[Is It Time to Halt
Bird Banding?] published as “Bird-banding
has failed to stem the tide of decreasing bird numbers”: A Letter to the Editor, Hudson Valley One, published
August 30, 2023
https://hudsonvalleyone.com/2023/08/30/policing-lawyering-up-winston-farm-and-more-letters-from-our-readers/
 |
| In a study published
in 2014, researchers tracked Tree Swallows crossing the Gulf of Mexico from
Louisiana south to their wintering grounds in the Yucatan Peninsula. They found
that “although most days during autumn migration were characterized by
unfavorable headwinds blowing to the northwest, migration over the Gulf mostly
occurred on days with strong winds blowing to the south.” This bit of
information is telling: It verifies that the energy requirements for traveling
across a large body of water are so high that birds wait for strong southward
winds to help carry them across. https://doi.org/10.1093/czoolo/60.5.653 |
ALL TEXT AND PHOTOS © Marlene A. Condon
Bird banding has been done
for so long that bird researchers and watchers typically don’t give it much
thought. Perhaps they should.
I visited a bird banding
station once, and when I saw the intense fear in the eyes of the birds being
handled, I had to leave and never wanted to revisit the experience.
Am I motivated by emotion
when I call for an end to this practice? Absolutely! But there’s plenty of
emotionless rationale behind my contention that banding should be discontinued,
and it’s based upon physics, biology, logic, and empathy.
Physics (the science of
the relationship between matter and energy) dictates that increasing the amount
of mass to be carried over miles requires increased energy stores to carry it.
Logic (the science that
deals with the principles of valid reasoning) thus suggests that banding must
be detrimental. A migrant has evolved to add just enough fat to its body to
provide the energy needed to carry its average weight across the Gulf of
Mexico. Adding a band—which increases mass to be carried—means a songbird’s
energy will be exhausted sooner. Even if a bird’s energy is not depleted until
it is as close as a few inches from land, the result is
disastrous because the creature will drown if it falls into the water.
Songbirds don’t swim.
Empathy (the ability to
identify with and understand another’s situation and feelings) tells you that
birds are terrified when handled by humans who are their natural enemies (some humans,
including scientists, still kill birds).
Bird-banding science began
in America over 100 years ago. As a tool for preservation, it has obviously
failed to stem the tide of decreasing bird numbers. Hence, there’s no
reason to add insult to injury; these animals are struggling enough to survive
in a degraded world.
NATURE ADVICE:
Scientists diss the emotion
I’ve acknowledged here as part of my motivation for calling for an end to the
practice of bird banding. When they criticize someone’s sensitivity in this particular
scenario, however, they are suggesting everyone should just ignore the trauma that
banders induce in the animals they profess to care about. But banders are
inflicting severe stress, which is just as detrimental to birds as it is to
people. There’s no shame in experiencing a conscious mental reaction to the
expression of dread obvious in the eyes of animals being handled by humans, so
don’t let scientists intimidate you with such cheap shots. It doesn't speak well of them to try to stop folks from speaking out by putting them
down for caring justifiably about wildlife.
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