The first week of the two week period
being reported here was set aside for the second of our Fall 2005 Bander
Development workshops, which was offered for beginning bird banders with
little or no previous experience but with serious academic, professional,
or avocational goals that might be furthered by learning and/or improving
upon the basic banding skills of properly erecting, opening, and closing
mist nets, extracting birds from mist nets, handling birds, applying bird
bands, and taking basic measurements. The workshoppers taking us
up on this opportunity were (front row, left to right): Keri Parker
(Washington D.C. area), Tyler Beck (Florida), Jessica Scopel (western PA),
with "Puppy" (front and center, as usual!); pictured in the back row (left
to right) is the principal fall banding crew at Powdermill: Bob Leberman,
Bob Mulvihill, Adrienne Leppold, and Felicity Newell (Mike Lanzone was
not present for the group picture).
In addition to our workshoppers,
we also thank the following volunteers, visitors, and other Powdermill
staff for their assistance with the banding during the period:
Carroll
Labarthe, Pam Ferkett, Matt Clement, Len and Linda Hess, Dick Byers, John
Yerger, Dan Hinnebusch, the King-Somma family, Cokie and Annie Lindsay,
Emma DeLeon, Bruce Horner, and Chris Meny.
We banded a total of 1,197 birds
of 35 species during the most recent two-week period. Together, the
top five species accounted for 73% of our banding total: American Goldfinch
(403 banded); Dark-eyed Junco (220); White-throated Sparrow (166); Purple
Finch (77); Black-capped Chickadee (67). With a couple more weeks
of banding to go, running season totals for these same species are already
are among the best we've recorded in 44 fall seasons of banding at Powdermill.
The current total for AMGO (1,123) is our second highest ever (highest
is 1,654 in 2001); 515 DEJUs this fall is our highest total since 1999;
772 WTSP is our third highest fall total (we banded 875 in 1999 and 836
in 2001); 443 PUFI is seventh highest overall and our largest catch since
2001; finally, this fall's current total of 352 BCCH already is our third
highest ever (490 in 1983 and 403 in 1969).
The sixth most common species to
band
in the last two weeks was Yellow-rumped (Myrtle) Warbler (49 banded).
Like the top five species mentioned above, our running fall total for MYWA
(518) is among the best ever (seventh highest overall and our best total
since 1998, when we banded 883). In any given fall season,
a small fraction (ca. 1%) of MYWAs that we band appear to represent the
Alaskan subspecies, Dendroica coronata hooveri, which is much larger
within an age/sex class than the nominate eastern race, D. c. coronata.
In our recently published
monograph describing and analyzing body mass and wing length data for
birds banded at Powdermill, putative D. c. hooveri average about
1.0-1.5 gram heavier and 3.5-4.5 millimeters longer in wing length within
each age/sex class. In the case of very large male hooveri,
size alone (i.e., adult males have wing lengths upwards of 81.0 mm) probably
is diagnostic of this subspecies, because eastern race males rarely exceed
76.0 mm in wing length. A MYWA with female-like plumage that has
a longer than usual wing length and/or a heavier than expected body mass
for a female (i.e., similar to values expected for a male of the eastern
race) may, in fact, be an Alaska race MYWA. Subtle plumage differences
between the subspecies often help us to pick out individuals of this subspecies
even before we've measured them.
. As described in Jon Dunn and
Kimball Garrett's
Warblers field guide, "Winter hooveri
tend
toward gray-brown rather than rich brown on the upperparts, and are whiter
(less buffy) below." To this, we'd add that the wing bars of hooveri
also
typically are whiter (less buffy) than eastern race birds. We have
tried to capture some of these subtle differences in photos previously,
but with little success. On November 2 we had another opportunity
to try when we had immature males of the two races in hand at the same
time. In the photos below, the hooveri individual is at the
top or on the right.
Measurements for these two birds
were as follows: hooveri--wing 77.0mm, fat score 1 (0-3 scale),
body mass 14.3g; nominate race, coronata--wing 71.5mm, fat score
3, body mass 14.1g. Thus, the hooveri weighed more with only
a little fat than the eastern race bird did with its maximum fat load!
