The Observatory conducts songbird banding stations, on a daily basis, at Kiptopeke State Park, at the tip of Virginia's Eastern Shore, from mid-August to mid-November and at First Landing State Park in Virginia Beach, from mid-March through May. Visitors are always welcome. The stations gather long-term data about migratory and resident birds and provide a unique opportunity for research partners, graduate students and other field researchers to enhance their skills, while contributing to our knowledge of birds. The Kiptopeke Station began in 1963 and is the second longest continually running station in the United States. The 50th anniversary of the Kiptopeke Station, with many special events, will be celebrated in fall 2012.

Protocol for capturing and banding birds: station researchers use 25-30 "mist nets" that are 12 meters long and 2.5 meters high, which are placed in a variety of habitat types to sample bird movement there. Researchers, including many skilled volunteers, open the nets just before dawn and then check them every 30-45 minutes, removing birds and placing them in small, cloth bags with drawstrings, to take them to the banding station. At the station, the birds are quickly identified, measured, examined for their fat stores and overall health and released, usually within a minute or two. The data is submitted to the U.S. Department of the Interior's Bird Banding Laboratory. The safety of the birds is always the top priority. Researchers allow visitors to have rare, close-up looks at birds, while explaining about such topics as migration and "stopover ecology" and the importance of such work in contributing to the survival and conservation of birds.

Other songbird programs include:

1. placement and long-term monitoring of nest boxes for Prothontary Warblers as part of the Prothontary Warbler Project in Virginia, as well as contributing and facilitating numerous research investigations on avian genetics, avian diseases, and factors affecting breeding ecology. The Prothonotary Warbler is designated as watchlist species by the North American Landbird Conservation Plan.

2. a study of cooperative breeding in Brown-headed Nuthatches

3. Panama Neotropical Winter-grounds Project in collaboration with the Department of Biology and the Center for Environmental Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, the International IBA program, and Richmond Audubon.

4. a study of Carolina Chickadee vocalizations (Birding, Vol. 40, No. 2, March/April 2008) Click the video below for a sample recording.

Click here for video.

For further information about visiting, see the "Field Trip" button on the Home Page.