It was another warm and humid morning out at the banding station
today.
Despite the uncomfortable weather
we still had a decent selection of migrants including our first Least
Flycatcher and Yellow Warbler of the season.
We also had good numbers of Northern Waterthrush, Common Yellowthroat,
and Red-eyed Vireo.
The highlight of the
day was our first of the season Brown-headed Cowbird.
The
Brown-headed Cowbird is a brood parasite which means it lays its eggs in the
nests of other birds.
Cowbirds evolved
this behavior back when they depended on buffalo herds and needed to have the
ability to follow the herds.
When a
female lays an egg in her host nest she will usually remove one or more of the
host eggs.
Their eggs require less
incubation time which allows the cowbird to hatch out first and out
compete the host’s offspring.
If a cowbird egg is noticed, some host
species will either abandon the nest or try to
remove the egg.
Eastern host species are
a less equipped to deal with cowbird parasitism than Mid-Western species.
Cowbirds stayed in the open grasslands of the
Mid-West up until 1800’s when humans began expanding farmland westward and
opened up a whole new eastern range for cowbirds.
Over 200 species have been recorded as being
parasitized by cowbirds.
-Mattie
 |
| Yellow Warbler |
NEW BIRDS
1 Least Flycatcher
4 Red-eyed Vireo
1 Worm-eating Warbler
5 Northern Waterthrush
2 Black and White Warbler
6 Common Yellowthroat
2 Yellow Warbler
4 Prairie Warbler
3 Painted Bunting
1 Brown-headed Cowbird
RECAPTURES
3 Carolina Chickadee
1 Northern Mockingbird
3 Northern Cardinal
2 Painted Bunting
BANDING STATS
# of Birds Banded: 31
# of Recaptures: 9
# of Species: 13
Effort: 125.0 net-hours
Capture Rate: 32.0 birds/100
net-hours
BANDING STAFF
Aaron Given
Mattie VandenBoom
Michael Gamble
Jen Tyrrell
