Bird Conservancy of the Rockies Chico Banding Station-May 8, 2023

[Chicobander]

An all around nice day to be outside and birds were singing. A Northern Waterthrush entertained us while checking the nets but did not venture into any of the nets. Four new species for the season were captured including Black-headed Grosbeak, Green-tailed Towhee, Lark Sparrow, and Least Flycatcher. Both Wilson's Warblers we captured this day were female. It seemed a bit early for the females to arrive but here they were females.

A Highlight from last Friday's banding was a Returning Bullock's Oriole banded as a Second-year bird in 2017 so it is SEVEN years old!! What a traveller! 

59 New Birds Banded

Yellow Warbler- 4

Wilson's Warbler -2

MacGillivray's Warbler- 2

Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon's subspecies)- 8

Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle subspecies)- 1

House Wren- 2

Least Flycatcher- 1

Chipping Sparrow- 11

Clay-colored Sparrow-1

Brewer's Sparrow- 1

Lark Sparrow- 1

Spotted Towhee- 3

Lincoln's Sparrow- 4

Green-tailed Towhee- 1

White-crowned Sparrow (Gambel's subspecies)- 1

Gray Catbird- 2

Swainson's Thrush- 5

Bullock's Oriole- 2

Brown Thrasher- 2

Black-headed Grosbeak- 1

American Goldfinch- 4 

Recaptures-banded this season and recaptured on a different day

Spotted Towhee- 2 

Lincoln's Sparrow- 1 (gained mass and fat from last banding date)

Returns

Bullock's Oriole- 1- Originally banded as an adult ASY (3 years old at least at banding 5/17/2019) This bird is at least 7 years old. 

Brown Thrasher- 1 (Banded 5/2/2022 as an adult-bird is at least 3 years old. It could be many years older but since we banded it as an adult we do not know for sure what year it hatched.)

Banding station will be open this week every day except Sunday from sunrise until @ 11:00 AM. Stop on by if you are in the area. 

Have a good day outside!

Julie Shieldcastle

Chico Basin Bird Bander

Bird Conservancy of the Rockies