Guidelines for Reporting Nesting Season Resightings

Many managed oystercatcher nesting sites have monitoring programs that send staff to visit pairs and nests throughout the season. This work collects a lot of data, including band resightings. If monitoring takes place weekly or multiple days per week, this racks up a lot of band resightings. At the end of the season sites report banded birds to the American Oystercatcher Band Database, which leads to the question: How many band resightings records are enough (or too many) to report?

There is no need to report every observation of a nesting banded bird that is seen over and over, but it is important to capture key moments in banded individuals’ nesting seasons. Over time, guidance has been provided via the listserv and conversations, and this page is meant to house that guidance so Working Group members can access it at any time.

Is This for Me?

If you and your colleagues monitor and read bands once a week or more frequently, this is intended to help you. Please check out the links below.

Guidance Documents for Sites that Monitor Nesting Oystercatchers

• A Handy-Dandy Guide for Reporting Banded AMOY Seen at Monitored Nesting Sites (Especially Intensively Monitored Sites) During the Nesting Season
• Printable Cheat Sheet for What to Report

If you have any questions or comments, please send them to Lindsay Addison (laddison@audubon.org).