Catbirds are Coming!

Captain Sam's:

We got a late start due to early moring rain and had to close early due to high winds. Thus, we only captured 14 birds (11 new, 3 recap) for the day. But we did get a FOS bird which was...drumroll please...a Gray Catbird! They are set apart by their meow-like call and beautiful blue-gray plumage and coppery under-tail coverts. Catbirds are the second most common migrant we capture at Captain Sam's; in 2019 we captured a total of 703. To say the least, mornings can get a little crazy at the station in October with large numbers of both catbirds and Common Yellowthroats moving through. This catbird was a nice surprise though, and we're looking forward to seeing more of them soon. Feel free to check out this blogpost from 2013 that describes how we age catbirds as hatch years or after-hatch years! 

HY Gray Catbird
Photo by Kristen Attinger

- Sarah S. 

                                                                       

Little Bear: 

Like Captain Sam's, we had a short day due to the rain and wind. We caught even fewer birds than them, but had one odd bird that stood out from the rest. Usually when we catch a dull green Painted Bunting with some colorful body feathers starting to appear, it ends up being a second-year male. Check out the Little Bear section of this blog post (link) from last year to see what I mean. The bird we caught today was truly unusual because it had patches of red feathers growing in all over its body, including on the head and back, which are typically blue and green respectively on adult males. Despite some initial confusion, we were able to age the bird as a hatch-year by an eccentric molt limit in the flight feathers of the wing.

Eccentric Molt Limit- the darker flight feathers towards the end of the wing and closest to the body are newly grown, contrasting with the retained brownish juvenile flight feathers in the center of the wing

It's hard to say exactly what the cause is of this bird's unusual plumage, beyond calling it some type of genetic abnormality effecting feather pigmentation. It will certainly be very interesting to see what this bird ends up looking like if it is captured again next fall. 

--Josh

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
White-eyed Vireo	1	-	-	-
Gray Catbird	1	-	-	-
Eastern Towhee	-	1	-	-
Black-and-white Warbler	2	-	-	-
Common Yellowthroat	5	-	4	-
American Redstart	1	-	2	-
Black-throated Blue Warbler	1	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	-	1	-	-
Painted Bunting	-	1	2	1

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	11	8	19
# of Recaptures	3	1	4
# of Species	9	3	9
Effort (net-hours)	45.15	46	91.15
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	31	19.6	25.2
# of Nets	20	19	-

2020 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sam's	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	867	460	1327
# of Recaptures	260	89	349
# of Species	36	36	44
Effort (net-hours)	3760.01	1945.2	5705.21
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	30.0	28.2	29.4
# of Days	32	23	-

Banding Staff

Sarah Mueller (CS)
Sarah Stewart (CS)
Vincent Weber (LB)
Dan Errichetti (LB)
Kristin Attinger (CS)
Josh Lefever (LB)