First ever Belted Kingfisher!

Captain Sam's

Westerly winds this morning brought us only two birds on the first net run, but many more on the second net run of the day. Though our total captures only amounted to about 34 birds we ended up with some good variety. No Kingfishers were caught at Captain Sam's 😒, but we did have a few fun visitors. We had a Least Flycatcher, Baltimore Oriole, Scarlet Tanager, and Yellow-breasted chat all show up at the station. Some nice surprises for early migration. I personally had never banded a Least Flycatcher before, so getting to have one in hand was a great experience. When extracting it from the net I noticed right away, its small stature and immediately got excited. Other indications that this bird was in fact a Least Flycatcher were the nice complete white eye ring and small bill. We typically only catch one or two of these birds a year! 

-Kristen

Top left: Least Flycatcher (Hatch-year, sex unknown)
Top Right: Baltimore Oriole (Hatch-year, sex Unknown)
Bottom Left: Scarlet Tanager (Hatch-year, Female)
Bottom Right: Yellow-Breasted Chat (Hatch-year, Female)

Little Bear
Birds were on the move again last night and as a result we had our best day of the season thus far at Little Bear with 56 new birds and 4 recapture, comprised of 17 species.  Highlights of the day included our first of the season Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Veery, Worm-eating Warbler, Hooded Warbler, and Cape May Warbler.  Though the biggest surprise of the day was KIBS first ever Belted Kingfisher.  Belted Kingfishers are by no means rare on Kiawah and are pretty much seen on a daily basis at each of the stations.  They often fly along the edges of the stations near areas of open water.  Oddly, this bird ended up in one of the few nets that does not have any water under it.   

Belted Kingfisher (hatch-year, female)

The individual we captured today was a hatch-year female.  Kingfishers can be aged based on the black in their central rectrices and can be sexed based by the amount of rufous in the breast band.  Younger birds will have a much larger black shaft streak on their central rectrices than adults do.  In Belted Kingfishers, females are more colorful and will have a much more extensive rufous breast band whereas the males tend to just have slate blue breast band with little to no rufous. 

Extensive black shaft streaks on R1indicative of a hatch-year

 -Mattie        

 

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Ruby-throated Hummingbird	-	-	(1)	-
Belted Kingfisher	-	-	1	-
"Traill's" Flycatcher	-	-	7	-
Least Flycatcher	1	-	-	-
White-eyed Vireo	1	-	-	-
Red-eyed Vireo	8	1	6	1
Carolina Wren	-	-	-	1
Veery	-	-	1	-
Yellow-breasted Chat	1	-	-	-
Baltimore Oriole	1	-	-	-
Ovenbird	-	-	4	-
Worm-eating Warbler	1	-	1	-
Northern Waterthrush	5	2	15	-
Prothonotary Warbler	-	-	2	-
Common Yellowthroat	2	1	6	1
Hooded Warbler	-	-	2	-
American Redstart	4	-	-	-
Cape May Warbler	-	-	1	-
Yellow Warbler	-	-	3	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	-	-	1	-
Prairie Warbler	2	-	3	-
Scarlet Tanager	1	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	1	-	-
Painted Bunting	-	2	3	1

Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	27	56	83
# of Recaptures	7	4	11
# of Species	13	17	24
Effort (net-hours)	133.9	102.0	235.9
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	25.39	58.8	39.8
# of Nets	26	20	46

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