July 2 MAPS banding highlights

The fourth MAPS banding session at Rollins Savanna this season took place on Friday, July 2. We could not have asked for better weather! It was clear and remained relatively cool all morning, only reaching into the upper 70s just as we were finishing up.


Rollins Savanna banding station, photo by Janice Sweet

Unfortunately, we could have asked for better numbers of birds. On several net runs we came up empty or had just one or two birds. Once a single net caught 7 Song Sparrows; the rest of the day was extremely slow.


Juvenile (left) and adult Song Sparrows, photo by Janice Sweet

Cedar Waxwing reads Pyle
Cedar Waxwing reads from the Pyle guide, photo by blogger

I banded two male American Robins and one male Common Yellowthroat. Other than that, I did a lot of sitting around that morning. It certainly was a lovely day for it. 🙂


Skulling an American Robin, photo by Janice Sweet

We did have the first Blue-gray Gnatcatcher of the season, but the rest of the birds were the usual suspects.


Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, photo by Janice Sweet


Black-capped Chickadee release, photo by Janice Sweet

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Extreme Raptor Handling

Today I’ll be volunteering for the second time at Flint Creek’s Itasca facility. Last Tuesday was my first time (an earlier scheduled date got nixed at the last moment) working on maintenance and handling as a volunteer. Unfortunately it was just not my day and I ended up with a few ‘war wounds’ from the birds. All scratches are healed up nicely by now, but last week’s less-than-perfect experience has been on my mind.

Yesterday, a friend on Facebook shared a neat BBC video of Harpy Eagles in Venezuela. I wondered if Harpy Eagles, the largest and most powerful raptors found in the Americas, are ever used as education birds. On Flickr I found my answer.

Harpy Eagle I
Harpy Eagle I by jitze, Creative Commons on Flickr

I started wondering about other large raptors used in education programs. Flickr to the rescue:

The Eagle Owl Has Landed!
The Eagle Owl [one of the largest owl species] Has Landed! by me’nthedogs, Creative Commons on Flickr

ye olde andean condor
ye olde andean condor [largest wingspan of all flighted birds] by poetrosakranse, Creative Commons on Flickr

Brian Latta and Female Golden Eagle Lola brian-latta-golden-eagle-lola-20
Brian Latta and Female Golden Eagle Lola brian-latta-golden-eagle-lola-20 by mikebaird, Creative Commons on Flickr

I need a bigger glove : Steller's Sea Eagle
I need a bigger glove : Steller’s Sea Eagle [the world’s heaviest eagle] by Paul Stevenson, Creative Commons on Flickr

Verreux Eagle Owl
Verreux Eagle Owl [aka Giant Eagle Owl; Africa’s largest owl] by ahisgett, on Flickr

Great Gray Owl Strix nebulosa
Great Gray Owl [one of the largest owl species] Strix nebulosa by sanbeiji, Creative Commons on Flickr

Wedge Tailed Eagle
Wedge Tailed Eagle [one of the world’s largest raptor species] by wesley chau, Creative Commons on Flickr

And here is someone with a Martial Eagle on the glove: Martial Eagle [Africa’s largest eagle].

Whoa, right? I need to remember that I’m still very new at this raptor handling business. I want to get to know the birds better, and meet new birds, and increase my handling skills — but patience is key. Maybe someday (far in the future!) I’ll be able to work with birds like these. First, at least one day without losing any blood with Flint Creek’s regulars. 🙂

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June 20 MAPS banding highlights

The third MAPS banding session at Rollins Savanna this season took place on Sunday, June 20th. Yet again skies threatened rain during the morning, and yet again we were lucky with no drops falling during the time the nets were up.

This time, the nets were slow as the day began. The second half of the morning was very busy and there were almost constant net-runs while some of us remained at the table to process the large amount of birds that were coming in.

