Banding Coalition of the Americas

04/13/2026

We’ve wrapped up our Spring Bird Banding on Dauphin Island with more than 1000 human visitors, 98 birds banded, and 3 recaps from prior seasons.

We’d like to thank our amazing volunteer crew, Dauphin Island Bird Sanctuaries, and all who came to see and support us. Everyone came together to make this week a great one. We even broke a record for seeing the most visitors this session compared to any spring or fall outreach event so far! 🙌🏻

We look forward to seeing you all here again next spring - April 10-14th, 2027. Be sure to save the dates!

*** All banding is being conducted under a federally authorized Bird Banding Permit issued by the U.S. Geological Survey's BBL.

04/12/2026

We had a pretty exciting morning with the first deployment of a HybridTag (Motus compatible radio transmitter) on a Gray Catbird for Maddie Jackson - a Master’s student in the Perez lab at University of South Alabama College of Arts and Sciences.

This transmitter, as well as others, can be detected day or night by automated receivers connected to the Motus network. This includes our station at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab and several other stations along the gulf coast and those farther north. Maddie hopes to uncover local and migratory behavior of these birds to better understand habitat usage.

The rest of the day resembled yesterday with few birds but numerous human visitors (243 today, which brings us to a total of 883). Big shout out to Francis M. Weston Audubon Society and Professor Bomsky from Pensacola Christian College for bringing groups out to the station for a visit.

Tomorrow will be our final day for this session! See you in the morning to close out an amazing week 😎🪶

***All banding and tagging is being conducted under a federally authorized Bird Banding Permit issued by the U.S. Geological Survey's BBL.

04/11/2026

Day 3 of or 2026 Spring Bird Banding on Dauphin Island with Dauphin Island Bird Sanctuaries brought few birds but a remarkable number of inquisitive minds. Today alone about 250 visitors joined us to learn about the birds that call Alabama home whether temporary (migrants) or permanent. Many families with young children came to spend their time with us as well. At the end of the day, if we can succeed in captivating the mind of at least one child and inspiring an interest of birds and conservation, we have done our job.

Besides the data we are collecting as part of our research, our goal is to educate as many people as we can about not only birds but the importance of conserving habitat here on the island. DIBS has done an amazing job acquiring contiguous wooded properties and conserving this vital stopover habitat.

To the visitors that have joined us thus far, here’s to you! Thanks for making our efforts worth every second. See y’all tomorrow!

**All banding is being conducted under a federally authorized Bird Banding Permit issued by the U.S. Geological Survey's BBL.

04/10/2026

Our spring bird banding event was featured this morning on the news! Check out the full video at the link.

Dauphin Island hosts spring bird banding event for public >>> https://www.fox10tv.com/2026/04/10/dauphin-island-hosts-spring-bird-banding-event-public/

04/10/2026

Day 2 is in the books for the Spring Bird Banding on Dauphin Island with Dauphin Island Bird Sanctuaries!

It was another great day. Even though we were slower on bird numbers than yesterday, our human visitors continued to show up and show out with phenomenal attention, engagement and questions that contribute to the incredible discussions around the site. Between yesterday and today, we have had just over 350 people come through our station and immerse themselves into the nerdy world of birds.

The species of particular note today were:
Blue-headed Vireo
Northern Parula (that had been taunting us)
Swainson’s Warbler
Prairie Warbler

If you fancy yourself a trip to Dauphin Island, come by and see us!

*All banding is being conducted under a federally authorized Bird Banding Permit issued by the U.S. Geological Survey's BBL.

04/08/2026

Today kicked off our first day of spring migration bird banding on Dauphin Island with Dauphin Island Bird Sanctuaries! Here are some of the highlights:

A couple of hundred folks passed on through today - we couldn't be more elated on the turnout!

To compliment our amazing crowd, the birds were also consistent throughout the session. We banded 41 new individuals and had 3 recaptured individuals of 17 species. The Prothonotary Warblers in particular made their presence known - we banded 12!

Our event starts at 8am and runs until 2pm every day through Sunday, April 12th. We're located across the street from the goat tree reserve. Come on through and see us 😊

Disclaimer: All banding is being conducted under a federally authorized Bird Banding Permit issued by the U.S. Geological Survey's BBL.

03/27/2026

https://secure.qgiv.com/for/alaskahumtrackproject/

The Alaska HumTrack Project map is filling in, and the migration is gaining speed!

We’re now up to 16 states represented and $8,437 raised toward the $15,000 goal—incredible momentum for tracking Alaska’s tiny travelers.

Current states represented:
AK, AZ, CA, CO, GA, HI, IL, IN, KY, MA, MD, OR, PA, TX, VA, WA

If your state is already on the map: keep climbing the ranks. Every gift helps push your state higher.

If your state isn’t here yet: this is your moment. Be the FIRST to represent your state and help meet the goal of having donors from all 50 states.

Every donation supports tracking rufous hummingbirds on one of the most incredible migrations on the planet.

Let’s keep filling in that map!

03/24/2026

We are only two weeks away from our Spring Bird Banding on Dauphin Island with Dauphin Island Bird Sanctuaries!! We can’t wait to see you there!!

Please share! We hope to see you at Spring Bird Banding on Dauphin Island with our partners Dauphin Island Bird Sanctuaries!

03/05/2026

On a chilly February morning in Texas our collaboration, focused on an in-depth look at hummingbird movement, took another step forward!

Rebecca Bracken with Gulf Coast Bird Observatory and Sue Heath (“retired” from GCBO) have joined us in studying the winter ground movements of Rufous and Ruby-throated Hummingbirds on the gulf coast. By working together, we can better understand: the size and extent of wintering ranges, how far they will travel for resources (food), how molt progression might correlate to migration timing, and so on.

All of these things contribute to better understanding the lives of these feathered jewels that capture the hearts and minds of people the world over. Ultimately, the name of the game is conservation. We observe, research, analyze, and conserve so that these species can persist.

*All banding is being conducted under a federally authorized Bird Banding Permit issued by the U.S. Geological Survey's BBL.

03/05/2026

Please share or consider supporting this worthy effort! Thanks so much to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center for helping us raise the funds needed for this project!

Link to donate—>https://secure.qgiv.com/for/alaskahumtrackproject/

50 birds—50 donors—50 states
One mission.

Rufous hummingbirds visit the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center every summer, bringing flashes of copper and the unmistakable hum of their wings to Portage Valley. These little guys travel thousands of miles each year, farther than almost any bird their size.

But these tiny travelers are declining in population—down 65% in the last 30 years. The Alaska HumTrack Project at AWCC, in partnership with the Banding Coalition of the Americas, is launching Alaska’s first migration tracking effort to uncover why.

This summer, 50 Rufous hummingbirds will be safely banded and fitted with ultralight trackers—each no larger than a grain of rice—allowing scientists to follow their migration and learn more about the routes they travel and the challenges they face along the way.

We’re hoping to recruit at least one donor from each of the 50 states—because the hummingbird visiting your yard may have come from Alaska. And with the tracking technology used in this project, we may actually know!

When you give, you’re sponsoring a journey.

Join the flight.
Link to give in the comments.

03/03/2026