Another Yellow-rumped Warbler banded
on November 2 was noteworthy because of its unseasonable development in
a discrete patch on the top of its head of feathers having the appearance
of alternate, or breeding plumage (i.e., bluish gray with distinct black
centers and a bright lemon yellow crown patch), presumably due to accidental
loss and regrowth of these feathers (after collision with a window?).
The feathers had only recently molted in, as evidenced by a couple visible
flakes of shed feather sheath on their surface.
. This is another interesting
example of how feather follicles, even if they are stimulated to molt adventitiously,
often seem to be pre-programmed to grow feathers that are similar in appearance
(with regard to age, sex, and/or season) to what would be produced in the
next normal molt of those feathers. This same tendency
also results in immature birds sometimes replacing accidentally lost pointed
juvenal rectrices with adult-shaped (broader and more rounded or truncate)
replacement tail feathers, a phenomenon we have portrayed many times on
this website, click
here).
Yet another MYWA provided a very
noteworthy highlight on November 5. Incredibly, it had a total of
15 tail feathers (12 is the normal number)! It is difficult to discern
where the additional rectrices were inserted, but note that only the five
rectrices on the right side of the photo display the proper asymmetry for
the left side of a bird's tail (i.e., the outer vane being much narrower
than the inner vane). There are seven (rather than the expected six)
tail feathers that appear to have asymmetry expected for the right side
of a bird's tail, including two that appear to be rooted on the left side!
The three central tail feathers clearly are aberrant, being shorter, unusually
narrow or unusually broad, and nearly symmetrical with respect to the webbing
on either side of their feather shafts. Two of the 15 rectrices (the
eighth and tenth from the left side of the photo) appear to be less worn
and more heavily pigmented than the rest, and these may have been grown
adventitiously, perhaps suggesting that an injury played a role in this
odd (numbered) occurrence of supernumerary rectrices.
Another interesting variant banded
on November 5 was this exceptionally bright basic-plumaged White-throated
Sparrow with bright orange (instead of normal yellow) lores. We have
pictured this rare variation, which we observe only about once a year,
a few times previously on this website (e.g., click
here). In the case of orange replacing normal yellow pigmentation
in birds' feathers, the variation often stems from the inclusion of the
red plant pigment rhodoxanthin, which is molecularly very similar to yellow
carotenoid pigments. The introduced Tartarian Honeysuckle is one
of the commonest fruits containing rhodoxanthin, and it is responsible
for the orange tail band variation in Cedar Waxwings; yews are another
and, because of their more boreal distribution, are perhaps more likely
source of this pigment in the case of variant WTSP.
We banded our first Hairy Woodpecker
(an immature female), the 109th species for the Fall 2005 season, on November
5.
We banded our third Sharp-shinned
Hawk of the season on November 5, and we let visiting Carnegie Museum of
Natural History Director of Development, Chris Bell, have the first time
honor of releasing it (albeit a bit apprehensively!)
Top species among 142 birds banded
on November 6 was Dark-eyed Junco (34 banded; an adult male pictured below)
An immature male Ruby-crowned Kinglet
banded November 6 exhibited a not-too-uncommon orange crown color variation.
Unlike the WTSP above, this was not a consequence of additional red pigment
in the diet, but rather of reduced availability of red pigments when the
crown feathers were being formed. For comparison, a "normal" RCKI
is shown in the right hand photo.
White-throated Sparrows present
one of the greatest challenges when it comes to ageing by wing molt limits.
This is because of the very close similarity in appearance of juvenal
and first basic feathers and also the presence of pseudo-molt limits within
feather groups, especially the greater coverts. A WTSP banded on
November 6 had an unusually obvious and extensive retention of five juvenal
outer greater coverts. Note the pseudo-molt limit (different edging
coloration) between the molted sixth and inner seventh through tenth greater
coverts.
