Bird collaborations at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center

This past winter a bird was found on Red Reef Beach with a strange numbered metal bracelet around its ankle, the bird was brought to gumbo limbo where we were able to identify it. It was a Royal Tern that had been marked with a USGS bird-band. This was very exciting because only about 2% of banded Royal Terns are ever recovered away from the site where they were banded. Band “encounters” have been extremely important in providing scientists with valuable information on the movement, survival and behavior of birds. This Royal Tern was banded as a hatchling in 2006 in Kure Beach, North Carolina. This news was also very interesting because a Brown Pelican was recovered here at Gumbo Limbo with a band on back in December of 2005, it came from the same place in NC. The pelican was born sometime before 2002, so it was at least 4year old when it turned up here in Boca. Researchers in NC have been banding birds there since the 1970’s and their studies have documented the dramatic recovery of Brown Pelican Nesting in that area. Their banded birds have also shown up in other parts of Florida as well. Many banded Royal Terns found dead at the Sebastian inlet bridge brought attention to the problems the bridge structure was causing for wildlife. Safeguards were then installed on the bridge structure to reduce bird mortality.

The North American Bird Banding Program is jointly administered by the United States Department of the Interior and the Canadian Wildlife Service. Their respective banding offices have similar functions and policies and use the same bands, reporting forms and data formats. Joint coordination of the program dates back to 1923. Every bird-band has a unique number on it and all “banders” submit there records into a central database. This makes it very easy to track down where a bird you find or see was banded!

Another way scientists keep track of birds besides putting bands or tags on birds is to do different types of surveys or “counts.”

This year Gumbo Limbo again participated in the Great Backyard Bird Count. The Great Backyard Bird Count is an annual four-day event that engages bird watchers of all ages in counting birds to create a real-time snapshot of where the birds are across the continent. Anyone can participate, from beginning bird watchers to experts. This year 81,004 bird checklists were submitted and 632 species were reported including over 11 million individual birds counted. This year we put Boca Raton on the continental results map by including our results, which made Boca Raton a top location reporting Northern Parula Warblers. Most Northern Parula winter from southern Mexico to Honduras and in the Caribbean, however some winter in southern Florida. So we were really lucky to see them here on the days of the count.

For more information on participating in our bird programs or if you see a banded bird or find a bird with a band on its leg please e-mail us at:
-Rick Newman