We had a really good day of banding with 159 birds banded along with 16 recaptures of 20 different species. A majority of today's catch was made up of Yellow-rumped Warblers with 65 of them banded. However, we did have a good diversity of species including a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - a first banding record for KIBS (at its current location)! We also banded our 3rd Red-breasted Nuthatch of season and a fairly late Yellow-breasted Chat. Other highlights included Blue-headed Vireo, American Robin, 5 Orange-crowned Warblers, and a Yellow Palm Warbler.
I didn't have the time to take as may photos as I would have liked to today because we were too busy processing birds but I did manage to pop off a couple shots.
The extensive brown feathers in the head and upper parts of this bird are characteristics of hatch-year Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers. We were also able to sex this bird as a female based on the lack on red in the throat.
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| Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (hatch-year, female) |
Orange-crowned Warblers can be sexed based on the amount of orange in the crown. Most of the time this orange patch is concealed and you have to move the feathers on top of the head to see it. So far this season all of the Orange-crowned Warblers we have banded have been females because none of them have had any orange in the crown.
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| Orange-crowned Warbler (hatch-year, female) |
The black lores (the spot between the bill and the eye) of this Yellow-breasted Chat is a good indicator that it is a male. Females will have grayish lores.
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| Yellow-breasted Chat (hatch-year, male) |
The gray crown is characteristic of female Red-breasted Nuthatches. Males will have a black crown.
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| Red-breasted Nuthatch (hatch-year, female) |
