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North American Bird Banding Program Dataset 1960-2023 retrieved 2023-07-12

Metadata Updated: October 30, 2025

The North American Bird Banding Program is administered through the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Bird Banding Laboratory (BBL), Eastern Ecological Science Center at the Patuxent Research Refuge (EESC) and the Bird Banding Office (BBO), Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC). The respective banding offices have similar functions and policies and use the same bands, reporting forms and data formats. This long-term dataset (1960-2023) consists of over 83 million bird banding, encounter and recapture records of over 1,000 species covered under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA). Data is contributed by US and Canadian bird banding permit holders: federal, state, tribal, local government, non-government agencies, business, university and avocational biologists. Banders capture wild birds and mark them with a metal leg band with a unique 9-digit number. Extra markers may be added. Attributes such as age, sex, condition of bird may be included. Prior to data release, all locations for sensitive species and gamebirds are generalized to larger areas; 10-minute and 1-degree block coordinate precisions respectively. Sensitive species include diurnal raptors, US Threatened, Endangered, and Canadian Species at Risk Act (SARA) species. Gamebirds include waterfowl, cranes, rails, woodcock, doves, crows and ravens. Data are curated at BBL daily, therefore each yearly version may differ from previous releases. Incoming data must pass validation rules to meet quality standards; however, data accuracy is ultimately determined by contributors.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Created Date September 13, 2025
Metadata Updated Date October 30, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date September 13, 2025
Metadata Updated Date October 30, 2025
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/usgs-653fa806d34ee4b6e05bc57d
Data Last Modified 2023-11-22T00:00:00Z
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://ddi.doi.gov/usgs-data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id 76588967-0df1-4425-b1a8-7586bbaccc35
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -180.0000, -90.0000, 180.0000, 90.0000
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 28d6c78cd321453289f02e7ee4aeba385632c7fe2dc5e51f7913b4dc4bedd713
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -180.0000, -90.0000, -180.0000, 90.0000, 180.0000, 90.0000, 180.0000, -90.0000, -180.0000, -90.0000}

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