[TN-Bird] Banding

Decades ago I worked at, and at one point managed, the largest bird banding 
operation in the United States. Overall, our mortality rate was nowhere near 
10% but rather between 1-3% depending on the season, yet because we were 
processing so many birds that percentage translated into many seemingly 
unnecessary deaths.  Occasionally, we would also find dead birds with our bands 
and wonder if our albeit brief treatment of them in some way contributed to 
their deaths (in a few cases we were convinced of this).  And I will never 
forget the day that a storm suddenly drenched our operation such that from some 
of the nets only dead birds were removed.  I have heard similar stories from 
other banders over the years and I am unconvinced of the scientific merits of 
many banding projects.  I did not go on to become a biologist and I now hold a 
Ph.D. in sociology from the Univ. of Chicago, but when I conduct research on 
human subjects (I work on human morbidity and mortality in the field of social 
epidemiology) I do so only when I have a well-defined research project of 
putative scientific value.  To indiscriminately study human subjects without a 
demonstrably credible research plan would be highly unprofessional.  What about 
our infra-human subjects?  Banders may hope or believe that even though they 
themselves are not going to make use of their banding data that at some point 
in the future someone else will benefit from them.  However, my ornithology 
colleagues tell me that for the majority of species in the U.S. banding data 
are not scientifically valuable--most of what can be learned is already known.  
I am not opposed to banding or even collecting (biologists are routinely 
licensed to collect birds for research projects), but banders may want to 
consider the ethical issue of whether their banding practices are really 
contributing to knowledge and if there are not less obtrusive methods of 
obtaining the same information.  Chris Sloan's hummer project would seem to 
have merit because so little is known about these wayward winter birds.  My 
concern is that despite the best intentions not all banding operations have the 
same scientific value.

Kevin Breault
Professor, Middle Tennessee State University
kbreault@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Nashville, TN

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