Banding & Research

Millions of birds of hundreds of species migrate between breeding areas in temperate North America and wintering areas at more southerly latitudes. These birds undertake numerous flights in their travels between breeding and wintering grounds, and require adequate stopover areas in order to rest and refuel between migratory flights.

At the Vancouver Avian Research Centre our primary research program focuses on studying landbirds during these temporal breaks in migration. Information from our migration monitoring operations can be used to examine the timing of migration of various species, migration patterns between age and sex classes within species, rates of energetic condition change during stopover, and other questions regarding stopover behavior.

To ensure long-term consistency in data collection, we strictly follow our migration monitoring protocols.

In addition to our long-term migration monitoring operations we conduct numerous smaller research projects and special species studies. Our summer banding operation monitors vital rates and population dynamics of breeding birds in our banding stations while our winter program collects data on overwintering species.

We actively encourage avian researchers to visit our stations to collect data for their research projects.