Color-banded Red-winged Blackbird
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Scott Richardson
Apr 3, 2015, 9:09:19 PM4/3/15
to Maine-Birds
A banded redwing was photographed in Kennebunk recently. It's got two bands on each leg. Anyone know who's color banding?
Scott Richardson
Stella Walsh
Apr 4, 2015, 1:27:21 AM4/4/15
to Scott Richardson, Maine-Birds
The observer can report color bands to USGS Bird Banding Lab:
The observer reports bands by leg eg. left color over color, right color over metal...along with where and when seen.
USGS will search their banding records for the bander, location, and date, etc. - notify the bander of the sighting and the reporter of where/when bird was banded.
When I first learned of this bird, I did check with Noah Perlut at UNE and with BRI, and they were not aware of any local bander's using color bands on RWBL.
Stella
A banded redwing was photographed in Kennebunk recently. It's got two bands on each leg. Anyone know who's color banding?Scott Richardson
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Danny Akers
Apr 4, 2015, 1:53:17 PM4/4/15
to Stella Walsh, Scott Richardson, Maine-Birds
Stella, Scott and all,
I was a member of a banding project focusing on Red-winged Blackbirds in New York from 2012-2014. Scott forwarded me a photo last evening of the bird in question and I believe it to be one of our birds. I forwarded the photo to one of our project managers and he also believes this is one of our birds. That said, we won't have any additional details until at least Monday. Stay tuned.
Danny Akers
Ankeny, Iowa
Sent from my iPhone
Danny Akers
Apr 13, 2015, 8:52:02 AM4/13/15
to Stella Walsh, Scott Richardson, Maine-Birds
Hi All,
Apologies for the delay in getting information back, but we needed to verify a few things.
The confidence is very high that this is one of our birds, banded near Greenwich, NY.
Things get a bit more complex from here. The color combo in the photo is Tan-Green (left leg) Dark-Silver (right leg), or TG-DS for short. We attempted to enhance the photo a bit more and it appears there is some wear and bleaching on the bands, so we are pretty confident this a bird banded in 2012.
Unfortunately, that is about as far as we can get. A number of RWBL were banded at this site in 2012, some with a third color band on the left leg. Therefore, it is possible that this bird lost a third band on the left leg and we cannot know for certainty which specific bird this is and in turn, its age when banded.
As the crow flies, or in this case, the Red-winged Blackbird, the bird was relocated approximately 180 miles east of where it was banded. The line of thought is that the bird likely wintered in the mid-Atlantic, where we have had several other banded birds returned (all deceased), and then migrated up the coast. This is, by far and away, the furthest resighting or report of a live bird, from our banding project.
I'd like to thank Scott for passing this along and encourage everyone to look a little closer at your Red-winged Blackbirds! This bird has generated a lot of excitement!
Danny Akers
Ankeny, Iowa
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