Quincy Herald Whig http://qui.live.mediaspanonlinen.com/rss/ Quincy Herald Whig en-us Free festival gives opportunity for bird watchers to get up close LIBERTY, Ill. -- The Illinois Audubon Hummingbird Festival will be held from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday in the concession area at Siloam Springs State Park. The free festival provides an opportunity to see hummingbirds up close during capture, banding and release. "The hummingbirds will be captured by a unique, remote control trapping mechanism, held only long enough to record basic data, then released," said Vernon Kleen, master permit bander and member of the Illinois Audubon Society's board of directors. Banding helps determine how far into Mexico or Central America the birds go for the winter, where they stop during their travels, how long they live and whether they come back to the same sites year after year. Kleen reports that birds banded in Illinois already have been found in Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Texas. http://qui.live.mediaspanonline.com/new_story/hummingbird-festival