Monthly Program: Tricia Rodriguez Songbird Banding

Beyond Binoculars: The Science and Impact of Bird Banding

By Tricia Rodriguez and Kate Stone

Our April program will welcome professional bird bander and avian ecologist Tricia Rodriguez from the University of Montana’s Bird Ecology Lab (UMBEL).

Field ornithologists collect information about wild bird populations in a variety of ways, with the goals or questions in a study guiding the choice of methodology. Banding is an excellent choice for researchers who need to mark and identify individual birds, assess health and body condition, collect measurements, and more. UMBEL has been studying songbird populations in western Montana since 2006, capturing and banding over 37,000 birds of 154 species. Tricia will familiarize you with bird banding efforts in Montana and around the world! She will share results from several local studies.

Tricia was born and raised in Georgia, where she lived a suburban lifestyle without a bird feeder in sight. In her final semester at the University of Georgia, she took ornithology “just for fun”, but it ultimately changed the direction of her life. After graduation, she traveled for eight years as a seasonal field technician, working on bird projects in places like Cape May, NJ, Denali National Park, AK, and Maui, HI.  She has been an avian ecologist with UMBEL since 2012, managing the banding program but also jumping in to work on any of the other great projects at UMBEL whenever there’s a chance. Tricia enjoys spending time on the river, camping in beautiful places, cooking, knitting, and playing with her two cats.

Please join Tricia Rodriguez and Bitterroot Bird Alliance to learn more about songbird banding on Monday, April 21^st in the Education Building adjacent to the Slack Barn at Teller Wildlife Refuge,  1180 Chaffin Lane in Corvallis.