November 8, 2015

My husband Bill and I did an extra session this week in order for him to get some more banding experience.  Attending the Yellow Rail and Rice Festival has given us some added enthusiasm (even though we already had a lot!)

We banded three new birds.  First off was a Gray Catbird.  They are large enough and hearty enough to make great subjects for study.  Once again we saw no molt limit and silver edging on the feathers over the outer flight feathers.  Thus this is an adult bird.

Gray Catbird

Photo by Nancy LaFramboise

Next we banded a Swainson's Thrush.  This is a late one according to eBird. There are other photos of more typical poses of this species elsewhere in the blog but this one shows the underwing and its stripe.  The white edges are on one half of each flight feather and only show from the bottom side!

Swainson's Thrush

Photo by Nancy LaFramboise

Last but not least we caught and color banded another Painted Bunting.  The last few birds had a bit of fat so I thought maybe all of them had moved on.  This one had very little fat so maybe it can fatten up in the new feeders.  As we are now doing, here's a wing photo - maybe after a bit more study we may be able to age "green" buntings after all!  If they are hatch-year greens, we still will not know if they are female or male.

Painted Bunting

Photo by Nancy LaFramboise

As in the last regular Tuesday post, next banding is November 10.  Nets go up at 6 am.