Bird banding

Last weekend I invited us to "help" our friends Laura and Esteban at their bird banding station in the hills outside San Cristóbal. They get there by 5 a.m. to get the nets up, but we showed up at a more leisurely 8:30(ish), when Laura said the peak bird activity would be. Their station is part of an international effort to document migratory bird populations in their winter habitat. They measure the birds and check indicators of age, reproductive status and energy reserves (i.e. fat).

Marcos was thrilled to see the critters up close and particularly enjoyed getting to release them after they´d had their physicals. Some of the hummers were low on energy after being stuck in the nets in the cold, so we revived them with sweetened water.