban areas allow for volunteers to come and go for their shifts. During my visit to Bruce Peninsula, locals come by the banding station to offer their help on a stonemasonry repair that needs to be done. It’s all in the spirit of collaboration.Bird banders Michaela Parks, left, Stéphane Menu, centre, and Catherine Lee-Zuck, right, pose in the bird-banding shed at the Bruce Peninsula Bird Observatory in Lion’s Head, Ont. Though some volunteers will get involved with banding out of a passing interest, many are bird enthusiasts who want a closer look at the birds they love.

Reference books guide bird banders‘ work and are readily available at the volunteers’ cabin at the Bruce Peninsula observatory.The banders’ cabin is full of bird reference books and sunlight.