Are you interested in becoming a bird bander? Or are you already a bird bander who would like to further hone your skills? IBP offers beginner, advanced, and customized training classes.

A typical day at a IBP banding class is spent mist-netting and banding the captured bird in the morning, and in classroom lectures and discussions in the afternoon. The pace of the courses is fast, but there is also some free time.

CLICK HERE for a list of upcoming Banding Classes.

The seven-day introductory courses are designed to provide both amateur birders and professional biologists with the skills necessary to participate in monitoring and research programs involving bird banding.

Skills taught include:

Lectures and discussions cover:

The four-day advanced classes are designed for experienced banders who wish to improve their sexing and ageing skills. These classes focus on understanding and identifying the differences between specific adult age classes using the Identification Guide to North American Birds by Peter Pyle. We also spend time addressing advanced skills such as skulling, refining the scoring of various characteristics, and interpreting these characteristics for age and sex determinations.

Before attending an advanced class, participants should be able to handle and set up mist-nets; be able to extract birds from mist-nets; and have familiarity with ageing hatch-year versus after-hatch-year birds.

IBP normally does not host classes, but rather provides world class bird banding instructors to teach classes organized by host individuals or organizations. If you are interested in hosting a class, please contact Danielle Kaschube for more information.