bird banding (mostly)

All things winged.

Moderator: Scott Waters

Post Reply
User avatar
Gyri
Posts: 919
Joined: June 8th, 2010, 4:18 pm
Location: Northern New England

bird banding (mostly)

Post by Gyri »

Through college and a little bit since then I have had a number of opportunities to help out with various bird banding projects. Some of the banding trips I've been on have been for classes, some were for research, and others were educational demonstrations. I also spent a summer working on a grassland nest success rate study in agricultural settings as a technician. I think I posted some of these photos back before the crash of 2010. There is a chance I've misidentified a bird or two. I completely guessed on the flycatcher, I dare anybody to prove me wrong!

Every year in VT we have an event called Dead Creek Wildlife Day. It's a public event sponsored by Fish and Wildlife Department with booths, presentations, and demonstrations. The past few years (except this year unfortunately) I've helped out a little bit with the bird banding station in the morning.

Here is some of the bounty:

White-throated Sparrow
Image

Blue Jay
Image

Image

Northern Cardinal
Image

Sharp-shinned Hawk
Image

Red-tailed Hawk
Image

Image

Least Flycatcher
Image

Gray Catbird
Image

Image

Fox Sparrow
Image

Yellow Warbler
Image

Image

Cedar Waxwing
Image


There is an on-going chickadee census that is a student project at UVM. Each year a bunch of chickadees are captured in mist nets and given federal and color bands as part of a year to year mark-recapture study.

And what do you know, here's a Black-capped Chickadee
Image

Usually leaves are one of the most common catches
Image

A Chickadee extraction
Image

Success!
Image

There is always a lot of non-chickadee bycatch. Depending on how busy the nets are on a given morning the non-chickadees are often released without bands. They never get color bands.

A Blue Jay after its release
Image

A Red-breased Nuthatch
Image

Tufted Titmouse
Image

They bite.
Image

And another token Chickadee
Image

Yellow Warbler
Image

For an ornithology class I took we did some banding in my professor's yard.

Here was a rather pecky Hairy Woodpecker that we caught
Image

For beak comparison, a male Hairy Woodpecker next to a female Downy Woodpecker
Image

Some House Finches
Image

Image

And a Dark-eyed Junco
Image


For the grassland nesting success rate study I worked as a technician on for a while, my job was to locate the nests of Boblinks and Savannah Sparrows, monitor the nest's development, band hatchlings, take genetic samples, capture and band adults, and keep track of which adults were associated with which nests. Predation rates were generally very low but, unfortunately, the vast majority of nests were doomed from the start. Most of the study fields were managed for hay and were mowed 2-3 times a year. Most nests were eventually mowed over before young could fledge -- any surviving nestlings were then eaten by gulls that would follow the tractors around. There were survivors though, and many of the surviving Savannah Sparrow fledglings would return to the same area to nest the following year. I believe we captured and color banded around 20 adult birds that year that were originally given federal bands as hatchlings in years prior.

Here is a HUGE nest of Bobolinks
Image

Hey buddy!
Image

Image

They ask anything that moves for food
Image

Blurry bird, but a nice habitat shot
Image

Itty bitty Savannah Sparrows
Image

These might be Bobolinks again...
Image

Hungry bobos
Image

Hungry Sparrows
Image


One of my favorite yearly activities is Saw-whet Owl banding.

Hoot!
Image

This one looks evil.
Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

I don't remember how, when, or why, I took this photo, but here's a tiny Turkey
Image

I got a pic of this dude, a Horned Lark, chilling out in my driveway one evening.
Image


Lastly, I've got a buddy who is a licensed falconer. I don't have any pics of his birds at the moment but do have some of Harris Hawks from his job. He works at the British School of Falconry. The name is a little misleading because it's not a place that certifies people as falconers but rather it's a place where rich people can go to spend a few hundred dollars on an hour or two to take some birds out and learn the basic principles of falconry. I was fortunate enough to get a tour from my buddy.
Image

Image


That's all I can think of a the moment. Cheers!
User avatar
Tim Borski
Posts: 1855
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 7:28 am
Location: FL Keys
Contact:

Re: bird banding (mostly)

Post by Tim Borski »

Cool stuff. I especially like the Downey/ Hairy comparison shot. Nice.

When I was around 10 years old, I help in a summer-long survey of Upland Sandpipers (Plovers) in central WI. We dragged ropes through miles of hay fields and prairie hab and never found one, but did manage to turn up several Bobolink and short Eared Owl nests among other interesting stuff. Those were great times and a summer vacation I'll never forget.

Your first Junco is a Catbird and your "yellow" Warblers aren't Yellow Warblers. (the 2nd one may be a Blue Winged?) Someone will give correct IDs.

