Video
MAPS Bird Banding in Glacier: Feathers
Descriptive Transcript
[Audio description: A handler fans out a bird’s tailfeathers, which are dark gray and tipped with bright yellow.]
[Narrator]: What stories do feathers tell?
[Audio description: Hands holding a gray and yellow songbird fan out its wing and run a finger across its feathers.]
[Narrator]:Like our hair or fingernails, birds’ feathers are dead structures that undergo wear and tear.
[Narrator]:Though we might rather keep it, we could survive without our hair.
[Audio description: Closeup of a large, dark gray bird whose body is held between the handler's fingers while its tail feathers are inspected.
[Narrator]:But every feather on a bird's body serves an essential, life-sustaining purpose, like enabling flight...
[Audio description: A small gray bird with a bright yellow throat flies off the outstretched palm of a handler.]
[Narrator]:providing insulation...
[Audio description: Handlers hold out the wings of a tiny gray and white bird with striking orange crown markings.]
[Narrator]:...or attracting mates.
[Audio description: Hands examining the wing of a bird with dramatic gray, white, black and yellow coloring on its head and face.]
[Narrator]:Birds replace feathers through molting.
[Audio description: Closeup of the bird's outstretched wing, where short new feathers are in the process of growing in towards the top of the wing.]
[Narrator]:Breeding, migration and molting are the most crucial and energy-intensive parts of their life cycle, so they can only do one at a time.
[Audio description: A handler shows off a small bird with soft gray feathers on its back and tail, and bright yellow on its throat and belly.]
[Audio description: Two volunteers untangle the fine mesh of a mismatched set up in a forest, clearing.]
[Narrator]:To learn more about these complex activities, birds in Glacier are caught as part of the MAPS program--
Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship.
[Audio description: Young biologists watch as an experienced handler holds a bird to take measurements.]
[Audio description: A gray and yellow bird's outstretched wing shows three layers of feathers in different stages of growth.]
[Narrator]:During summer capturing sessions, trained handlers, working under the park's bird banding permit, examine feather quality and molt patterns, which tell them about the birds’ age and condition.
[Audio description: A page in a reference book shows a diagram of feather growth patterns.]
[Audio description: A handler blows on a bird's belly to move the downy feathers out of the way.]
[Narrator]:They look for a brood patch--a smooth spot on the bird's belly for sitting on eggs, indicating reproductive status.
[Audio description: The handler uses special pliers to crimp a small metal band around the leg of a brightly colored black, white, and yellow songbird.]
[Narrator]:Finally, each bird gets fitted with a tiny numbered leg band.
[Audio description: A young woman kneels in the forest clearing, cradling a bird carefully in her hands in slow motion. The bird flies towards the camera.]
[Narrator]:Then handlers release the bird unharmed.
[Audio description: The handler holds a larger brown bird with a metal leg band.]
[Audio description: A hand holds up a delicate yellow and gray colored bird to admire before letting it go.]
[Narrator]:When a banded bird is recaptured, we can learn a lot about its life story--where it migrated, and how it’s adapting to changing habitats and climates.
Description
What stories do feathers tell?
Every feather on a bird’s body serves an essential, life-sustaining purpose, like enabling flight, providing insulation, or attracting mates. Birds replace feathers through molting. Breeding, migration, and molting are the most crucial and energy-intensive parts of their life cycle, so they can only do one at a time.
To learn more about these complex activities, birds in Glacier are caught as part of the MAPS program – Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship.
Duration
1 minute, 25 seconds
Credit
NPS / Renata Harrison
Date Created
09/08/2024
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