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Banding Birds in South Baltimore
Ecologist Sharon Dorsey shares how bird banding data supports urban wildlife conservation.
© Courtesy of Sharon Dorsey
Masonville Cove in South Baltimore is a special place to study birds. Once a dumping ground for sediment dredged from the Baltimore Harbor, the Cove is now a popular urban wildlife refuge. Community educator and wildlife ecologist Sharon Dorsey is part of a research team that’s monitoring bird populations at the refuge with a scientific technique called bird banding. It’s a specialized, federally-regulated method to safely catch and release wild birds. The information gathered by bird banders is recorded in a global database. So if the banded bird is encountered again – at another station or during a different season – researchers will know that it once took refuge in Baltimore.
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BirdNote®
Banding Birds In South Baltimore
Written by Dara M. Wilson
This is BirdNote.
Masonville Cove in South Baltimore is a special place to study birds. Once a dumping ground for sediment dredged from the harbor, the Cove is now a popular urban wildlife refuge, says ecologist Sharon Dorsey.
Sharon Dorsey: And we have seen a return of wildlife, not just mammals, foxes, otters, but a lot of bird species.
Sharon is part of a licensed research team that’s monitoring bird populations at the Cove with a scientific catch-and-release technique called bird banding. Sharon weighs and measures the captured birds, then fits each with a uniquely numbered metal band.
Sharon Dorsey: It’s like a bracelet… that they’ll wear for the rest of their lives.
That info is recorded in a global database. So if the banded bird is encountered at another station, researchers will know that it spent part of its life in Baltimore. And that’s important ...
Sharon Dorsey: ...because not many stations are set up in urban environments. We are essentially trying to describe what birds are doing in these urban spaces. You don't think that they would thrive, but in fact they find food and mates and other things for their survival.
Sharon says that over time, this data can reveal which species take refuge at Masonville Cove and how habitat restoration benefits urban birds.
This is Black Birders Week! To learn more, follow the hashtag #BlackBirdersWeek on social media and visit BirdNote.org. I’m Dara Miles Wilson.
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Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Red-eyed Vireo ML567964651 recorded by Nico Sarbanes.
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© 2026 BirdNote May 2026
Narrator: Dara Miles Wilson
ID# banding-07-2026-05-26 banding-07
