Special Research Programs
Black-throated Blue Warblers
While consistent migration monitoring data collection makes up the bulk of our day-to-day activities, we lead and contribute to various other research programs. PEPtBO conducts research with breeding birds in Prince Edward County, monitoring federally listed species-at-risk, and more, through collaborations with other organizations and institutions. These special banding programs and bird surveys contribute vital information about the ecology of migrating birds, breeding patterns, and conservation that are beyond the scope of our regular migration monitoring program.
Learn more about some of our ongoing research programs below.
Snow Bunting Banding
Snow Buntings breed in the high Arctic and migrate long distances to winter in the southern parts of Canada and the northern United States. Very early in the year, when there is still snow on the ground, we band Snow Buntings at a location where they typically spend the winter in Prince Edward County. Banding Snow Buntings allows us to examine year-to-year trends in abundance, timing, and demographics, as well as monitor the population through recaptures at our site and others within the Canadian Snow Bunting Network.
Image by Ashley Jensen
Bobolink Banding
PEPtBO has engaged in standardized monitoring of Bobolink since 2008, a species at risk that breeds in open hay fields and grasslands. Bobolink have been experiencing rapid population decline due to habitat loss, particularly the clearing of pastureland and other grassland habitat, which makes them a species of interest for population monitoring. PEPtBO uses audio lures to attract the Bobolink to our site during their migration to be able to count their numbers and evaluate their demographics to monitor reproductive success of the species. We provide the data to ECCC to assist with status assessments to aid in the preservation of this species.
PEPtBO’s Bobolink protocol includes the operation of 6 nets from August 15 through September 10.
Image by Paul Jones
Owl Banding
PEPtBO has been operating a standardized owl monitoring program since 2001. The focus of our nighttime migration monitoring and research is the Northern Saw-whet Owl, one of North America’s most frequently banded owl species. The focus on this species is due to the fact that this strictly nocturnal owl is difficult to detect outside the breeding season, and also because of their migratory behavior, making them relatively easy to monitor through banding. Our nighttime migration monitoring program is part of Project Owlnet, which includes over 100 stations from across North America.
We operate 12 standard mist nets. These nets are opened 30 minutes after sunset and kept open for 4 hours as part of our standard protocol. We are exploring keeping the nets open 2 hours longer to see how this impacts the number of owls encountered.
The Northern Saw-whet Owl is the most frequently recaptured bird by foreign stations across North America, generally due to the audio lures used to attract them. This program allows the migratory routes and movement pattern of Northern Saw-whet Owls to be tracked both within a season and over many years due to the high recapture rate. Our station has foreign recoveries every year that have been banded in previous seasons, and it is not uncommon for the original banding date to be a few years prior.
Image by Sarah Sharp
Brown Creeper Ageing and Sexing
For some species, it can be harder to determine the age and sex of an individual during banding. Each year, PEPtBO bands many Brown Creepers, a tiny tree bark-coloured bird, therefore, we have a unique opportunity to conduct research on this species. We are currently developing methods for accurately ageing and sexing Brown Creepers. While a guide to these methods already exists, we are testing the accuracy of these methods scientifically, and aim to publish these methods as a resource available to all banders. This project is in collaboration with Dr. Theresa Burg at University of Lethbridge.
Image by Olivia Maillet
Standardized Photography Lab
In our new photography lab, we are creating a standardized photo library of plumages and moult. We take photos of birds in standard positions and lighting to create “digital specimens”, allowing us to learn even more about the birds after we release them. This library will provide an excellent resource for conducting future research and for helping banders to learn how to determine the age and sex of birds across a variety of species and plumage cycles.
Image by Olivia Maillet
Funding Research
We know that these special research activities can result in outcomes with greater impact. However, as a non-profit organization, we incur greater costs due to increased numbers of nets, other research-related equipment, and personnel. Research programs at PEPtBO are funded by your donations. If you are interested in supporting a specific research program, please contact us.
If you are a researcher interested in collaborating on a project with PEPtBO, please reach out via email at oliviamaillet@peptbo.ca for more information.