What are bird bands?

Have you ever seen a bird out in the wild and noticed that it had a little bracelet on its leg? They are usually a bright colour like green or red. These are called bird bands. Bird bands are used by biologists to help study birds and learn more about their behaviour. Biologists will catch a bird, use a special tool to open the band and then put it safely on the bird’s leg. There are little numbers imprinted on the bands so that when a biologist catches a bird, they know which bird they’ve caught and whether or not they have studied that specific bird before. We often get this question asked at our events as we have bird bands on display, so we thought it would be a good idea to explain to Nature Kids what these special bracelets are for. The Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory and the Beaverhill Bird Observatory have daily banding in the summer where you can watch and learn about how they catch and band the birds.