Cynthia Bridge is the founder of the Western Great Lakes Hummingbird Project. Banding hummingbirds is an avocational pursuit for Cynthia. When not outside enjoying nature or banding hummingbirds, she works part time as speech language pathologist in various healthcare settings.
Cynthia did not come to hummingbird banding by chance. Prior to being a speech language pathologist, Cynthia obtained a bachelor of science from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities in Fish and Wildlife and Life Sciences. Her interest in birds was sparked during her Ornithology class while in pursuit of this degree. Following her degree, Cynthia worked four seasons as a bander and supervising biologist for the Institute of Bird Populations. During that four year period, she traveled around the United States operating MAPS banding stations in Texas, Oregon, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, North Carolina, and Virginia. In addition she participated in ornithological field research at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina as well as in West Yellowstone, Montana.
Cynthia has been an active birder since 1990. In recent years she became interested in getting involved again with bird banding when a call went out to the Wisconsin birding community for someone to obtain a permit to band hummingbirds in order to document and identify the vagrant and western hummingbirds showing up in the Wisconsin. Cynthia stepped up as an interested party in pursuing a hummingbird banding permit to fulfill this need. Through great fortune Scott Weidensaul invited her to Pennsylvania for an introduction to banding Ruby-throated Hummingbirds. His kind encouragement along with the support of another veteran bander, Sandy Lockerman, precipitated Cynthia obtaining her master permit for hummingbird banding in the fall of 2015. Leading up to this achievement, veteran hummingbird researcher, Allen Chartier, spent countless hours training Cynthia to band Ruby-throated Hummingbirds during summer 2014. In July of 2015, she completed her final training during a formal “hummingbird banding boot camp” at the Hummer House in Cristoval, Texas under the supervision of Kelly Bryan of West Texas Avian Research where she banded Black-chinned Hummingbirds. Veteran banders Charles and Nancy Floyd, also generously contributed invaluable advice and support during Cynthia’s formal training in west Texas.
All parties mentioned above continue to mentor and support Cynthia in her growth as hummingbird bander.
The efforts of this project are currently funded at Cynthia’s own personal expense. This project of is a labor of love and a sincere interest in learning more about the hummingbirds that occur in Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
Western Great Lakes Hummingbird Project 