Video
MAPS Bird Banding in Glacier: Intro
Descriptive Transcript
[Audio description: Kylie, a young park ranger with blond hair, whose voice narrates the video, helps researchers untangle a net outside in a forest clearing.]
[Kylie narrates] What would you wake up at 4 a.m. for?
For me, it was the chance to hold a wild bird in my hands.
[Audio description: A handler uses two fingers to grip a small songbird by the legs. The bird has a bright yellow belly, soft gray head, and a sharp black beak.]
That's why I joined a group of wildlife biologist and volunteers to walk into the woods in bear country before dawn.
[Audio description: Biologists and volunteers walk into the woods carrying gear early in the morning before sunrise.]
Every ten days in the summer, they do this for something called MAPS--Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship.
[Audio description: A group of ten people are gathered around a table covered with supplies. Daniel, a young man with glasses and a black ball cap, examines a bird while the others watch.]
MAPS is a standardized effort to track the health of North American bird populations.
[Audio description: Data sheets with numbers penciled in and a book titled ‘Identification Guide to North American Birds’ sit on the table.]
Across the continent, about 1200 MAPS stations follow the same routine.
[Audio description: Daniel shows Kylie how to push netting up using a long pole]
First, we put up nets in places songbirds were likely to fly through.
[Audio description: He works on untangling the mesh net made of thin strands of black thread.]
These nets are incredibly delicate, and you DON'T want to be blamed for tangling them.
[Audio description: A biologist wearing a jacket and long pants walks down a path.]
Over the next six hours, trained, permitted handlers brought birds from the nets back to the processing table.
[Audio description: She takes a small cloth bag from under her jacket and hands it to Daniel, seated at the processing table. He removes the bird from the bag.
[Audio description: Daniel holds a tiny songbird, smaller than the palm of his hand. He peers back and forth between the bird and the reference book on the table. The bird is mostly gray, with some white markings above its eye and along its wing. It has a bright red orange streak on top of its head.]
They work quickly to determine each birds species, age, sex, and overall condition.
[Audio description: The biologist peers over her glasses to inspect the wing of a different gray bird, about the size of her hand. While being held, the bird blinks its dark red eye and tries to bite the handler's fingers with its pointy black beak.]
They don't take notes on personality, but some birds are definitely feistier than others.
[Audio description: Daniel holds a bird while Kylie writes in a notebook.]
This information goes into a big database used to analyze how bird populations are changing over time.
Each bird also got a tiny numbered leg band.
[Audio description: Daniel holds a small measuring tool up to a bird's leg to determine which size band will fit. He uses pliers to close a small metal band, which fits like a bracelet around the bird's thin, delicate leg.]
If it's recaptured in the future, we can learn about its past.
Finally, I was allowed to release a bird back into the forest.
[Audio description: Kylie, smiling widely, carefully holds out a gray bird with both hands. The bird flies off.]
I held it carefully, lifted it at my hands and let it go off. It flapped, unaware of its significant contribution to science
Description
What would you wake up at 4 am for?
Come along as we take a walk into the woods before dawn in Glacier National Park with a group of wildlife biologists and volunteers for the MAPS program – Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship.
Duration
1 minute, 29 seconds
Credit
NPS / Renata Harrison
Date Created
09/08/2024
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