Activity winding down

Our week long festival of birds is winding down today with 40 new captures, a majority of which were Gray catbirds. Here are some of the highlights from the last two days:

We banded a gorgeous little Blue-winged warbler. This is a first-year female. The male has a darker black eye and a yellow cap, otherwise the sexes are very similar. This is a rare but annual migrant through south Florida.

Marty is in love yet again, this time with a very young Yellow-bellied sapsucker. These woodpeckers come to south Florida to spend the winter, and they leave distinctive rows of holes in trees. Sap oozes from the holes, attracting insects which the birds then feed upon.

Here are three views of the sapsucker. Adults have a black, white and red head, but juveniles take a few months to acquire this plumage. We cannot tell what sex this bird is until it has grown a few more adult feathers; males will have red throats and females white.

We added another thrush to the yearly list, this one a Hermit thrush. It is the common wintering Catharus thrush across the eastern US, but it is scarce in south Florida. It is readily separated from the similar Swainson’s thrush by the rufous tail and lower back.

Total captures:

66 new 6 recaptures of 14 species on Oct 27

40 new and 9 recaptures of 11 species on Oct 28

New banded, Oct 27/Oct 28:

Gray catbird: 34/22

Black-throated blue warbler: 9/2

Painted bunting: 5/2

Common yellowthroat: 4/3

Ovenbird: 3/1

Western palm warbler: 2/1

Red-eyed vireo: 2/0

Northern parula: 1/4

Black-and-white warbler: 1/0

Worm-eating warbler: 1/1

Magnolia warbler: 1/0

Chuck-will’s-widow: 1/0

Blue-winged warbler: 1/0

Yellow-bellied sapsucker: 1/0

Northern cardinal: 0/1

Hermit thrush: 0/1