Piping Plover Banding: Long Island, Wisconsin

Wow, an experience of a lifetime! Our Piping Plover Project Leader Tonia, and monitor Mikayla, had the opportunity to head over to Long Island near the Apostle Islands in Wisconsin banding Piping Plover chick's on July 14, 2022.

Bird bands have been used for hundreds of years and have led to much of the bird knowledge we have today. Each banded Great Lakes Piping Plovers recieve a USGS aluminum band with a unique 9-digit number. This number is unique to that bird and will identify it throughout its life. This makes it possible for observers in different locations to piece together information about the lives of individual birds using only binoculars, spotting scopes and digital cameras.

It is estimated that 96-98% of the Great Lake population is banded and therefore able to be extensively monitored each year. Look for orange! Banded Piping Plovers that are a part of the Great Lakes are easy to identify because there bright orange band.

Great Lakes Piping Plovers are banded between five and fifteen days of age. These chicks have well developed legs hours within hatching. The bands used are made of either plastic or aluminum, which makes them extremely lightweight.

Every sibling in a family gets the dsmr color and arrangement of three or four bands. This is called a "brood-maker combination". This allows us to study parental success, fledgling rates, and return success.

We love the work that we do!