What to do when you find a banded bird

You can now obtain information about a banded bird by submitting the information found on the band electronically to the Bird Banding Laboratory.

"We are pleased to announce that we are now providing basic banding information on the bird you are reporting, including the State or Province where the bird was banded, the date it was banded, and the species. Although 90% of band numbers will return data, in some cases, no information will be available. There are three possible reasons: 1. Due to limited space, we are only storing the last twenty years of data. 2. The band you have encountered was not yet reported by the bander. We will notify the bander of your encounter. 3. There is an error in reading or entering the band number."

For more information, go to the BBL website reporting page.