At Least we caught a new species

 CAPTAIN SAMS

It continues to be slow out on "The Spit" with 8 birds banded and 8 recaptured today. Rain blanketed much of the southeast last night and will continue throughout this evening and into tomorrow. It looks like we might have high chance of getting rained out tomorrow. But big changes will be coming soon as a cold front approached from the northwest and pushes the rain off shore. This powerful cold front will likely push millions of birds south starting on Monday night and continuing for several days. 

The highlight of today was at the end of the day when we captured an adult male Summer Tanager. We band a handful of Summer Tanagers each fall but rarely do we get an adult male and this is the second one this season. He was a bit crabby and didn't cooperate for a good pic and kept try to take a piece out of my finger. 

Summer Tanager (after hatch-year, male)

One interesting feature about this bird is that it had a single yellow primary feather while all of the others were red. I don't believe that this is a retained juvenile feather as it was just as fresh as the others next to it. When a bird molts its flight feathers in late summer, it starts with the first primary on the inside part of the wing which is the yellow one. Because this was the first feather that it molted, it is possible that at that time certain hormone levels like testosterone we not sufficient enough to regulate the red pigment we see in the rest of the feathers.   

Summer Tanager (after hatch-year, male)

-Aaron

LITTLE BEAR

Another very slow day at Little Bear with 12 total birds: 5 new and 7 recaptures. We did manage to stay dry and we caught a new species for the season, Least Flycatcher. 

Least Flycatcher (hatch year, unknown sex)

The complete and distinct white eye ring and emarginated p6 feather were immediate indicators that we had a Least, but we took some other measurements just in case. Here is a closer look at a comparison between Traill's and Least where you can see a difference in eye ring and bill length and shape. We measured the bill length, which was 7.0 mm, solidly in the middle of the range for Least, and too small to be a Traill's.  

Top: Traill's Flycatcher

Bottom: Least Flycatcher

There are also differences in wing morphology between the two species. I've labeled the ends of some of the primaries in the photo below so we can compare the two side by side. Notice that each bird has a different feather as its longest primary, and the Least Flycatcher has a very short distance between p7 and p6. Some of the many feather measurements we take may have a degree of overlap between the two species, so looking at the ratios on the closed wing can also be useful.

 

-Liz

Species	Captain Sams		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Downy Woodpecker	-	-	-	2
Least Flycatcher	-	-	1	-
Traill's Flycatcher	-	1	-	-
White-eyed Vireo	-	3	-	-
Carolina Wren	-	-	-	1
Gray Catbird	4	1	-	2
Veery	-	-	1	-
Common Yellowthroat	2	1	1	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	-	-	1	-
Western Palm Warbler	1	-	-	-
Prairie Warbler	-	1	1	-
Summer Tanager	1	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	1	-	1
Painted Bunting	-	-	-	1
	-	-	-	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	8	5	13
# of Recaptures	8	7	15
# of Species	8	10	14
Effort (net-hours)	141.9	105.6	247.5
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	11.3	12.3	11.3
# of Nets	33	28	-

2026 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	2,466	1,364	3,830
# of Recaptures	356	169	525
# of Species	55	57	70
Effort (net-hours)	7,269.3	4,848.8	12,118.1
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	38.8	31.6	35.9
# of Days	50	43

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Liz Held (LB)

Olivia DeMarchi (CS)

Jasmine Fu (LB)

Nick Schleissmann (CS) 

Adrianna Nelson (CS)

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.