Waterfowlers such as myself are always hoping to harvest a duck or goose which has a leg band and/or a neck collar! I was curious since I am a graduate student at the University of Illinois as to what scientists learn from duck and goose banding?
Furthermore, I hoped that you could tell me about what types of bands are used other than neck collars and aluminum leg bands and describe the significance of the different neck collar colors found on geese? Thanks for the great "Ask a biologist" section I think the questions have been excellent and I learn a great deal from this information that Delta Waterfowl provides!
Regards, Adam Henninger
Hi Adam!
Banding ducks and geese with leg bands allows scientists and waterfowl managers to identify individual birds by the bands own unique number. Bands are useful to track flight paths, determine harvest information, and figure out the specifics of a bird’s life history. Band recovery data is actually how the 4 flyways were developed (Pacific, Central, Mississippi and Atlantic), and remains vital to waterfowl population management tools today.
Leg bands although very useful can only be observed and recorded if the bird was shot or recaptured. However neck collars can be observed and identified from a distance through binoculars or spotting scopes.
There are different colored neck collars as well as neck collars that contain different number of characters (2, 3, or 4 digit collars). The Bird Banding Laboratory, assign unique combinations of codes and colors. For example, Canada Geese are marked with either 3 or 4 digit collars, and 3 digit collars are often used on smaller subspecies like the Richardson’s, Cackling and Aleutian Geese. In effort to track populations and movements, colors are assigned to districts. An example of this would be orange collars used in the Canadian portion of the Mississippi flyway, and Blue collars used in the US portion of the Mississippi flyway. Some other methods to mark and identify birds at a distance are colored leg bands, nasal saddles or nasal discs.
Hope this helps Adam and thanks for the question. I am still waiting to harvest a bird with a band! Hopefully when my turn comes around, it will have a $100 reward band on the other leg!
All the best and Happy New Year!
Sincerely,
Carly Deacon