FOS: Indigo Bunting!

 Captain Sam's:

After our first 100+ bird day yesterday, we were expecting a less-busy day today based on the radar from last night. But surprise - we had an even busier day today with 139 birds! At Captain Sam's, we banded about the same number of Common Yellowthroats today (73) as yesterday, but they made up a smaller percentage of our captures since we banded more birds in total. Our other captures included a surprisingly high number of American Redstarts (30!) and a variety of other warblers including Black-and-white, Yellow, and Black-throated Blue. 

    Hatch-year female Northern Parula (Photo: DE)

We also had another first-of-season today: an Indigo Bunting! Our bird was a hatch-year, so it didn't look very "indigo" except for its tail and a few wing coverts. Females and immatures of both sexes are brownish overall, often with blue-tinted wings or tail, while adult males are bright blue all over. We were able to identify this bird as a hatch-year because of the molt limits in its greater coverts and carpal covert: the replaced greater coverts (red arrow) are longer and lack buffy edges, and the replaced carpal covert (blue arrow) is darker and more blue than the surrounding retained feathers. That indigo color comes not from pigment in the feathers but from the structure of the feathers themselves. Microscopic structures in the feathers reflect and refract blue light, which gives the birds their vivid blue appearance.

Hatch-year Indigo Bunting wing - the carpal covert (blue arrow) is replaced and more blue than the retained greater coverts, and the replaced inner greater coverts (red arrow) are longer and lack buffy edges (Photo: SS)

Hatch-year Indigo Bunting (Photo: SS)

Unfortunately, we weren't able to open Little Bear today because of the wind, but the LB crew had a productive day mending nets. High winds are in the forecast for tomorrow too, so we'll have to wait and see if we'll be able to run LB.

-Sarah M. 

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Gray Catbird	4	-	-	-
Veery	1	-	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	8	-	-	-
Black-and-white Warbler	2	-	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	73	3	-	-
American Redstart	30	-	-	-
Northern Parula	2	-	-	-
Yellow Warbler	6	-	-	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	2	-	-	-
Prairie Warbler	1	-	-	-
Indigo Bunting	1	-	-	-
Painted Bunting	2	4	-	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	132	-	132
# of Recaptures	7	-	7
# of Species	12	-	12
Effort (net-hours)	86.8	-	86.8
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	160.1	-	160.1
# of Nets	29	-	-

2020 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	1,111	510	1,621
# of Recaptures	284	94	378
# of Species	40	37	47
Effort (net-hours)	4,106.86	2,079.15	6,186.01
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	34.0	29.1	32.3
# of Days	35	25	-

 

Banding Staff

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