February 23, 2018

I had some catch up to do so you might want to check the previous 3 posts that are also new.

On Friday we returned to PB 28, one of our more northern sites.  This is one of many favorite sites as the birds are plentiful, the garden is beautiful, and the hosts are wonderful.  We banded a whopping 20 Painted Buntings and recaptured 5 from previous years.  Also banded were 4 Indigo Buntings.  We had to take down a little early due to wind so who knows how many more there were???  Being kept busy with 26 birds banded and the recaptures, photos for this post are mostly about what we see when aging the birds.  

Painted Bunting (bird born last summer - SY)

Photo by Bill LaFramboise

In the above photo you might be able to see the unmarked feathers above the outer wing feathers (primaries).   The outer primary feathers have a more blackish rib and the inner ones (secondaries) are browner.  This tells us that this is a young, green bird born last summer.

Indigo Bunting (female)

Photo by Bill LaFramboise

You can see some feathers growing in on the above Indigo Bunting.  They mostly molt body feathers this time of year.  

Indigo Bunting

Photo by Bill LaFramboise

This is the wing of a young, male Indigo Bunting.  Much like the above wing of the Painted Bunting the feathers above the outer flight feathers do not have the blue edging of the other feathers in that row.  The gray-brown ones are feathers still retained from its first year.  This bird was born last summer but will develop more bright blue coloring soon.

One of the Painted Buntings had more young feathers than usual.  We cannot be sure why his first fall molt didn't fully occur.  Here is its tail.  Typically all of the feathers are changed.  You might be able to see that only one is fresher.

young, green Painted Bunting tail

Photo by Bill LaFramboise

We also banded a Gray Catbird and a Northern Cardinal.  

Next Possum Long session will be on Tuesday, February 27.  Nets go up at 6:45 am.

A very early warning - we will NOT be banding on Tuesday, March 20 but will on Monday, March 19.  (Weather permitting as always)