Saw-whet Owl Banding

On Friday evening, I attended a Saw-whet Owl banding demonstration courtesy of Kathy Seymour and Massachusetts Audubon. I have attended a few demonstrations before (run by Strickland Wheelock in Northbridge MA) but they are always exciting. Kathy has set up her nets at the Mass Audubon Drumlin Farm Sanctuary in Lincoln. It is very nicely appointed and aside from retrieving the owls from the mist nets and later releasing them, all the work is done indoors.

After the owls have been extracted from the mist nests, they are brought in - one at a time - to record information and band them. At demonstrations like this, Kathy and her helpers are careful to not demonstrate too much with any one owl. The owls are first weighed, then additional measurements are taken.
The "wing chord" is measured, which is the length form the bend of the wing to the end of the outermost primary feather. The weight and size of the bird helps to determine the sex of the bird. (Like most raptors the females are larger than the males)

The wings are extended and inspected to look for feather wear and for molt pattern.
Like most birds, the owls do not molt all their wing feathers at once, and they do follow general patterns, so determining the age of feathers and molt pattern help to determine the birds age.
A really neat fact is that newer feathers glow a pinkish color in ultraviolet light.

After all the information is recorded, the bird is banded and released.

The band number, and all the birds information is sent to the bird banding lab at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center where the informaiton is stored and compiled for research. More information about banding birds, licensing, etc can be found at that link.

Of course, at an educational demonstration like this, you can also get a closer look at some neat features of the birds. Everyone know that owls are extremely stealthy hunters. One reason for this is that on the front edge of the outermost primaries, most owls have a soft fringe or comb on the margin of the outer vane, which "softens the contact between the air and the leading edge of the wing." (Quoted from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's "Handbook of Bird Biology") This feature helps the owl to remain silent in flight. Some owls that hunt during the daytime, such as the Northern Hawk Owl, do not have this.
At the business end, owls have a zygodactyl foot like woodpeckers, in which two toes point forward and two toes point back. But unlike woodpeckers, owls can move their 4th toe can be used in either the forward or backward position. (Osprey can do that too)

Are you done??? Can I go now?