From 28 June 1982 through 30 June 2007 at Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History, 48,848 individuals and 124 species of birds have been banded. Of these, more than 400 individuals were banded for each of the top 19 species (above).

The 7,508 House Finches (Carpodacus mexicanus) and 7,166 Purple Finches (C. purpureus) made them by far the most common species. The high point of the winter of 2005-2006 occurred when our grand total of Purple Finches finally surpassed the number of House Finches we have banded locally--even though local HOFI produced enough fledglings to again take the lead as the summer season progressed. American Goldfinches (Carduelis tristis) come in third at 6,311. 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 13 banded in the past ten years. (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.)

Nonetheless, through June 2007 these four "winter finches" together made up nearly half of all birds banded (22,526 or 46.11%); 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 the 3,449 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 68% of all bandings.

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