HUNTINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – Some bird species in our area are getting a health checkup.
Just after the sun rises, Mark LaBarr and his crew are hard at work at Audubon Vermont.
“This is the 25th year we have been running a banding station at the Audubon Center and we have caught a lot of birds in that time,” he said.
The crews were up early setting up mist nets to catch birds on the Audubon property.
Once they safely bag the birds, they bring them back to their banding station.
“We have set protocol for how we set our nets up, how we band the birds and the data that we collect, so it all goes into a big pool,” LaBarr explained.
It’s part of the Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship or MAPS program done all over the Northeast.
For new birds, they band them and get information on them. Some have returned after flying south.
“This bird is one that we have captured before,” LaBarr said. “It’s really kinda cool that this bird has flown back and forth to the Green Mountain Audubon Center.”
All the information collected plays a key part in learning about bird species.
“You are able to get information that scientists can use to better understand birds,” LaBarr said. “All of that data from all of these stations can really assist with bird conservation.”