FOS Yellow-bellied Flycatcher and Summer Tanager

 CAPTAIN SAMS

We had another decent push of migrants last night and it was a little cooler, so we were able to get a full morning of banding in for the first time this season. We ended the morning with 98 new birds and 5 recaptures of 14 species. The highlight was two first-of-the-season Summer Tanagers, which were both hatch year males with bright yellow-orangish tinge to their feathers.

Summer Tanager (hatch year, male)

-Michael

LITTLE BEAR

We banded some more new migrants at the station today. Among the migrants was a yellowish-greenish looking Empidonax flycatcher. Identification of this genus in the hand is tricky because we cannot rely on vocalization.

Yellow-bellied Flycatcher (hatch year, sex unknown)

The task at hand was determining whether this flycatcher was a Traill's or Yellow-bellied, as it looked yellow but quite dull. Our usual measurements ended up in the overlap zone. There was only a slight emargination on p6. Longest p - p6 turned out to be the very upper limit of a Traill's Flycatcher, but in the middle range of a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher.

We finally identified this species as a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher based on its appearance. The bird had a distinct eye ring and yellowish wing bars.

We also looked at the gap between the secondaries and the wing bars. The gap is typically wide for a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher and narrow on a Traill's Flycatcher.

Yellow-bellied Flycatcher (left), Traill's Flycatcher (right) closed wing illustrating gap between wing bars and edging on secondaries

Jasmine

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Downy Woodpecker	-	1	-	-
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher	-	-	1	-
Traill's Flycatcher	2	-	-	-
White-eyed Vireo	2	-	-	-
Red-eyed Vireo	2	-	-	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	2	-	-
Carolina Wren	-	-	-	1
Brown Thrasher	-	-	1	-
Northern Waterthrush	11	-	7	-
Prothonotary Warbler	2	-	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	63	1	6	-
American Redstart	6	-	6	-
Northern Yellow Warbler	1	-	3	-
Prairie Warbler	6	-	5	-
Summer Tanager	2	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	1	1	-
Painted Bunting	1	-	4	3

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	98	34	132
# of Recaptures	5	4	9
# of Species	14	10	17
Effort (net-hours)	178.7	106.3	285.0
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	57.6	35.7	49.5
# of Nets	33	28	61

2026 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	443	260	703
# of Recaptures	123	84	207
# of Species	30	28	38
Effort (net-hours)	2883.7	1628.5	4512.2
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	19.6	21.1	20.7
# of Days	23	16	23

Banding Staff

Michael Gamble (CS)

Liz Held (LB)

Olivia DeMarchi (CS)

Aiden Gifford (CS)

Jasmine Fu (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.