2025 MAPS Bird Banding at Ruffner Mountain
Ruffner Mountain’s Role in Bird Conservation
This year marks the third consecutive year of MAPS bird banding at Ruffner Mountain, one of only three active MAPS stations in Alabama. The partnership with Alabama Audubon is essential for this conservation effort. Lianne Koczur, Science & Conservation Director at Alabama Audubon, leads the MAPS Bird Banding efforts at Ruffner Mountain. And we appreciate all the volunteers who spent many long hours even before sunrise to make this program successful.
2025 Bird Banding Results
Although this is just the third year for this banding effort, we continue to see migratory birds returning to the same habitat as in previous years. It may be a few years before we see trends such as population changes or offspring survivorship, but every new banded bird, especially recaptured birds, can provide more and more information to achieve those goals. In the summer 2025 banding season, Ruffner Mountain achieved the following:
- 80 birds banded across 20 species
- 44 individual birds recaptured across 11 species
- 64 total recaptures, with several birds recaptured multiple times over the season.
These numbers align with expected trends: a decrease in new bandings and an increase in recaptures as more birds return to the same habitat each year.
Most Banded Birds in 2025
- Northern Cardinals – 11
- Hooded Warblers- 10
- White-eyed Vireos – 10
Most Recaptured Birds (Individual Counts)
- Northern Cardinals – 8
- Carolina Wrens – 7
- Hooded Warblers – 6
- Kentucky Warblers – 6
- Swainson’s Warblers – 6
- White-eyed Vireos – 6
Full Report on 2025 MAPS Program at Ruffner Mountain
Notable Highlights from the 2025 Season
One standout was a male Swainson’s Warbler (Band 322108485), originally banded on May 15, 2025, and recaptured four additional times throughout the season. Hopefully, he will return next year after his winter migration to Central or South America. Another remarkable returnee was a male Swainson’s Warbler first banded in 2023 during the first MAPS season, which has now been recaptured a total of ten times.
The most notable highlight of the season was the banding of four Northern Parulas, a species that typically forages in the top of the canopy and does not frequently come low enough for our nets. Interestingly, three of these were hatch-year birds, making their lower flight behavior more likely.
MAPS Program: Three-Year Summary at Ruffner Mountain
2023: Birds banded- 122,
Species banded- 25, Total recaptures- 45
2024: Birds banded- 113,
Species banded- 18, Total recaptures- 57
2025: Birds banded- 80,
Species banded- 20, Total recaptures- 64
TOTAL: Birds banded- 315,
Species banded- 30, Total recaptures- 166
Over three years, 315 birds from 30 species have been banded, and 81 individual birds from 12 species have been recaptured, totaling 166 recapture events. The trending lower numbers are what was expected: our total number of new banded birds is expected to decrease, and our recaptured birds are expected to increase. This data shows that over 25% of banded birds have been successfully recaptured, offering valuable insight.
Why MAPS Bird Banding Matters
Alabama is home to exceptional biodiversity. Projects like MAPS help conservationists track and better understand that diversity and plan future protection efforts. Even in just three years, Ruffner’s MAPS site is showing repeat visits from migratory species—an encouraging sign for long-term conservation goals.
Regulatory Note
All bird banding activities are conducted under a federally authorized Bird Banding Permit issued by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Bird Banding Laboratory (BBL).