Since that summer, the Upland Plovers have made a strong come back due to management practices and I see them frequently when I go back to visit. I posted some pics pre-crash...maybe I'll throw them up again sometime down the road.
The Bobs and Short eareds are still there too. :thumb:
Tim
User avatar
Gyri
Posts: 919
Joined: June 8th, 2010, 4:18 pm
Location: Northern New England

Re: bird banding (mostly)

Post by Gyri »

Thanks Tim. You're TOTALLY right about the Cat Bird... That would be about the largest Junco in the world otherwise! Junco super steroids... We'll call that one an error in editing. Warblers on the other hand, have always been my weak spot. You're right though, yellow warblers should not have those prominent wing bars. I keep wanting to call the second one a Black-throated Green but that does not look right either. The Blue-winged looks like a better match but that name does not jump out in my head as one that we caught that day. That doesn't mean much though... My mentality going into this post was "much better birders than I are going to see this post and will catch errors immdiately" ;)
J-Miz
Posts: 373
Joined: October 28th, 2010, 4:26 pm

Re: bird banding (mostly)

Post by J-Miz »

That Least Flycatcher looks more like a Yellow-rumped Warbler...the first Yellow Warbler shots look like fall Blackpoll Warblers...the last Yellow Warbler shot looks like a Pine Warbler. And that Fox Sparrow appears to be a Song Sparrow.
User avatar
Owen
Posts: 1924
Joined: June 11th, 2010, 12:35 am
Location: San Jose', Northern Catcrapistan

Re: bird banding (mostly)

Post by Owen »

J-Miz wrote:And that Fox Sparrow appears to be a Song Sparrow.
Are you sure... looks more like a young White-throatd to me, but definitely not a Fox.
User avatar
Owen
Posts: 1924
Joined: June 11th, 2010, 12:35 am
Location: San Jose', Northern Catcrapistan

Re: bird banding (mostly)

Post by Owen »

I saw this banded Prairie Falcon a couple weeks ago... seems to be just passing through since it was there 2 days later, but I haven't seen it after that.

Image
User avatar
Gyri
Posts: 919
Joined: June 8th, 2010, 4:18 pm
Location: Northern New England

Re: bird banding (mostly)

Post by Gyri »

Owen wrote:
J-Miz wrote:And that Fox Sparrow appears to be a Song Sparrow.
Are you sure... looks more like a young White-throatd to me, but definitely not a Fox.
I think you're right about it being a White-throated. I remember that we did catch a fair number of those that day. There was another trip where we did catch fox sparrows but it was all long enough ago that I got the trips confused. Sparrows and Warblers have always been a challenge but I do not think it is a Song Sparrow, the spot on the chest is not nearly prominent enough to my novice eyes. I'm going to spend some time with sibley later to look at the warblers again.
User avatar
Owen
Posts: 1924
Joined: June 11th, 2010, 12:35 am
Location: San Jose', Northern Catcrapistan

Re: bird banding (mostly)

Post by Owen »

Gyri wrote:
Owen wrote:
J-Miz wrote:And that Fox Sparrow appears to be a Song Sparrow.
Are you sure... looks more like a young White-throatd to me, but definitely not a Fox.
I think you're right about it being a White-throated. I remember that we did catch a fair number of those that day. There was another trip where we did catch fox sparrows but it was all long enough ago that I got the trips confused. Sparrows and Warblers have always been a challenge but I do not think it is a Song Sparrow, the spot on the chest is not nearly prominent enough to my novice eyes. I'm going to spend some time with sibley later to look at the warblers again.
I'm lost with that whole warbler/vireo/flycatcher thing being fairly new with birds (my winter photo diversion), but sparrows seem to be a little easier, at least from what I see locally. Bug guy first, herp guy second and learning birds as I go.
User avatar
Andy Avram
Posts: 897
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 10:37 am
Location: NE Ohio

Re: bird banding (mostly)

Post by Andy Avram »

Very cool survey you got to do. Mist netting birds is always fun.

I am going to agree with Jared on all his ID suggestions. Flycatcher = Yellow-rumped, Yellow Warbler 1 = Blackpoll, Yellow Warbler 2 = Pine Warbler (Yellows have no wingbars like both of those species pictured).

As for the sparrow discussion. There is just enough rufous color, in all the right places and shape is correct for that to most likely be a Song Sparrow. As for the chest spot. It does not always show up prominently, especially at weird angles. The only other option for a large, reddish sparrow would be Fox, which I don’t think this bird is. Shape and color is all wrong for any version of White-throated.

I would say with the sparrows rank right on up there with the warblers in terms of difficulty.

Andy
Post Reply