Cape May Comparison

 CAPTAIN SAMS

Migratory activity was more inland last night and significantly less birds were caught today at Captain Sam’s. The crew did lots of net repair today, so that we are prepared for the next migrant push. We ended with 17 birds newly banded and 4 recaptures.

Cape May Warbler (after hatch year, female)

Among our newly banded was a Cape May Warbler. She was an after hatch year female based on her yellow appearance (as opposed to orange-yellow), not a lot of black on the upper tail coverts or on the back feathers, and limited white on the median and greater coverts.

Cape May Warbler (after hatch year, female)

Nice comparison provided below with the after hatch year male Cape May Warbler newly banded at Little Bear!

Jasmine

LITTLE BEAR

It was also a slower day at Little Bear. We ended up with 19 birds again with 12 new and 7 recaptures of 10 species. The Cape May Warbler was our first of the season and he did not disappoint. The scientific name for Cape May Warblers is Setophagra tigrina. "Tigrina" translates to tiger-like or tiger-striped, which is now what I think of when I see a Cape May (especially an adult male). Our bird was also an after hatch year; you can compare ours to the bird from Captain Sam's and note the very bright yellow color (even starting to turn orange on the face!), very dark and distinct streaking on the breast, and extensive white present in the greater and median coverts. 

-Liz

Cape May Warbler (After hatch year, male)

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
White-eyed Vireo	1	-	-	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	1	-	2
Carolina Wren	-	-	-	1
Gray Catbird	-	1	-	-
Veery	1	-	-	-
Ovenbird	1	-	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	-	-	-	2
Common Yellowthroat	10	1	4	-
Cape May Warbler	1	-	1	-
Northern Yellow Warbler	-	-	2	-
American Redstart	-	-	1	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	1	-	2	-
Prairie Warbler	1	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	1	-	1
Painted Bunting	1	-	2	1

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	17	12	29
# of Recaptures	4	7	11
# of Species	11	10	15
Effort (net-hours)	158.4	117.6	276
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	13.3	16.2	14.5
# of Nets	33	28	-

2026 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	815	466	1,281
# of Recaptures	178	102	280
# of Species	38	42	49
Effort (net-hours)	4,642.9	2,810.2	7,453.1
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	21.4	21.7	20.94
# of Days	34	27

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Liz Held (LB)

Olivia DeMarchi (LB)

Jasmine Fu (CS)

Aiden Gifford (CS)

Caroline Wolfe-Merritt (LB)

Note:  All banding, marking, and sampling is being conducted under a federally authorized Bird Banding Permit issued by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Bird Banding Lab.