Displaying items by tag: bird banding
Flit and dart over to Ijam's for annual Hummingbird Festival
KNOXVILLE — Take flight with the Ijams Hummingbird Festival: A Celebration of Wings presented by Wild Birds Unlimited Knoxville from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 15.
Each year, this festival brings bird lovers, families, and nature enthusiasts together for an unforgettable hands-on experience focused on hummingbird conservation and research.
Immersive nature activities include hummingbird banding, guided walks, and artist marketplace, art and science activities, and speakers,
During the Hummingbird Festival, guests can join small-group sessions with expert bird banders from East Tennessee Avian Research and Seven Islands State Birding Park as they operate a hummingbird research banding station onsite.
Bird banding is a technique used to study wild birds by placing a tiny numbered band around a bird’s leg, allowing scientists to track bird migration, behavior, and population change. Throughout the event, the banding station collects non-invasive biological data, attaches numbered bands to aid in future research, and releases birds back into their ecosystem.
-Ijams Nature Center
Ijams gets down to Earth with our winged friends
Certified master bander Mark Armstrong tends gently to a tufted titmouse shortly before turning his attention to a hummingbird. Thomas Fraser/Hellbender Press
Ijams Nature Center offers a celebration of winged creatures that can bring us all to new heights
The hummingbird buzzed to freedom from a loving human hand into the early midsummer morning.
It was the latest bird to be tagged after collection from a harmless mist net as volunteer naturalists introduced the uninitiated and curious to the simple wonder of birds and the more complicated collections of data needed to ensure their wellbeing.
The hummingbird, along with at least one tufted titmouse, was just one of many feathered friends captured in the pleasantly cool air at Ijams and described in detail by naturalists and friends Saturday morning (Aug. 28) during Ijams Nature Center’s biggest annual educational showcase: the Hummingbird Festival: Celebration of Wings, presented by Ergon Terminaling Inc. and Trust Company of Tennessee.
But it was also a celebration of connections between earth and air as attendees passed from conservation displays to food and natural products and crafts stands. Animals on display ranged from an owl and groundhog to an apple-chewing opossum.