Interesting "Solitary" Vireo

CAPTAIN SAM'S

Today was a chilly day! We had a total of 40 newly banded birds and 16 recaptures. It was really cool that we recaptured the Wilson's Warbler that was banded 2 days ago! We also started to capture some more Orange-crowned Warblers. It is great to see these birds and the variation of the orange they can get in their crowns.

-Kristin

LITTLE BEAR

It was a cool fall day out at Little Bear with many more birds around than we have had the last few days. At the start of the morning, we heard a Pine Siskin fly over the station and one turned up near one of our nets. With this being an irruption year, hopefully one will find our nets eventually. We banded 43 new birds and had 23 recaptures of 16 different species, which included 6 late Cape May Warblers.

The highlight of the morning was this interesting vireo pictured below. When I saw it in the net I thought just a Blue-headed Vireo but when I extracted it, right away I noticed how dull it was compared to all the Blue-headed Vireos I have handled. For now we are just calling it a "Solitary" Vireo. The "Solitary" Vireo group split in 1997 following genetic studies, which demonstrated differences between 3 subspecies of distinct plumage types, the Plumbeous, Cassin's, and Blue-headed Vireo. We are used to the Blue-headed Vireo since they winter in the southeastern states and breed in the Appalachians and further north into Canada. The Plumbeous Vireo breeds in the Rocky Mountain region and the Cassin's Vireo breeds in the Pacific states and parts of the northern Rockies. There is some overlap in the ranges of the Blue-headed and Cassin's Vireo and the Cassin's and Plumbeous Vireo.

The plumage differences between these 3 species are subtle and can be difficult to identify in the field and hand. Blue-headed Vireos have a bright bluish crown and face that contrast with the bright greenish nape and back. The wing edging is also bright green, the outer rectrices have distinct white edging, and the flanks are yellow to yellowish olive, contrasting with the white underparts. Cassin's Vireos have a dull grayish to olive crown, nape, and face that contrasts slightly with the dull olive back. The wing edging is dull greenish, outer rectrices with no or indistinct white edging, and the flanks are dull olive, contrasting indistinctly with the white underparts. Lastly, Plumbeous Vireos have a uniformly gray crown, face, and back with wing edging whitish. The flanks are usually washed grayish, contrasting distinctly with the white underparts.

Plumbeous Vireo was ruled out due to this birds' smaller size. Wing and tail measurements were in the range for both Cassin's and Blue-headed Vireo but the exposed culmen was too small for Blue-headed Vireo. The plumage was also not typical of a Blue-headed Vireo so Cassin's is possible but a dull Blue-headed Vireo is a possibility as well. We are still trying to figure it out but will update the blog when we do. Take a look below! The first picture is a Blue-headed Vireo and all the others are different angles of the "Solitary" Vireo we caught this morning.

Blue-headed Vireo

"Solitary" Vireo (hatch-year, sex unknown)

-Michael

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-Billed Cuckoo	2	1	5	1
Downy Woodpecker	-	-	1	-
Eastern Phoebe	5	1	1	-
"Solitary" Vireo	-	-	1	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	1	-	1
House Wren	1	1	-	-
Carolina Wren	-	1	-	-
Ruby-Crowned Kinglet	-	-	2	-
Gray Catbird	15	7	11	16
Song Sparrow	1	-	2	-
Swamp Sparrow	1	-	2	2
Ovenbird	1	-	-	-
Orange-Crowned Warbler	5	-	2	-
Common Yellowthroat	3	2	2	2
Cape May Warbler	-	-	6	-
Northern Parula	1	-	-	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	2	-	-	-
Palm Warbler (Western)	2	-	5	-
Wilson's Warbler	-	1	-	-
Yellow-Rumped Warbler (Myrtle)	-	-	2	-
Northern Cardinal	1	-	-	1
Indigo Bunting	-	-	1	-
Painted Bunting	-	1	-	-

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	40	43	83
# of Recaptures	16	23	39
# of Species	17	16	23
Effort (net-hours)	164.75	124.0	288.75
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	34.0	53.2	42.3
# of Nets	28	20	48

2018 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	3,048	2,348	5,396
# of Recaptures	811	372	1,183
# of Species	69	69	82
Effort (net-hours)	7,786.15	3,432.9	11,219.05
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	49.6	79.2	58.6
# of Days	67	55	-

Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS)
Michael Gamble (LB)
Meredith Heather (CS)
Kristin Attinger (CS)
Joel Throckmorton (LB)