09-08-16 UMBEL Update

09-08-16 UMBEL Update

September 8, 2016

University of Montana Bird Ecology researchers share an update on songbird counts and banding efforts.

We captured 83 birds of 15 species on our fifth day of banding. We banded 56 new birds, recaptured 12 birds, and left 15 unbanded. We caught more birds this week than any other individual session of the summer, including 29 individual House Wrens!

We recently began taking blood samples from Willow Flycatchers and Common Yellowthroats. We are collecting samples for a team from the UCLA Center for Tropical Research.

We had good hummingbird diversity on the 18th. We caught all three species that regularly occur at MPG Ranch. Pictured below is a juvenile Calliope Hummingbird (left) and a juvenile Black-chinned Hummingbird (right). We also caught a Rufous Hummingbird.

We captured 52 birds of 17 species on our sixth day of banding. We banded 38 new birds, recaptured 10 birds, and left 4 unbanded.

This is the first California Quail caught at our floodplain site during the summer season.

House Wrens, like the juvenile pictured below, are the most commonly captured species so far this summer.

We captured 36 birds of 12 species on our final day of breeding-season banding. We banded 26 new birds, recaptured 7 birds, and left 3 unbanded.

This is the first Orange-crowned Warbler we caught this year. Orange-crowned Warblers do not breed within the immediate vicinity of our nets.

The tail of this second-year Western Tanager is extremely worn.

Fall songbird migration is underway, and we are monitoring this migration in two different habitats. We continue to operate the floodplain station (established in 2011), and we set up a new station in Lower Woodchuck, a shrubby draw habitat.

Known as Winter Wren until 2010, the Pacific Wren (Troglodytes pacificus) is one of the smallest songbirds in North America.

Orange-crowned Warblers (Oreothlypis celata) are characterized by their drab yellow-olive plumage, broken eye ring, and faint supercilium (stripe from beak to past eyes).

This hatch-year Spotted Towhee (Pipilo maculatus) has already molted from its streaky juvenal plumage into a more adult-like formative plumage

In this week of fall migration banding, we captured 213 birds at two stations, a slightly lower number than in previous weeks. Wildfire smoke infiltrated the Bitterroot Valley throughout the week, perhaps affecting migration patterns and/or capture rates.

We captured six Vesper Sparrows (Pooecetes gramineus) this week, after only catching one in the previous two weeks of migration banding. Vesper Sparrows can be distinguished from other sparrows by their large size, white eyering, chestnut-colored shoulder patch, and white outer tail feathers.

Though different in appearance, these birds are the same age (hatch-year) and same species: Orange-crowned Warbler (Oreothlypis celata).

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09-08-16 UMBEL Update

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09-08-16 UMBEL Update

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