Summer, Summer, Summer...Birds!

While summer is a slower time for migration researchers, it is not for the birds who are raising young. Here are a few of the youngsters we have encountered during our summer banding sessions at Navarre, Oak Openings, and West Sister Island.

Hatching Year (HY)  Tree Swallow (TRES)

Most young will have loose juvenile feathers and remnants of a yellow gape around the hinge of their beaks.

 Hatching Year male Downy Woodpecker (DOWO)

HY Carolina Wren

Quiz bird from Oak Openings

Breeding bird studies are not without heat, bugs, and other challenges, but we have great volunteers who do not seem to mind the "not so pretty" jobs. Thanks for all you do!

Tom helps at Oak Openings and doesn't mind the heat.
Nor does the Viceroy who loves the salts on his hat!

Kelly does not mind the smelly job of banding herons and egrets on West Sister Island.

Mike also is in the spotlight with this Great Egret (GREG) chick on West Sister Island.

No one can deny that young birds may only be considered cute by their parents. What do you think of this Black-crowned Night-Heron (BCNH) chick?

Take time to notice the hatching year birds at your feeder or in your backyard. They look a little funny with their loose fluffy feathers, and usually act a little funny as well. 

Now about that quiz bird: It's a HY Lark Sparrow. The very short tail which is just growing in gives this one away, but HY sparrows can be a handful to ID.


Enjoy the beauty of the season!

Third Wave birds are here!

The third wave of migrants has arrived. The wave of the Empidonax Flycatchers and vireos. Mourning (MOWA), American Redstart (AMRE), Female Magnolia (MAWA), Canada (CAWA), Wilson's (WIWA), and Connecticut Warblers (CONW) will round out this wave. Yellow-billed (YBCU) and Black-billed Cuckoos (BBCU) will peak their migration for spring. They always seem to provide the grand finale for the season, bringing up the end with a flash of their tails! 

Philadelphia Vireo

We have had several days this week May 21st - 28th of double digit Philadelphia Vireos (PHVI). What a nice vireo to see in good numbers. Just two years ago, we captured only one the whole season! It demonstrates the importance of long-term monitoring as one year alone will not solve the puzzle of migration and a species population. If there was subsequent years of lower numbers then a closer look would be required.

Second year male SCTA

A highlight of the week was this male Scarlet Tanager (SCTA). There had been two singing for several days but too high to be caught in our mist nets which are 8 feet high. Notice the primary coverts are dull brown which makes this a second-year male hatched last summer. You can see remnants of his winter/basic plumage of the lime green feathers.

Female warblers can have their subtle beauty. Take a look:

Bay-breasted and Blackpoll Warbler females

Bay-breasted Warbler female back

CONW-female

MOWA- Adult female-note yellow throat and unusual black feathers.

We had the opportunity to show off the flycatcher group this week:

Can you ID these flycatchers?

Here are two of them, frontal view.

 Answers found at the end.




Here is a real treat - an Olive-sided Flycatcher (OSFL)

OSFL- note the large bill and gray vest it is sporting.

Eastern Wood-Pewee (EAWP)- note the crest 

(not often seen)

 Eastern Wood-Pewee (EAWP), Yellow-bellied Flycatcher (YBFL), Traill's Flycatcher (TRFL), Great-crested Flycatcher (GCFL), and Olive-sided Flycatcher (OSFL).
 
 
The end of migration may only be days away but the cuckoos will be here to sing their song.  This is the time we look forward to the great breeding birds we have in our backyards! Thanks for all you do to allow some of these long distance migrants to nest successfully in your neighborhood. With banding data we know many birds return to their natal area to breed. Females have high site fidelity. We have caught 57 Yellow Warblers (YEWA) banded in previous years.  To see other species returning go to BSBO research pages http://www.bsbo.org/passerine/pdf/passerinebandspringnavarre.pdf Enjoy the beauty of the season!

All Empidonax flycatchers have wing bars, eye-rings and bi-colored bills. Answer to left photo quiz :Two YBFLs (left and center) and Acadian Flycatcher (ACFL) on right. Bird bellies photo shows ACFL on left and YBFL on right. YBFL has a dark green throat and belly and orangish bill and ACFL has lighter belly and throat and really pale lower mandible.

May 7th- May 13th Highlights

A busy time in the marsh region both at the research banding station and around NW Ohio.  The Biggest Week in American Birding is over but there are still birds to come. Flycatchers and vireos have not made their debut yet.

For the past four weeks the research team has had 181 banded birds returning from previous years. This is quite a significant group of birds and supports how birds home to the same area to breed each year. Something to remember when we see development in and near green spaces. There is an irreversible loss whenever habitat is taken and wildlife displaced.

A surprise this spring was this American Tree Sparrow (ATSP) which had an extended visited into early May. This is a good bird to add to any Ohio May list.

 Some other sparrows for comparison:

Take a look at these pink beaked sparrows.

White-crowned Sparrow and Field Sparrow

The weather patterns this spring have not been conducive for major pushes of birds. High pressure systems have dominated the region for most days the past couple of weeks. Diversity is here but not the volume of birds we saw last year.

We have had male Scarlet Tanagers (SCTA) singing at the research station but none have visited the banding table. However, one female came by for a quick visit. For those unfamiliar with Scarlet and Summer Tanager females, this wing flap of this Scarlet shows white axillaries while the Summer Tanager (SUTA) female shows yellow axillaries.

It is always a pleasure to have a Connecticut Warbler (CONW) visit our nets. This day we had two male CONWs and two male Mourning Warblers (MOWA).

On 13 May we were graced with many Chestnut-sided Warblers (CSWA). Twenty were banded that day and seven were caught in one net check.

Spring is the time to enjoy the colors of birds. We catch considerably more Blackpoll Warblers (BLPW) in the fall with their differential migration path. They fly from NW Canada southeast to the mid-Atlantic coast. In the spring they fly a more northerly direction from Venezuela resulting in fewer in the region.
Take a look at this handsome male BLPW. Despite his vivid coloration, he is still a second year bird (SY). Note its primary coverts are dull brown and worn.

Another good look at both male and female BLPW.

Highlights for this time were Cape May Warbler (CMWA). 

Note the back coloration.

Orange-crowned Warbler (OCWA)

Bay-breasted Warbler male (BBWA)

And to top it off a couple females in blue:

Cerulean Warbler (CERW)

Black-throated Blue Warbler (BTBW)

Keep looking for southerly winds to create the opportunity for birds to ride north to Ohio on their way to their breeding grounds. 

Enjoy the season!