From 28 June 1982 through 30 June 2007 at Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History, 54,877 individuals and 124 species of birds have been banded. Of these, more than 400 individuals were banded for each of the top 23 species (above).

The 8,421 House Finches (Carpodacus mexicanus) and 7,743 Purple Finches (C. purpureus) made them among the most common species. American Goldfinches (Carduelis tristis) come in second at 7,825. Pine Siskins (C. pinus) were regular in the middle- and late-1980's (e.g., 486 were banded in the winter of 1986) but have dropped off drastically, with only 16 banded in 14 winters from 1994-95 through 2007-08, although there was finally another incursion of 224 in the winter of 2008-09. (Siskin decline may be due in part the the removal in the mid-1990s of 60-plus acres of mature Loblolly Pine forest on land adjoining Hilton Pond Center, but it is more likely our numbers reflects a global reduction of siskins or a major aleration of their migratory patterns.)

Nonetheless, through Dec 2010 these four "winter finches" together made up nearly half of all birds banded (25,766 or 46.97%); the highest level for these four species was on 12 April 1993 when they made up 48.5% of all birds that had been banded at the Center.

The most common non-finches have been 4,288 Ruby-throated Hummingbirds (Archilochus colubris) that are the primary focus for summer bird research at Hilton Pond Center.

The top nine species (more than 1,000 bandings each) made up 69.5% of all bandings (n = 38,126).

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