We banded two new Painted Buntings. We also had three recaptures which give us a lot of information. One recapture was a male that we banded almost a year ago. It was a young, green bird at that time but now shows its beautiful male plumage. It was exceptionally bright and had a scattering of unexpected yellow patches on the breast and undertail. We have seen this a lot but it is great to know the age of this bird (in its third year as banders add a year to ages in January). Sometimes color changes are attributed to older birds but this one is on the young side.
male Painted Bunting with extra yellow feathers
We also had incidental captures of a Blue Jay and a Black-and-white Warbler. The Black-and-white was born last summer and is just developing the black throat that indicates it is male. It is barely visible in the photo but you can see that for now it looks like a stripe but will become fully black.
Black-and-white Warbler
Next Possum Long session will be on Tuesday, March 27. Nets go up at 6:45 am.
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