They’re still coming…

Yet another great day at the banding station, with 82 new birds of 16 species banded!

Indigo and Painted buntings were common today. We had a young male and young unknown sex Painted bunting in the hand at the same time as the much browner Indigo bunting on the right. The young male Painted on the far left was already showing traces of the red adult plumage.

Here is a close-up of the two Painted buntings.

Mario and Mark are taking Gray catbirds out of net 16. Still plenty of catbirds around, but they were not as overwhelming as yesterday. Jenn, Mike, Mario, Nico, Mark, Eliana and  Marc worked wonderfully together with Robin, Martina and I to keep things running smoothly today. It has been a joy this entire week to see the new 2013 volunteers applying themselves and increasing their extracting skills now that we finally have an abundance of birds. Everybody has had to face challenging wraps this week, but all is going well!

Nico with another Black-throated blue warbler female? No…wait a minute here….

Philadelphia vireo! Our first of the season. This has to be one of the cutest of the vireos, with a short beak, dark eye and exquisite lemon-yellow underparts.

Below is a female Black-throated blue warbler for comparison. The overall size is similar, but the warbler has a longer, more slender bill and (usually) a white wing patch. The whitish trim around the eyes and face is slightly different, also. The legs and feet of the vireo are also a bright blue compared to the yellowish color of the warbler’s legs.

Our other new species for the season was a young individual of one of the more unique warbler species in North America, the Yellow-breasted chat.

Today’s total: 82 birds of 16 species

Gray catbird: 36

Black-throated blue warbler: 16

Indigo bunting: 5

Ovenbird: 4

Common yellowthroat: 3

Western palm warbler: 3

American redstart: 2

Northern parula: 2

White-eyed vireo: 2

Black and white warbler: 2

Painted bunting: 2

Hooded warbler: 1

Philadelphia vireo: 1

Worm-eating warbler: 1

Swainson’s warbler: 1

Yellow-breasted chat: 1