On a dewy summer morning in West Texas, I gaze over a table outfitted with Q-tips, pliers, calipers, and scales. A black-chinned hummingbird, retrieved from a nearby trap, lies swaddled in a nylon stocking toe, ready to be aged, weighed, measured, and adorned with an aluminum leg band the size of a chia seed. Given hummingbirds’ size and relative fragility, banding them requires special skills gained from extensive training, along
