Illinois Raptor Center Bird Banding Station

06/13/2026

IRC Open House!

Tickets are now available for our Open House (link below), which will be June 28, 2026.

There are two sessions available:
11:00am-1:00pm
and
2:00pm-4:00pm.

This is necessary due to limited parking on site, and to make sure we can give everyone a chance to experience each of the open areas and activity stations. Please choose only ONE session.

Both sessions will feature a Bald Eagle release! There will be a celebration of the 35 years of work of IRC Executive Director Emeritus Jane Seitz, viewing of some of our education birds, tours of the animal hospital, and a bioartifacts table! Stopping by each station will earn a stamp on your Open House Passport, which can be entered into a drawing for a prize (one drawing in each Open House session).

We hope to see you there!

https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/open-house-session--1

06/13/2026

Travis is back from Sun Foundation’s Art and Science in the Woods, and 215 campers, ages 5-15 (and dozens more adult and junior TA’s and other staff) were able to join for banding this week!

After Monday’s report (29 birds, 16 species), Tuesday through Friday mornings of operating 8 nets each day from 700-1130 brought 37 birds from 18 species.

Here are the totals for the week:

67 birds of 22 species

10 Northern Cardinal
7 Common Yellowthroat
6 Gray Catbird
6 Downy Woodpecker
5 Yellow-breasted Chat
4 Indigo Bunting
4 Field Sparrow
4 Brown-headed Cowbird
3 Eastern Phoebe
2 Baltimore Oriole
2 Brown Thrasher
2 Black-capped Chickadee
2 White-breasted Nuthatch
2 American Robin
1 Scarlet Tanager
1 Chipping Sparrow
1 Rose-breasted Grosbeak
1 Wood Thrush
1 Eastern Wood Pewee
1 Tufted Titmouse
1 Northern House Wren
1 Ruby-throated Hummingbird

This is one fewer bird, but one more species than last year. Two birds were recaptures. A Brown-headed Cowbird we originally banded in 2023 and an Indigo Bunting we originally banded in 2024.

06/08/2026

Travis is a visiting instructor at the Sun Foundation’s Art and Science in the Woods camp this week, banding birds with campers in the morning each day this week.

Today we operated 8 nets from 730-1130

We captured 29 birds from 16 species

4 Northern Cardinal
3 Yellow-breasted Chat
3 Common Yellowthroat
3 Field Sparrow
3 Downy Woodpecker
2 Eastern Phoebe
2 Black-capped Chickadee
1 Baltimore Oriole
1 Rose-breasted Grosbeak
1 Wood Thrush
1 Brown Thrasher
1 White-breasted Nuthatch
1 Indigo Bunting
1 Northern House Wren
1 Gray Catbird
1 Brown-headed Cowbird

06/05/2026

Travis led a banding demonstration as part of a BioBlitz at Prairie Hills Wetland Reserve today (near his hometown). This property is part of the Prairie Land Conservancy land trust system.

https://www.prairielandconservancy.org/prairie-hills-wetland-reserve.html

We operated 7 nets from 730-1100

11 birds of 6 species were captured, banded, and released. Travis documented 48 bird species overall via sight and/or sound.

3 Downy Woodpecker
3 Indigo Bunting
2 Wood Thrush
1 Gray Catbird
1 Red-bellied Woodpecker
1 Northern Cardinal

05/30/2026

Spring 2026 Banding Summary

Banding days: 21

Total species captured: 78

Total captures: 839

New bands issued: 617

Recaptures (birds previously encountered > 90 days prior): 78

The other 144 birds were repeats (birds banded that season but ended up in a net again), escapees before banding, or species we don’t band (like house sparrows and hummingbirds)

Top 5 species issued new bands:

White-throated Sparrow 82
Gray Catbird. 57
Swainson’s Thrush. 48
Indigo Bunting. 34
Ovenbird. 25

New species banded this season:

#111 Prairie Warbler
#112 Blackpoll Warbler
#113 Orchard Oriole

Huge thanks to all who helped with banding, especially Mark Sadler who was there almost every day to help with banding and taking down nets.

05/29/2026

We had an extremely strange occurrence today.

In the first round of net checks, we found an American Toad in a net.

Now, the bottom of the nets sometimes touch the ground, so you could imagine a toad getting caught there.

This toad was 5 feet off the ground in the net.

Toads can’t jump.

So…..how?

We suspect that a raptor, such as a Barred Owl or Red-shouldered Hawk, grabbed the toad and, in an attempt to avoid the net, or upon bouncing out of the net, dropped the toad and it landed there.

05/29/2026

And that’s a wrap on the Spring 2026 banding season.

Today’s banding report

We operated 18 nets from 600-1030

We captured 26 birds from 9 species

8 Indigo Bunting
6 White-breasted Nuthatch
4 Northern Cardinal
2 Common Yellowthroat
2 Tufted Titmouse
1 Prothonotary Warbler
1 Magnolia Warbler
1 Mourning Dove
1 Red-bellied Woodpecker

05/27/2026

Today’s banding report

We had forgotten what a really slow day felt like. We remember now.

We operated 18 nets from 600-1030

We captured 29 birds from 11 species

9 Red-winged Blackbird
5 Brown-headed Cowbird
3 Indigo Bunting
2 White-breasted Nuthatch
2 Downy Woodpecker
2 Tufted Titmouse
2 Northern Cardinal
1 Song Sparrow
1 Gray Catbird
1 Least Flycatcher
1 Swainson’s Thrush

The two nuthatches were our first hatch-year birds of 2026.

05/26/2026

Today’s banding report

We operated 17 nets from 600-1030

We captured 44 birds of 16 species

14 Indigo Bunting
8 Downy Woodpecker
4 Brown-headed Cowbird
3 White-breasted Nuthatch
2 Northern Cardinal
2 Red-winged Blackbird
1 Orchard Oriole
1 Yellow-breasted Chat
1 Magnolia Warbler
1 Swainson’s Thrush
1 Gray-cheeked Thrush
1 Eastern Bluebird
1 Least Flycatcher
1 Traill’s Flycatcher
1 Tufted Titmouse
1 House Sparrow

The Orchard Oriole was a first for the station, and is the 113th species we have banded here.