Tag: Federal Bird Banding Laboratory

Methow Valley Bird Banding 2021 – End of Year Report

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The 2021 MAPS banding season came to an abrupt end shortly after the July 15th banding session. Two wildfires in the area, Cedar Creek and Cub Creek 2, were growing in size and producing a lot of unhealthy smoke. Given the uncertainty of the situation, I made the difficult decision to cancel the last two banding sessions and dismantle the station. Thankfully the Cedar Creek Fire never reached the MAPS station. The firefighters have done an amazing job protecting structures and containing both fires. The map below shows the boundaries of the Cedar Creek and Cub Creek 2 fires in relation to the banding station as of August 11th.

Cedar Creek and Cub Creek 2 Fires, 11 August 2021. Map by Southwest Area Incident Management Team 2.

Most juvenile birds are captured during the last two MAPS sessions near the end of the breeding season. Identifying juveniles can be tricky, because many species look much different as juveniles than adults. Since we missed out on seeing a lot of juveniles this year, I thought I’d share a few pictures to illustrate some of the differences. (The juvenile descriptions are from Identification Guide to North American Birds, Part 1 by Peter Pyle https://www.birdpop.org/pages/moltAndPlumage.php.)

A juvenile Spotted Towhee has buffy-brown, streaked body plumage and a grayish-brown iris. The iris will gradually become red as the bird matures. Photos by Julie Hovis.
The Red-eyed Vireo is another species that has a grayish-brown iris as a juvenile. Photos by Julie Hovis.
Juvenile American Redstarts have brownish upperparts, grayish underparts, and two yellowish wing bars. Male American Redstarts do not obtain their distinctive black and orange plumage until they are two years old. Photos by Julie Hovis.
Juvenile Song Sparrows are drabber and buffier than adults with diffuse streaking on the face and underparts. They also have less distinctive facial and crown stripes and lack the rusty tones to the crown and back. Photos by Julie Hovis.

For reasons that are not easily explained, fewer birds were captured in 2021 than in previous years. At the end of the fifth (and final) banding session, we only had captured 61 birds. Even if the last two sessions had been conducted, it would have been almost impossible to reach the numbers captured in 2019 or 2020. Perhaps the low numbers are related to the die-off that happened in the southwestern U.S. last year during fall migration (https://www.audubon.org/news/study-starvation-and-freak-snow-storm-caused-southwests-mass-bird-die). It will be interesting to see how many birds find their way into the nets next season.

Methow Valley MAPS Banding Station Results, 2019-2021. Recaptured Previously Banded (R) includes same day recaptures, same year recaptures, and recaptures of birds banded in previous years. Unbanded (U) includes birds that escaped before they were banded and hummingbirds (which I am not authorized to band). Brown-headed Cowbird was the only new species captured in 2021.

Methow Valley Bird Banding 2020

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American Redstart. Photo by Julie Hovis.

The year 2020 marked the fourth nesting season I have operated a MAPS (Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship) bird banding station in the Methow Valley. MAPS is administered by the Institute for Bird Populations and is a continent-wide collaborative banding program that contributes to the conservation of birds and their habitats by monitoring key demographic parameters such as productivity, recruitment, and survival. During a MAPS banding session, birds are captured in mist nets, extracted and placed in cloth holding bags (1 bird per bag), and brought to a central processing location where they are identified to species and banded on the right leg with a uniquely numbered band issued by the Federal Bird Banding Laboratory. Data on age, sex, breeding condition, weight, fat, molt, and feather wear are recorded for each bird before it is released. You can learn more about the MAPS program by visiting the Institute for Bird Populations’ web site.

Like everything else in 2020, the ability to operate the MAPS station in the midst of a global pandemic was questionable. Would the landowners allow me to band on their property? Would any volunteers be willing to help? And would it be possible to capture, band, and process birds while wearing a mask? Fortunately, the landowners and volunteers said yes, and with some trial and error we adapted to wearing masks and safely completed all 7 of the required MAPS banding sessions.

Volunteers extracting a bird from a mist net. Photo by Julie Hovis.

I have been banding birds for 14 years, and despite the questionable start 2020 turned out to be my most productive MAPS season ever with a total of 195 captured birds and 32 different species! The most commonly captured species were MacGillivray’s Warbler (25 captures), Yellow Warbler (22 captures), and Purple Finch (16 captures). Other notable species included American Redstart, Nashville Warbler, Red-eyed Vireo, Warbling Vireo, and Red-naped Sapsucker.

MacGillivray’s Warbler, Yellow Warbler, and Purple Finch. Photos by Julie Hovis.

An important aspect of banding is age determination. In general, birds can be aged as being in their hatch year (HY), second year (SY), or after second year (ASY) by examining the color and condition of their flight feathers. The Lazuli Bunting provides an excellent example of how feathers are used to age a bird. Pictured below on the left is the wing of a SY male; the retained brown juvenile feathers indicate this bird hatched in the previous year. The wing on the right is an ASY male; the lack of brown feathers indicates this bird hatched prior to the previous year. It’s not always that easy, and for some species it’s downright impossible, but with practice many species can be aged accurately.

SY (left) and ASY (right) male Lazuli Buntings. Photos by Julie Hovis.

For species where the males and females look alike, banding also provides an opportunity to determine a bird’s sex, such as the brood patch on this female Song Sparrow.

Female Song Sparrow brood patch. Photo by Julie Hovis.

One of the perks of bird banding is being able to see things up close and personal. This year we caught several Cedar Waxwings and the detail of the waxy tips on the secondary feathers was amazing.

Cedar Waxwing. Photos by Julie Hovis.

My banding activities are over for this year, but I am planning to operate the MAPS station again in 2021 (hopefully in a world free of COVID-19). I’ll post updates starting in June, so if you’re interested be sure to check back then.