Advanced Bird Banding: From Molt to MAPS

Build on your bird banding field skills in this advanced course! This course covers plumage, topography, molt terminology and strategies, and aging techniques. Participants also focus on banding ethics, handling, and MAPS Banding.

• The lecture portion of this course takes place at JTNPA West in Old Town Yucca Valley.
• The weekend field class is based at the Whitewater Preserve.
• Participants must complete Beginning Bird Banding or receive instructor approval. Basic bird identification skills are helpful but not required.
• No park pass is required.
• No lodging, meals, or equipment are provided.
• Participants are responsible for their own transportation. Carpooling is encouraged.
• The one-time purchase of $150 will cover the lecture and both days in the field.

This class is leisurely. It requires less than 2 miles of walking with shade, seating, consistent terrain, and little to no elevation gain.

Instructor Stephen Myers: Stephen J. Myers is a retired wildlife biologist and has specialized in bird studies for over 40 years, mostly in southern California. He has been a federally permitted bird bander since 1990 and has participated in banding studies of species such as the Coastal California Gnatcatcher, Least Bell’s Vireo, Nelson’s Sparrow, and Red-winged Blackbird. In addition to bird surveys conducted as a professional biologist, he has led birding field trips for the National Audubon Society, Western Field Ornithologists, and local bird clubs since the early 1980s. He is interested in all aspects of nature study, including botany, herpetology, entomology, and mammalogy. He and his wife, Vesta, enjoy occasional international birding trips to tropical America, Australia, and south Asia.

Photo credit: Desert Institute