FOS Eastern Kingbird

Captain Sam's:

Today we banded 15 new birds and processed 9 recaps, for a total of 24 birds. Six of those were Prairie Warblers, increasing our total number of Prairies so far this season to 43. We also caught another Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, for a total of 6 so far this season.

HY Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, 5.8 grams

Blue-gray Gnatcatchers are tiny birds and typically weigh only 5-7 grams. Ironically, their alpha numeric code is BGGN, which I like to pronounce as "big'n". They don't sit still for very long and can be seen hopping around in the treetops. Blue-gray gnatcatchers are constantly flicking their tails, which help them to flush out insects hiding in the foliage. When they catch larger insects, they beat them against a branch before eating them. More information about Blue-gray Gnatcatchers can be found here and here.

-Beth


Little Bear:

Today was a pretty slow day. With very little cloud cover today, we had to shut down our station quite sooner than we had hoped for. We did however capture our first of the season Eastern Kingbird! These guys are very cool to see up close as they are shy birds to see.  When looking at kingbirds, they have a really cool feature that most people do not know about. This feature is the crown patch on top of their heads. It is usually bright orange to red color and very little is known as what they use it for, except for potential aggression.  You can see the orange cap on this kingbird located in the photo below!

After hatch year male Eastern Kingbird

Below you can see the wing on the Eastern Kingbird. To determine age on this species, we have to look at the flight feathers. When looking at the flight feathers, we are narrowed down to the last primary feather (where the red arrow points to). Using the Pyle guide, we can determine if the age and sex of the bird. We determined, since this is a well narrow and pointed feather, this was an after hatch year male! How cool are birds?!

After hatch year male Eastern Kingbird

-Kristin

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	-	-	1	-
Downy Woodpecker	-	-	1	-
Eastern Kingbird	-	-	1	-
Red-eyed Vireo	-	-	2	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	3	-	2
Carolina Wren	-	1	-	1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher	1	-	-	-
Eastern Towhee	-	-	1	1
Ovenbird	-	-	1	-
Northern Waterthrush	3	-	1	-
Black-and-white Warbler	1	-	-	-
Prothonotary Warbler	-	-	1	-
Common Yellowthroat	1	2	1	-
American Redstart	3	-	1	-
Prairie Warbler	6	-	1	-
Northern Cardinal	-	-	-	1
Painted Bunting	-	3	2	1

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	15	14	29
# of Recaptures	9	6	15
# of Species	9	15	17
Effort (net-hours)	135	82	217
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	17.8	24.4	20.3
# of Nets	28	20	48

2019 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	259	147	406
# of Recaptures	123	37	160
# of Species	26	19	29
Effort (net-hours)	1,607.15	320.4	1927.55
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	23.8	57.4	29.4
# of Days	12	7	-

Banding Staff
Aaron Given (CS) 
Bethany Darby (CS)
Josh Lefever (LB)
Kristin Attinger (LB)