Thirty Wellington KCC members braved a chilly southerly and visited Karori cemetery to learn about how scientists catch and band birds with Peter Reese from the Ornithological Society of New Zealand (Ornithologists are people who study birds).
The KCC members used big mist nets to catch the birds and learnt that birds are banded with different coloured plastic rings on their legs. Each bird gets a different group of colours which helps people to identify them.
While they were there they caught 18 birds including blackbirds, chaffinches, silvereyes, grey warblers and tui. One tui they caught had been banded already back in 2004.
The mist net is set up ready to catch the birds. It's hard to see because otherwise the birds would spot it.
A silvereye being banded by Peter. You have to hold the birds in a special way so they don't get hurt.
