Our partners
Last January, we learned that a young great tit, banded in an XperiBIRD.be nesting box on 9th May 2018, had been inspected by a bander on 1st November, i.e. 5 months and 23 days later. It was a young male observed in Wetteren, near to the school at which his siblings had been raised (Scheppersinstituut Wetteren).
This is fine example of the role played by banding: it makes it possible to collect information on the survival (and therefore age) of birds and to assess their movements. To do this, however, we have to be lucky enough to recapture or observe once more the banded bird!
By banding a large number of birds and then by reporting observation of a banded bird, which can be identified with certainty thanks to the unique code inscribed on its band, ornithologists amass data that provide an increasingly accurate image of the demography of different species. Indeed, individual monitoring by banding is one of the most suitable and efficient methods for conducting monitoring of the demography and movement strategies (whether local or migratory) of wild birds. Consequently, the scientists can monitor these populations in order to ensure that declining populations can be restored and to avoid new declines as well as raising the alarm before it is too late.
But how do put a band on a young bird? Watch this short video filmed last year in one of the participating schools!
For the young birds in your nesting box to be banded, you must send an e-mail to info@xperibird.be as soon as the eggs start to hatch in your nesting box. Banding of young tits takes place 8 to 10 days after hatching. Once we have been informed, we will notify a bander in your region and, if he or she is able to come and band the brood, he or she will make contact with you. Since this particular period is very busy for them, we would be grateful for you understanding in the case where it is not possible for them to come.