A Bird in the Hand . . .
David Bonter

Cornell hosts by far the largest number of professional ornithologists (people who study birds) of any college or university in the world. One of the reasons that birds are good subjects for our field research is that most species can be captured and marked, then released and followed by scientists.

In this exploration, you will use nearly invisible “mist nets” to capture wild birds in a natural area near the Cornell campus. You will learn how to remove birds from the nets, handle them appropriately, measure them, and mark them with numbered leg bands. Along the way we will look closely at the species we capture and discuss their anatomy, ecology, and behavior, as well as talk about some of the ongoing studies of these species by Cornell researchers.