Summer 2018 - posted September 1, 2018

This photograph of a strange looking Painted Bunting showed up on a Painted Bunting Facebook site.  The person who posted referenced the location as near Seminole county, FL.  She and others wondered if the bird was injured by banding.  It had a yellow band on its right leg and a silver (federal) band on its left.  I knew immediately it was not one of our banded birds (or if it was it had lost 2 bands - unlikely).  I contacted other researchers involved with Painted Buntings and was told that the Smithsonian had used silver/yellow on birds that were outfitted with geolocators.

This bird had some strange feather growth over its geolocator but in every way it was feeding well and carrying on like the other birds at this feeder.  A geolocator is read when a bird returns to its banding site and is recaptured.  It has data that indicates where the bird has been.  Everyone was real excited to know one of the birds had been seen at an overwintering location. Hopefully it returned to where it was banded.  The feather "bustle" may indicate which bird this is even if it can't be recaptured. 

At times so little data gets back to a bander. We were very fortunate this year to have captured previously banded birds and to have one of ours seen in South Carolina.  More in another posts (hopefully soon).  It has been amazing how many resightings have been on social media.