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

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.