Blue Yellow Back Warbler

Captain Sam’s:

Today was another casual day of banding with a total of 43 captures representing 13 species. The wind was coming from the south the previous night, which pushed migrants away from our area. A cold front is moving through tonight, which will bring a massive storm system over us, but more importantly it will likely bring an influx of migrants. Hopefully, we will be busy all day tomorrow.

Hatch-year male Northern Parula (photo-VW)

One of the birds captured today was a hatch-year male Northern Parula. In the early 1800’s John James Audubon and Alexander Wilson named this species the Blue Yellow Back Warbler. The name was fitting for such a colorful species. This species is among the smallest birds in North America. The one we captured today weighed in at 6 grams (a nickel weighs 5 grams). Their breeding range extends north into Quebec, Canada, but they also breed with a wide distribution in the Southeastern US. Florida has them year-round. California has a small, but increasing breeding population that needs further study. They winter throughout the Caribbean, as well as the northern portion of Central America.

-Vincent

Citation: Moldenhauer, R. R. and D. J. Regelski (2020). Northern Parula (Setophaga americana), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (A. F. Poole, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.norpar.01

Little Bear:

We had low expectations for catching much at Little Bear this morning, but the birds surprised us with a busy first couple hours of banding. We ended up catching 42 birds of 13 species, nearly tying Captain Sam's numbers. Pretty good for 8 fewer nets and only 2 of us working the station today. We also broke the species count tie between the sites when we caught KIBS third ever Warbling Vireo! The previous 2 were both banded at Little Bear in 2016. This drab vireo is a common breeding bird across North American forests, but is a rare migrant along the Southeast coast. 

Hatch-year Warbling Vireo (photo-JL)

It was exciting to catch such an unexpected bird, and hopefully a good sign of things to come as the winds switch to our favor for the next few days!

-Josh

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Traill's Flycatcher	-	-	3	-
White-eyed Vireo	-	2	2	1
Warbling Vireo	-	-	1	-
Red-eyed Vireo	9	-	6	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	1	-	-
Carolina Wren	-	1	-	-
Gray Catbird	4	3	6	1
Ovenbird	2	1	1	-
Northern Waterthrush	-	-	1	-
Black-and-white Warbler	1	-	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	3	2	9	1
American Redstart	5	-	3	-
Northern Parula	1	-	-	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	2	-	2	-
Prairie Warbler	-	-	1	-
Northern Cardinal	1	3	1	1
Painted Bunting	-	2	-	2

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	28	36	64
# of Recaptures	15	6	21
# of Species	13	13	17
Effort (net-hours)	132.5	95.0	227.5
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	32.5	44.2	37.4
# of Nets	30	22	-

2020 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	1662	795	2457
# of Recaptures	404	135	539
# of Species	45	46	54
Effort (net-hours)	5187.2	2899.55	8086.75
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	39.8	32.1	37.0
# of Days	44	32	-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)
Sarah Stewart (CS)
Vincent Weber (CS)
Dan Errichetti (CS)
Sarah Mueller (LB)
Josh Lefever (LB)