Cathy Flick and Bird Banding
Part 2: Gorge Scientists. Highlighting scientists who live and work in the Columbia River Gorge.
By Miko Ruhlen. Apr. 13, 2017. Wildlife biologist Cathy Flick has spent most of her career doing scientific research on native song birds, bald eagles, peregrine falcons, bats, native and invasive plants. She recently retired from the U.S.D.A. Forest Service, Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area.
For the Gorge Scientists series, we’re focusing on one of Flick’s volunteer projects: the bird banding she does at the St. Cloud banding station on the Washington side of the Gorge.
Yellow Warbler with silver USFWS leg band.
Approximately every 10 days in spring, early summer, and fall monitoring periods, Flick sets up mist nets at dawn to catch and band birds (with a uniquely numbered USFWS metal leg band). Carefully untangling a bird from the net, she notes the bird’s age, sex, body condition, reproductive status, bands it and finally releases it unharmed.
She sends the information to a program called MAPS, Mapping Avian Productivity and Survivorship, run by the Institute for Bird Populations (IBP). Flick often uses the assistance of other trained volunteers including local bird expert Stuart Johnston. In this video Flick is joined by Zed Ruhlen, former biologist for IBP, and his children.
MAPS sets the standard protocols for use at the over 1,200 mist-netting and banding locations in the United States and Canada. Flick’s data is added to their huge database. With more than two million bird capture records going back over 25 years, scientists can answer questions about avian ecology and make predictions about impacts to birds caused by a variety of conditions: including habitat changes and climate change.
Results of these long-term monitoring studies help land managers prioritize actions and use limited funding where most needed. As the MAPS manual explains, operation of a banding station is a commitment. Standardization protocols implemented over at least five consecutive years are necessary to provide reliable indices, but 10 to 20 years are often needed to obtain reliable trend information. Cathy Flick has been running the St. Cloud station since 1999.
Recently, scientists have discovered how to unravel the mysteries of bird migration though genetic mapping. They use feathers collected by pulling one feather from certain species (not harming the bird) at some MAPS banding stations. By analyzing data from feather archives gathered from long-term monitoring, migration patterns of an individual can be mapped by the DNA in one feather. As this technology develops, it has the potential to aid bird conservation efficiently and on a broad scale.
In this era of budget cuts, long-term monitoring is difficult to fund. Biologists and their projects are limited in scope by lack of financing. Scientists like Cathy Flick who work as volunteers are becoming increasingly important for gathering data needed from wide geographic areas.
Volunteers like Cathy are working as citizen scientists, although few have her expertise. Citizen science has a long history. One example is the Christmas Bird Count started in 1900—volunteers comb backyards, farm fields, forests, grasslands, deserts, ocean shores counting the kinds of birds they see and hear. Data gathered by volunteers fills gaps in scientific knowledge or capacity by mobilizing large numbers of volunteers. Mobile apps (like eBird, iNaturalist) further help by streamlining the transfer and accuracy of data.
Citizen science is science. It utilizes scientists like Cathy Flick for data collection, coordination, and analysis, as well as non-scientist volunteers to gather and record data. Citizen science can also educate and empower members of the community to be stewards of their environment.
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