Tuesday, September 29, 2020

Blue Yellow Back Warbler


Captain Sam’s:

Today was another casual day of banding with a total of 43 captures representing 13 species. The wind was coming from the south the previous night, which pushed migrants away from our area. A cold front is moving through tonight, which will bring a massive storm system over us, but more importantly it will likely bring an influx of migrants. Hopefully, we will be busy all day tomorrow.

Hatch-year male Northern Parula (photo-VW)



One of the birds captured today was a hatch-year male Northern Parula. In the early 1800’s John James Audubon and Alexander Wilson named this species the Blue Yellow Back Warbler. The name was fitting for such a colorful species. This species is among the smallest birds in North America. The one we captured today weighed in at 6 grams (a nickel weighs 5 grams). Their breeding range extends north into Quebec, Canada, but they also breed with a wide distribution in the Southeastern US. Florida has them year-round. California has a small, but increasing breeding population that needs further study. They winter throughout the Caribbean, as well as the northern portion of Central America.

-Vincent

Citation: Moldenhauer, R. R. and D. J. Regelski (2020). Northern Parula (Setophaga americana), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (A. F. Poole, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.norpar.01


Little Bear:

We had low expectations for catching much at Little Bear this morning, but the birds surprised us with a busy first couple hours of banding. We ended up catching 42 birds of 13 species, nearly tying Captain Sam's numbers. Pretty good for 8 fewer nets and only 2 of us working the station today. We also broke the species count tie between the sites when we caught KIBS third ever Warbling Vireo! The previous 2 were both banded at Little Bear in 2016. This drab vireo is a common breeding bird across North American forests, but is a rare migrant along the Southeast coast. 


Hatch-year Warbling Vireo (photo-JL)
It was exciting to catch such an unexpected bird, and hopefully a good sign of things to come as the winds switch to our favor for the next few days!

-Josh

  Species  Captain Sam'sLittle Bear
NewRecapsNewRecaps
Traill's Flycatcher
--3-
White-eyed Vireo
-221
Warbling Vireo
--1-
Red-eyed Vireo
9-6-
Carolina Chickadee
-1--
Carolina Wren
-1--
Gray Catbird
4361
Ovenbird
211-
Northern Waterthrush
--1-
Black-and-white Warbler
1---
Common Yellowthroat
3291
American Redstart
5-3-
Northern Parula
1---
Black-throated Blue Warbler
2-2-
Prairie Warbler
--1-
Northern Cardinal
1311
Painted Bunting
-2-2


Today's Banding StatsCaptain Sam'sLittle BearTOTAL
# Birds Banded
28
36
64
# of Recaptures
15
6
21
# of Species
13
13
17
Effort (net-hours)
132.5
95.0
227.5
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)
32.5
44.2
37.4
# of Nets
30
22
-




2020 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats Captain Sam'sLittle BearTOTAL
# Birds Banded
1662
795
2457
# of Recaptures
404
135
539
# of Species
45
46
54
Effort (net-hours)
5187.2
2899.55
8086.75
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)
39.8
32.1
37.0
# of Days4432-

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)
Sarah Stewart (CS)
Vincent Weber (CS)
Dan Errichetti (CS)
Sarah Mueller (LB)
Josh Lefever (LB)



 

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