AIMS Bird Banding

The Appledore Island Migration Station (AIMS) is located on Appledore Island in the Gulf of Maine. Each spring and fall, AIMS staff — who are all volunteers and students — band birds from dawn to dusk, seven days a week, weather permitting.


Appledore Island is also home to the Shoals Marine Lab. SML provides hands-on educational and research programs in marine science and environmental sustainability. SML hosts the banding station and its personnel during migration seasons.

Banding to Resume for Spring 2021!

We are excited to announce that the station will open May 5

Banding Dates:
May 5 – Jun 7

Information for Volunteers

Please keep an eye out here for more details about the Spring 2021 banding season, to be posted soon.

Recent News & Updates:

  • 04/20/2021: Two of head bander Sara Morris's students, Alex Sidare and Will Vega, won the best undergraduate student poster award at the Northeastern Natural History Conference. The poster describes results of ongoing research on flight call behavior that is being conducted on Appledore.
  • 04/14/2021: Banders Kristen Covino and Sara Morris co-authored a paper on 50 years of Black-throated Blue Warbler migration in North America, which was published in 2020 in The Auk: Ornithological Advances. The study showed that spring migration is occurring approximately one day earlier per decade, on average, while during the fall, the peak did not change but the migratory season is becoming more protracted.
  • 04/05/2021: Bander Kristen Covino, who is an Assistant Professor at Loyola Marymount University, will be teaching the Field Ornithology class at the Shoals Marine Lab this summer.
  • 03/31/2021: Banders Sara Morris and Anthony Hill will once again both be instructors for the Field Ornithology course at the National Audubon Camp in Hog Island, ME in June.