Beginner Bird Banding Workshop in West Virgina - April 20-26

[Danielle Kaschube]

The Institute for Bird Populations (IBP) and the Opossum Creek Retreat  are offering a beginner bird banding class April 20-26, 2019. The class will be held in the beautiful Appalachian mountains of West Virginia during the midst of migration and you can expect a wide variety of warblers, thrushes, mimids, etc. to be captured during the week. And, your accommodations are just minutes from the stunning New River Gorge.

The class can accommodate many skill levels, from those who have never handled a bird to those with good experience that want to fill in their banding and molt limits and plumage knowledge gaps, all under the eye of an experienced IBP instructor. These classes cover: operation of mist-nets and safe extraction of birds; bird-handling skills; in-hand ageing and sexing techniques; scoring and recording data using MAPS protocol and forms; avian life histories, energetics, molts, and plumages; banding ethics, the permitting process; and the role of banding in research and monitoring.

The instructor, Ron Taylor, has been teaching banding classes for over 15 years and is always patient, enthusiastic, and thorough in sharing his knowledge about molt, plumages, and ageing with students of all experience levels.

Please contact the class host, Keith Richardson (email:retreat@opossumcreek.com; phone: 888-488-4836) to register or for more information about the class.

For more information about additional classes taught by instructors from The Institute for Bird Populations, please visit IBP's Bird Bander Training page.