November 6 was the final day of
our beginning bander workshop, and by that time Jessica (top photo), Keri
(middle), and Tyler (bottom) all had made excellent progress with their
bird extraction, bird handling, and bird banding abilities. They
came to Powdermill for help with their banding and ended up being a real
help to us in return--our thanks to all three!
November 9 was made into a short
banding day at Powdermill so that we could travel about 20 miles away to
the home of Joanna Adams and Chuck Sherwood in South Connellsville, where
a hummingbird had showed up at their nectar feeder a few days prior.
Actually, this was the same house where we banded an adult female Rufous
Hummingbird last November and where a probable Rufous (but never caught
and banded) wintered in 2003. We fully expected that our trip this
time would result in the recapture of the female banded last year, but,
to our surprise, it was an unbanded immature male Rufous this time.
We're not sure what makes Chuck and Joanna's home so darn attractive to
wayward hummingbirds--maybe they use a mixture of three, instead of the
usual four, parts water to one part sugar recipe!
Feeder (and trap) setup at the South Connellsville location that
has hosted a Rufous Hummingbird in each of the past three years.
Left to right: Cokie Lindsay, homeowners Joanna Adams and Chuck
Sherwood, Adrienne Leppold, Felicity Newell, and Pam Ferkett banding and
processing an immature male Rufous Hummingbird that was trapped in less
than ten minutes when it went straight to the nectar feeder, which had
been relocated inside a large wire box trap (pictured above).
The HY male RUHU banded at South Connellsville on November 9, 2005.
For more photos of this HY male
RUHU and comparison photos with other age/sex classes, click
here.
.
NOTE: We are cooperating with
a study spearheaded by Bob and Martha Sargent in Alabama to determine their
migration routes and timing, overwinter survival, and site faithfulness
of western hummingbird species in the eastern U.S. Anyone reading
this web page who knows of a hummingbird visiting flowers or feeders anywhere
in western Pennsylvania (our region of banding coverage for this study)
from this point on through the winter, please contact us here at the Powdermill
Avian
Research
Center
ASAP!
After daytime banding on November
11, a few of us (O.K., thirteen, if you count the photographer!) got together
after dark to band a single Northern Saw-whet Owl. Actually, a total
of three owls were caught and banded, but by the time the last of these
was netted around midnight, the owl banding crew had dwindled to a very
small fraction of the group pictured below. Enjoying the first owl
of the night, captured at the reasonable hour of 9:00pm, were (from left
to right): Chris Meny, Pam Ferkett, Cokie Lindsay, Dick Byers, Bob Leberman,
Dave Smith and NSWO, Nikki Smith, Matt Clement, Annie Lindsay, Adrienne
Leppold, Linda Hess, and Len Hess.
The last two days of banding this
period brought two cases of bill deformity (something that we have seen
relatively little of this fall). The first was this Gray Catbird
banded on November 12, whose bill deformity likely contibuted to its unusually
late occurrence at Powdermill.
The deformity, and its effect on
the bird's ability to feed efficiently, also may have contributed to this
HY catbird's retention of several juvenal undertail coverts. These
feathers are usually completely replaced by the first prebasic molt, but
in this case, the bird likely could just not maintain the energetic and
nutritional status needed for more extensive molt. The bird had only
a trace of visible fat and weighed just 33.1 grams, which is well below
average (based on our published weight
monograph), even for a catbird with no visible fat. Interestingly,
abnormal retention of juvenal undertail coverts in an "adult" (i.e., second
year, SY, bird in summer) female GRCA was the subject of a short note published
in 1967 in Bird Banding (the journal now known as Journal of
Field Ornithology) by Kenneth C. Parkes and Robert C. Leberman.
Finally, on our last banding day
of the period, November 13, we caught this Winter Wren, whose bill deformity
clearly was the result of an injury (possibly collision with a glass window?).
Unlike the catbird, this WIWR had a body mass, 8.6 g, that was about average
for a WIWR without visible fat, suggesting that it was managing to feed
well enough to meet its basic energy requirements, at least for now.
