Birds, Birds, and More Birds!

Captain Sam's


Today was once again a pretty busy day out at Captain Sam's ! Northwest winds brought us loads more Common Yellowthroats to band (119 to be exact)! Some other first of the seasons managed to squeeze in between all the common yellowthroats as well. Swainson's Thrush, Tufted Titmouse, and Acadian Flycatcher were all new for Captain Sam's this season. Another special bird did pay a visit and gave us a bit of a puzzle. She was very drab and her feathers were very worn which made it a little hard to identify at first.

"mystery" bird

Upon first glance this bird looks much like a bland looking brown-headed cowbird with no distinct field markings that jump out at you, which was my first guess. But after studying her wings a little closer we were able to see her true colors.

"mystery" bird's right wing

It appears that the median coverts were so worn and tattered that they had lost their white/rusty tipping. When held at an angle in the sunlight we were also able to see the faint hue of light blue edging on some of her lesser coverts on the shoulder. This indicated to us that we actually had a female Blue Grosbeak!

Blue Grosbeak Captured this year (After Hatch-year, Female)

Blue Grosbeak Captured in 2014 at KIBS (After Hatch-Year, female)

Brown-headed Cowbird captured at KIBS in 2015
(Hatch-year, Male)

Another characteristic that stood out was the bill. Though Brown-headed Cowbirds have fairly large beaks for a blackbird, the grosbeak's bill is much larger. It's much more obvious to see this difference when comparing the two directly as you can see in the pictures above. 

As it turns out, Blue Grosbeaks are one of the few species where the adult birds will actually wait until they get to the wintering grounds to complete their pre-basic molt. This explains why the characteristic wing bars and blue shoulder coloration were virtually non-existent on this bird. She still has all the feathers that she molted in last year on her wintering grounds. 

-Kristen

Little Bear

A busier day at both stations!  At Little Bear, we ended the day with 106 new birds and 11 recaps of 19 different species.  Today's highlights include another Hooded Warbler, two more Magnolia Warblers, and the FOS Swainson's Thrush.  This is the second species of thrush that we've banded this year, with the first being the Veery.

A hatch-year Swainson's Thrush of unknown sex

-Brandon

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Downy Woodpecker	-	1	-	-
Eastern Wood-Pewee	1	-	-	-
"Traill's" Flycatcher	1	-	2	-
Acadian Flycatcher	1	-	-	-
White-eyed Vireo	2	-	4	1
Red-eyed Vireo	23	1	5	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	1	-	-
Tufted Titmouse	1	-	1	-
Carolina Wren	-	-	-	3
Veery	5	-	1	-
Swainson's Thrush	4	-	1	-
Gray Catbird	10	-	3	-
Brown Thrasher	1	-	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	2	-	2	-
Black-and-White Warbler	-	-	-	1
Common Yellowthroat	119	3	64	3
Hooded Warbler	1	-	1	-
American Redstart	15	1	5	-
Northern Parula	1	-	-	-
Magnolia Warbler	-	-	2	-
Yellow Warbler	5	-	-	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	3	-	4	-
Palm Warbler (Western)	-	-	5	-
Prairie Warbler	6	-	3	-
Northern Cardinal	-	-	2	1
Blue Grosbeak	1	-	-	-
Painted Bunting	1	1	1	2
	-	-	-	-

Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	203	106	309
# of Recaptures	9	11	20
# of Species	22	19	27
Effort (net-hours)	126.5	108	234.5
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	166.8	108.3	140.3
# of Nets	18-26	20	46

Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)
Mattie VandenBoom (LB)
Michael Gamble (CS)
Kristen Oliver (CS)
Brandon Connare (LB)
Paul Carroll (CS)
Hannah Conley (LB)