When the Day met the Night-heron

 CAPTAIN SAMS

We saw slightly more action today than we have in the past few days with a total of 49 birds. Common Yellowthroats continue to dominate our nets, but that switch over to catbirds in the coming weeks. We got another Yellow-bellied Flycatcher today, which is the 4th for Captain Sams this season. Last year we didn't catch any of these birds, so it is great to see some this year!

We are hoping for a bit of a push later this week when the winds change. Conditions look favorable for migration but we will have to see! 

Yellow-bellied Flycatcher (hatch-year, sex unknown)

- Natalie

LITTLE BEAR

It was a quiet morning at Little Bear, with net repair efforts in between processing our total of 24 birds, until we heard a raucous screech coming from one of our nets. Today, for the second time this season and the fourth all-time record at KIBS, we caught a Yellow-crowned Night Heron!

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron (hatch year, unknown sex)

Appropriately named, this night-heron operates on a nocturnal schedule, and feeds primarily on crabs. Adult plumage features a bold black-and-white head pattern contrasted by a solid gray body, and juveniles have a noticeably different streaky brown plumage. A young Black-crowned Night-heron may look very similar, but the difference lies in proportions; Yellow-crowns are generally observed to have longer necks, thicker bills, and longer legs. In taking a measurement of our lanky bird's legs, we were able to give a confident ID.

-Lisa Viviano

Species	Captain Sams		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
Yellow-crowned Night-heron	-	-	1	-
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher	1	-	-	-
Traill's Flycatcher	1	-	-	-
White-eyed Vireo	-	2	-	-
Red-eyed Vireo	3	-	1	-
House Wren	1	-	-	-
Carolina Wren	-	1	-	1
Gray Catbird	1	-	-	-
Brown Thrasher	1	-	-	-
Northern Waterthrush	-	-	1	-
Common Yellowthroat	12	8	9	2
American Redstart	1	1	-	-
Yellow Warbler	4	-	-	-
Western Palm Warbler	2	-	1	-
Prairie Warbler	1	-	2	-
Northern Cardinal	-	3	1	-
Indigo Bunting	-	-	1	-
Painted Bunting	-	-	2	2

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	32	19	41
# of Recaptures	17	5	22
# of Species	15	10	18
Effort (net-hours)	169.6	91.7	261.3
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	28.9	26.2	24.1
# of Nets	32	25	57

2024 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	1,890	1,226	3,116
# of Recaptures	505	358	863
# of Species	55	53	67
Effort (net-hours)	6,987.65	4,017.10	11,004.75
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	34.3	39.4	36.2
# of Days	44	36

Banding Staff

Michael Gamble (CS)

Kristin Attinger (LB)

Natalie Miller (CS)

Lisa Viviano (LB)

Noah Nei (LB)

Note:  All banding, marking, and sampling is being conducted under a federally authorized Bird Banding Permit issued by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Bird Banding Lab.