At Zuma, we use a lot of bird banding lingo. It helps us communicate quickly and efficiency. Here are some common banding terms and phrases we use:
Cycle: When we go out to band birds, usually every 2 weeks at Zuma.
Net Round: When we go to check the nets, generally every 45 minutes at Zuma. This time can change based on weather conditions, number of banders on hand, number of nets, etc. and may vary from station to station. Birds can bounce out of nets or occasionally escape. Near-passerine birds like Mourning Doves and quails are especially good at escaping as they kind of just lay in the net since they don’t grip the net like passerines.
Extracting a bird: The action of removing a bird from a net. Birds can get pretty creative here and some (species) are easier to untangle than others. It’s always helpful for a bander to carry some sort of fine-tipped tool like a pen or crochet hook to get to hard to access places where the net may be caught around the bird. It’s also helpful to carry a seam-ripper or knife in case the net needs to be cut in order to safely remove a bird. Cutting the net is worse-case scenario as a net with holes can complicate things in the future, but a bird’s safety and health are top priority here.
There’s a junco that needed to be removed too (in front of me)
Mist net: A multi-foot net (about 40 feet long at Zuma) made of fine string used to catch the birds. The nets have pockets that the birds can fall into if necessary. After getting to the birds, we untangle them, place them in a bag, and take them back to the banding station to await processing.
Alpha Code: Commonly used by the birding community. Alpha codes are essentially an abbreviation for a species. Some common alpha codes include ACWO (Acorn Woodpecker), CASJ (California Scrub-jay) and WCSP (White-crowned Sparrow). Some names are modified because they would otherwise be identical to another species. For example, the alpha code CATO could be used for both a California Towhee and a Canyon Towhee, so they are instead called CALT and CANT respectively.
Processing a bird: When banders process a bird, they are taking different data measurements. This includes age and sex (see below), muscle and fat content, which net the bird was caught in (to determine the bird’s general territory), wing chord, weight, breeding status, flight feather wear, molt stages, and more!
Band: A metal ring with a unique number that is put on a bird’s leg so that we can identify the individual if they are ever caught again. If they are recaptured, we can compare new data against any previous times the bird was caught.
Most birds are banded, with the exception of a few at Zuma. For instance, hummingbird banding requires a specific permit as bands have to be rolled by hand from very thin sheets of metal. Other taxa that aren’t banded include quails (though getting one in a net is pretty rare). Every bird is processed, including unbanded birds.
Band indicated with a purple arrow
Recapture/”Recap”: A bird that has been caught and processed before. Usually we catch birds that were banded at Zuma, but it is entirely possible to get a bird banded at another station (there’s one on the other side of the canyon). Some migratory species that have been banded at Zuma do consistently return the following year. As for unbanded birds, there is no way to know if the bird is a recap or not unless there is some unique feature about the bird.
Aging the bird: Aging is the process of determining how old the bird is. This can be done by looking at plumage, skull ossification (skulling the bird), shape of the rectrices, and more. Birds are labeled as Hatch Years and After Hatch Years. If possible, birds can be aged further as Second Years, After Second Years, etc. (see below).
Hatch Year (HY) bird: A bird that hatched in the calendar year you are in. Hatch Year birds have tapered feathers that are poor quality (less dense, easily wear and bend). While these feathers are pretty junky, they are helpful in getting the chick get out of the nest as soon as possible as they are an easy target for predators and disease there.
Second Year (SY) bird: This is a bird that hatched two calendar years ago. On January 1, any bird previously considered a Hatch Year bird will become a Second Year bird. Second Year birds can still have junky feathers, but they usually show signs of transitioning (aka molting) to adult feathers. The noticeable differences between feather ages is called a molt limit.
Second Year White-crowned Sparrows identified by the presence of some brown feathers in the crown, ratty tail (indicating poor quality feathers), and other characteristics. An After Hatch Year/After Second Year bird’s crown would be completely black.
After Hatch Year (AHY) birds: A bird that hatched in any of the previous calendar years. Not all species can be reliably aged past one year, so After Hatch Year is kind of a catch-all.
Other age codes: When we’re able to get a little more specific with a bird’s age, we use other age codes. This is usually “After Second Year”, but codes like “After Third Year” and so on can be used for species that still have noticeable differences in age by then. This includes some larger birds like woodpeckers and raptors.
Older birds (including After Hatch years) will have rounded (aka truncate) feathers, even molt limits (no contrasting), fully developed feathers, etc.
In 2022, this bird is an After Second Year (After Hatch Year in 2021) mainly because of the black and white crown. Though you can’t see it in this photo, adult birds like this one have rounded feathers.
Sexing the bird: This is the process of determining the sex of the bird. (In case you’re wondering, sex is biological, gender is imposed by society and has so scientific meaning). We can sex the birds usually by plumage (obvious and less obvious), but also by wing chord (measurement from shoulder to wing tip), eye color (like in Bushtits), breeding indicators, and more!
In the case of this warbler species, males and females can be easily distinguished by plumage. The males, even as juveniles, have a black mask.
Evidence of breeding: When birds are breeding they show signs of doing so. Males will form bulbous masses called cloacal protuberances which produce and store sperm. Females will develop a brood patch, an area on the belly where feathers were shed so that skin to skin contact could better warm eggs or chicks. In some species, like the California Thrasher, males will develop cloacal protuberances and brood patches since they also help to incubate the nest.
The presence of a cloacal protuberance or brood patch can also be used to determine the sex of a bird if there are otherwise no other reliable differences. This can be said for birds like California Thrashers, California Towhees, and Wrentits. The breeding codes are written in short hand as CP and BP respectively.
Brood Patch circled in orange, cloacal protuberance circled in purple
Cloacal protuberance circled in purple
Birds seen/heard: These are birds that were observed, but not caught in the net. It’s good to collect this data because not every bird is going to get caught in a net. This way, we still have invaluable information on what other species inhabit the canyon. Hearing many birds in the canyon is a good sign of the species’ health, such as birds singing to attract a mate or defend territory.
We also note the presence of other taxa, such as lizards, butterflies, and mammals (ie. Desert Cottontail and Botta’s Pocket Gopher). Also noted are significant plant species and vegetation growth/health.
Rectrices: Rectrices are the tail feathers of a bird. In the case of most birds, we pull two rectrices from one side (one outermost and one innermost). The feathers get sent to the Bird Genoscape Project at Colorado State University where the DNA is sequenced. Using this DNA, scientists can track migration patterns that go on to inform conservation efforts and research projects.
In this photo, you can see the growth bars stretching across each feather horizontally. The darker areas are where the feathers grew at night, the lighter areas during the day. Sun exposure lightened the feathers as they grew.
Tabular Pyles: Named after the famed ornithologist Peter Pyle who has extensively studied molt limits, Tabular Pyles are essentially a bander’s guide to determining age and sex in a bird. Most of the information comes from Pyle’s book/encyclopedia Identification Guide to North American Birds and was organized into a condensed, easy to follow format by C. John Ralph and Walt Sakai (the master bander at Zuma Canyon and Bear Divide). These guides help make processing more efficient and less stressful to the bird (and bird bander). From a Tabular Pyle, banders can look up the most reliable ways to age and sex a bird, plus details on a bird’s plumage and molt.