Tips on tertials

 CAPTAIN SAMS

We had a foggy start to what ended up being quite a slow morning with only 13 total captures! On slow days I like to take time to appreciate some of our more common species, such as Painted Buntings. These birds are a favorite of many in the Southeast United States and bright older males definitely draw attention with their blue, red, and green plumage. We've caught a few after hatch-year males this season, but hatch-year birds make up the majority of our captures. Hatch-year Painted Buntings are green overall with yellowish undersides and while they aren't as dazzling as AHY males, they're still pretty stunning. Pictured below is one from today that was especially green.

Hatch-year Painted Bunting, sex unknown

HY Painted Bunting with feather tracts labeled

Painted Buntings undergo a two-step preformative molt that occurs when they are only a few months old. After leaving the nest they will replace all of their body feathers and most wing coverts. Right now, we are mostly catching young buntings that have replaced variable amounts of wing coverts. The bunting shown above has replaced all of its lesser and median coverts (labeled in red) but has not begun replacing its greater coverts (labeled in blue). Between these two feather tracts is what banders call a molt limit, the point where two generations of feathers meet. In this case, the replaced green feathers are formative and the retained brownish feathers with buffy edging are juvenile, or grown while in the nest. Soon this bird will replace its greater coverts as well as some of its flight feathers in an eccentric pattern, meaning a chunk of flight feathers in the middle of the wing will be retained until this bird finishes its prebasic molt that it will undergo next fall when it is a little over 1 year old. It will also retain all or most of its primary coverts (labeled in yellow) until it completes its prebasic molt next fall. 

-Olivia

LITTLE BEAR

Foggy morning at Little Bear. Northern Waterthrush are one of the most common species we are catching in our mist nets during this time.

We determine whether Northern Waterthrushes were born this year or earlier by looking at the tertials: the innermost flight feathers on a bird's wing.

Northern Waterthrush (Left: hatch year, Right: after hatch year, unknown sex)

The presence of buff tips on the tertials (as shown on the left) are a juvenile characteristic. This suggests that the bird is just a few months old (HY). The absence of buff tips on the tertials (as shown on the right) suggests that the bird is at least one year old (AHY). However, buff tips wear off over time, so if absent, we look for other characteristics to confirm that the bird is older, such as completely ossified skull (until late Fall) or an absence of an alula limit.

Species	Captain Sam's		Little Bear
	New	Recaps	New	Recaps
"Traill's" Flycacther	1	-	-	-
Red-eyed Vireo	1	-	1	-
Carolina Chickadee	-	1	-	2
Carolina Wren	-	-	2	-
Ovenbird	-	-	1	-
Northern Waterthrush	-	-	4	-
Common Yellowthroat	1	-	-	-
American Redstart	-	-	2	-
Prairie Warbler	1	-	-	-
Northern Cardinal	2	2	-	2
Painted Bunting	3	1	6	2

Today's Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	9	18	27
# of Recaptures	4	7	11
# of Species	7	8	11
Effort (net-hours)	132	109.2	241.2
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	9.8	22.9	16.35
# of Nets	33	28	61

2026 Fall Cumulative Banding Stats	Captain Sams	Little Bear	TOTAL
# Birds Banded	279	134	413
# of Recaptures	112	49	161
# of Species	27	18	28
Effort (net-hours)	2248.01	1044.8	3292.81
Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours)	17.4	17.5	18.5
# of Days	17	10	17

Banding Staff

Aaron Given (CS)

Liz Held (LB)

Olivia DeMarchi (CS)

Jasmine Fu (LB)

Aiden Gifford (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.