Fall Banding 2011

Maui Forest Bird Recovery Project had an exciting fall season this year. Two previous banding volunteers, Zara John and Peter Motyka were hired to help us run two months of volunteer banding trips to prepare for next breeding season's research. Two trips were conducted during September into The Nature Conservancy's Waikamoi Preserve with a total of 4 staff members and 3 volunteers. Two more trips were done in October with 3 more volunteers.

All in all we got a lot of work done. Eight new Parrotbill and eight new Akohekohe along with a large number of Maui Alauahio were color banded. These new birds will be resighted during our breeding season, which begins in February. These resights will help us with survival estimates and territory ranges. For Parrotbill, we will begin our intensive productivity studies, and color banded individuals will aid us in identification of the birds.

All of the banding was performed in The Nature Conservancy's Waikamoi Preserve, which is where most of our breeding season research will be held. This coming 2012 season will be the first time that we will do intensive resight and search efforts for the Maui Parrotbill in Waikamoi. These data will be useful in determining the health of the Parrotbill population there.

Thank you to our volunteers, Angela Beltrani, Anthony Miller, Rebecca McIntyre, Agneta Heuman, Robert Rankin, and Branden Moss as well as our staff members. It was hard work out there and we're glad you were a part of the team!