iband7: IBP banding data entry system |  |
iband7: IBP banding data entry system | |
The major difference between the MAPS and MAWS sheets is that MAPS banders use the USF&W Banding Lab's four-letter species code, while MAWS sheets use IBP's six-letter species code based on the genus and species name.
The current MAPS data sheets, as well as full documentation for how to fill them out, is at the MAPS Materials page. The MAWS data sheets are identical except for the six-letter species code and some sheet headings.
Each banding data sheet comes in three varieties: new bands, unbanded, and recap. The body of the sheet is the same, however; only the headings change.
Only three relevant items are encoded at the top of the banding sheet:
The location code.
For new band sheets, the band size of this sheet. Recap and unbanded sheets do not carry this information.
The page number.
This may have a series prefix for sites that have two field kits, so pages from one kit are numbered A1, A2, …, and pages from the other kit are numbered B1, B2, …, and so forth.
Also, sheets for the special stainless steel “Lambourne” bands used on Northern Cardinals are numbered L1, L2, …. More recent practice is to use “SS,” for stainless steel, but these will be entered as the L series for consistency with previous years.
In practice, the page number can be up to three of any characters. For example, some training sets use the bander's initials as the “page number.”
Following sections discuss the fields on the main grid from left to right.