Purple finches continued

I had a very successful banding day on Saturday. The weather was excellent for banding. I removed my highest ever number of birds from nets (30 in 19.25 net hours). Of these 23 were banded, 5 were recaptures, and 2 escaped from their bags (a lesson for me there).

The number of Purple Finches banded is now nine. I speculated in an earlier post on the size of the local flock. Well I saw three unbanded birds at the feeders this morning so there are at least 12 birds in the flock or local vicinity.

With this number of birds to look at I'm beginning to pick up on details in the coverts that distinguish SY and ASY birds.

Sex unknown

Male dipped in raspberry juice

Pine Siskins

At a bird feeder Pine Siskins look drab -- small grayish streaked birds. When you have a bird in your hand though the yellow in the tail and wings is eye popping bright.

Purple Finches

This winter Purple Finches are regular visitors to the bird feeders. I've counted eight at one time for Project Feederwatch, of which three were male birds based on coloration. Five Purple Finches are now banded but only one of the five is an obvious male bird (dipped in raspberry juice as they say). So either the ASY male birds are more adept at avoiding nets or there are more than eight birds coming to the feeders. Time will tell.

New species for the year banded today: ruby-crowned kinglet.

Eight species

There was a hard frost this morning so I switched banding to the afternoon. Most of the birds caught are coming for the food at the feeders. As a result I have data on birds that are year round residents. Also I'm building up a data set on white-throated sparrows. Some of the sparrows are returning each winter. My long-term goal is to compare data for this locale with the results of WTSP studies elsewhere and to check for any mini-migration movement during the winter season.

SPECIES BANDED February 11, 2011
*American goldfinch 2
*Brown thrasher 1
*Carolina chickadee 1
*Carolina wren 1
*Chipping sparrow 1
*Purple finch 1
*Yellow rumped warbler 1
*White th sparrow 2

* new species for 2011

Two recaptures: WTSP and TUTI.