Purpose:
Sand Bluff Bird Observatory is operated entirely by volunteers and is always looking for help! Do you want to know more about birds? Do you want to know how to identify birds in the field or in the hand? Do you enjoy facilitating public education programming about the value of avian ecology? Do you want to learn about bird banding and develop your own banding skills? Sand Bluff Bird Observatory offers all the above experience and more! No previous knowledge is needed to be a volunteer, just the willingness to learn at you own pace. While most volunteers help with data entry/recording, taking birds out of mist nets, or banding birds, there are many other important tasks to keep this great organization running. We have visitor education, database programming, event set up, data analysis, and technical writing that we could use your assistance with. 

Please note: Sand Bluff Bird Observatory operates under a “Station Permit” issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The permit is granted to SBBO for the purpose of collecting field data on the age, sex, and populations of non-game species. While the observatory also serves as a regional environmental education resource, this function is secondary and must not interfere with the intent of permit or bird welfare. Additionally, volunteers must be certified to run mist nets and handle birds by senior volunteers. After certification, all volunteers must continue to follow bird handling and banding guidelines. It is the responsibility of all new volunteers to learn these procedures and follow them. Failure to do so may injure birds, degrade the quality of the data collected, result in revocation of banding permit, or rescinding of volunteer ability to participate in banding. Trainees may remove and handle birds only under direct supervision by a certified observatory volunteer and will only independently remove/handle/band birds upon respective certification by station master.

Volunteer Duties & Learning Opportunities:

• Assist in removing migratory and native birds from mist nets on “runs” every 45-60 minutes under ideal weather conditions, more often as conditions worsen. Learn safe and responsible bird handling techniques for mist net removal, bagging for transport to banding station, banding, and release. Birds must be processed and released as quickly as possible to mitigate stress or injury incurred by wildlife. 
• Utilize reference materials and collective volunteer knowledge to develop bird identification skills of migratory and residential species. 
• Assist in data collection and recording during capture and banding procedures. 
• Adhere to all disease management procedures, including single-use and sanitation of bird bags to prevent the spread of disease. 
• Develop skills in bird health assessment (body condition, stress, injury, etc.).
• Assist in public engagement programming concerning SBBO’s bird banding process and duty to conservation
• Assist in database programming and analysis of population, age, sex, and recapture data. 
• Develop bird banding skills under the guidance of station master or certified volunteer.

Hours: Banding sessions will be conducted Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays from mid-August till the end of mid-November, starting at 07:00 am to 12:00 pm (weather permitting). Check out our website or Facebook page for more information on fall startup. Prefer regular commitment, at about 5-6 hours per week.