Cuckoo for Cuckoos

 CAPTAIN SAMS

Last night seemed to be a pretty poppin night for migration, and if I was a bird I think I would have migrated as well. Today we had a total of 135 birds, 3 of which were recaps.

Most of the birds we captured were Common Yellowthroats which you've heard about in previous blog posts. Let me tell ya, these guys are called common for a reason. Today 101 of our banded birds were Common Yellowthroats. Yellowthroats are one of the most numerous warblers in North America, up there with Yellow-rumped and Northern Yellow warblers. Maybe having yellow in your name just makes you really popular? Should I become Aiden the Yellow so I get more friends? ...I'm joking! Anywho, these guys find our nets more than other species partly due to their habit of foraging in the shrubbery and understory, unlike some other warblers that stay up in the canopy. Maybe the Knights Who Say NI are secretly just a bunch of Yellowthroats stacked up to make a big dude, who knows?

- Aiden

LITTLE BEAR

Many birds also found their way into nets at Little Bear this morning and we ended the day with 82 birds of 13 species. Similarly to Captain Sams, Common Yellowthroats made up a good chunk of our captures with 39 newly banded. The wave of Yellowthroats was broken up by a handful of exciting larger songbirds, including Brown Thrasher, Scarlet Tanager, and Yellow-billed Cuckoo. Yellow-billed Cuckoo is a bird I had been crossing my fingers for all season as we've observed a couple here and there, but haven't been lucky enough to catch one thus far this season.

Yellow-billed Cuckoo (hatch year, sex unknown)

More often seen than heard, cuckoos give a low, dove-like cooing call. They're known for calling during thunder and have the nickname "rain crow". For their annual molt they follow a feather replacement pattern that is unique among songbirds and more similar to raptors and gulls in which they replace series of primaries in a protracted or "step-wise" pattern. Our bird had no obvious molt limits and was aged as a hatch year by the incomplete ossification of its skull. 

-Olivia

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	-	-	1	-
Red-eyed Vireo	2	-	5	-
Gray Catbird	-	-	2	-
Brown Thrasher	-	-	2	-
Veery	1	-	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	1	-	2	1
Common Yellowthroat	101	1	39	-
American Redstart	12	-	12	-
Cape May Warbler	1	-	-	-
Northern Parula	2	-	-	-
Northern Yellow Warbler	-	-	1	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	3	-	2	-
Western Palm Warbler	4	-	8	-
Prairie Warbler	4	-	-	-
Scarlet Tanager	-	-	1	-
Northern Cardinal	-	-	2	-
Painted Bunting	1	2	2	2

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	133	79	212
# of Recaptures	3	3	6
# of Species	11	13	17
Effort (net-hours)	154.7	117.6	272.3
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	85.3	69.7	77.5
# of Nets	33	29	62

2026 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	947	545	1492
# of Recaptures	181	103	284
# of Species	38	44	51
Effort (net-hours)	4797.9	2927.8	7725.7
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	23.5	22.1	22.8
# of Days	35	28

Banding Staff

Michael Gamble (CS)

Liz Held (LB)

Olivia DeMarchi (LB)

Jasmine Fu (CS)

Aiden Gifford (CS)

Nick Schleissmann (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.