I have mixed feeling on banding, unless its done by a government agency like mnr or the USWF, USGS in the states.
Banding techniques don't result in a high fatality rate for the birds, i think less than 1 % die after they hit the nets or have nets dropped on them.
I don't like the way that they lure other raptors though. In Victoria, BC for example, every Coopers Hawk is banded. To get them to fly down though, they tether a live great horned owl to the ground below the nest. There is a net over the owl so that it can't get injured. When the hawk swoops down a second net is thrown over it so they can capture it.
In Ontario for science, for great grey owls, they use mice that they injure and attach them to a line and let them try to escape down rows of trees which they feel have potential for having owls, when the owl flies down, they again throw the net over it.
Some places i will never report to again are private Organizations and Federations, because they don't have the courtesy to even acknowledge your email when you send them info and pics of one of their tagged birds.
Reporting to the governemt or scientists is important though. Once i sent a picture of a banded Egret near Orangeville. It just suddenly flew around some trees and landed in the lake. You could clearly read the tag on the pic as it flew by. The bander was pretty excited when i sent him an email with the pic. The bird had been banded near Windsor and hadn't been seen in a couple of years. Also he said that he didn't know that it was possible to get a clear pic of a band in flight and wanted to use it to show others in research.
Also in Victoria, i sent a picture with a banded coopers hawk that was perched low hunting quail. The government were excited to see the bird in the pics, because there had been no reports from anyone in the previous 4 1/2 years.
Thats why i only report to the government. They also keep records of all bird bands in North America.