I did a lot of paperwork and often left the banding to others. I banded just seven birds in total. When I visited the team last year I was amazed that some people were handling and examining the bird and also doing the paperwork themselves. During the busy moments of the morning, I learned that writing down your own data really isn’t too tough. For two of the birds I banded, a juvenile Orchard Oriole and a Song Sparrow, I also took the data down myself. Additionally I banded two Baltimore Orioles, a Cedar Waxwing, an Eastern Wood-Pewee and a juvenile Eastern Bluebird.


Eastern Wood-Pewee, photo by Janice Sweet


Click to enlarge Releasing a Cedar Waxwing, photos by Janice Sweet

We had a lot of Cedar Waxwings in the nets. Here’s one that someone else banded. Check out those wax tips in the second photo.

Cedar Waxwing
Cedar Waxwing in the hand, photo by blogger


Cedar Waxwing rear view, photo by Janice Sweet

We had a few more juvenile birds too, including this baby Northern Cardinal.


Juvenile Northern Cardinal, photo by blogger

One of the coolest birds we had was a female Brown-headed Cowbird who was obviously gravid – with egg! She was processed very quickly and sent on her way to do her deed!

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Top Dutch nestcam clips 2010

The Dutch branch of BirdLife International, Vogelbescherming Nederland, has an extremely popular nestcam website each spring at Beleef de Lente. As cameras are nearly shut down for the season, fans have voted for their favorite highlight clip from the eight nestcams. The Clip of the Year is called “Huiselijk Geweld” – Domestic Violence. It shows a Little Owl family dealing with an intruder – a Stock Pigeon with a nest of her own in the same box as the owls!

Unfortunately the highlight clips are not embeddable this year, but if you click on the image below you will be taken a page showing all of the best clips.

The favorite highlights from all of the nestcams are shown below the Little Owl clip. Check out the seven impossibly tiny Great Titlings in “Koolmees: Zeven snaveltjes” and two White Storks sleeping through being banded in the nest in “Ooievaar: Ringen Gorssel 2010.”

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Raptor robots

The following video profiles two companies that are marketing raptor robots. The machines are being marketed to airports as bird deterrents.

The Spanish company Bird Raptor Internacional has produced a model airplane painted to look like a Peregrine Falcon. In the clip, the “falcon” flies by a flock of gulls, who quickly disperse. I wonder if the falcon paint job had anything to do with it, though. Would they disperse if a regular model airplane flew closely over them?

A Dutch company has developed another robotic bird, but the GreenX model Bald Eagle actually flaps its wings! Developers of this model see it being used in nature films or as a spy plane. I think they should market to model airplane enthusiasts – I mean, what a cool toy!

Read more about the robo-raptors here.

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June 11 MAPS banding highlights

The second MAPS banding session at Rollins Savanna this season took place on Friday, June 11. Again we lucked out with the weather; rain was threatening for most of the morning but nothing came down until after the nets were put away.

This session was a bit more relaxed than the first time, with a higher ratio of banders to birds. I banded five birds: COYE [Common Yellowthroat]; AMRO [American Robin]; BRTH [Brown Thrasher]; TRES [Tree Swallow]; and SOSP [Song Sparrow]. Again Janice Sweet was taking photographs of the day’s activities, and I was delighted to find she had captured shots four of the five birds I banded!


Common Yellowthroat, photo by Janice Sweet

We band the birds on their right legs. Here you can see I am holding the bird and controlling the right leg as the pliers approach the leg with the band.


American Robin, photo by Janice Sweet


Brown Thrasher, photo by Janice Sweet


Tree Swallow, photo by Janice Sweet

Here’s an image of me transferring the Tree Swallow from the photographer’s hold to the bander’s hold. See my right index and middle fingers are spread apart, ready to hold the bird’s head and neck gently but firmly.


Tree Swallow, photo by Janice Sweet

By the way, you might notice I’m wearing the same shirt as last week – I Put Out For Birds. It got stained (ruined) the first week, so it’s now my banding shirt forevermore.

We had the first juveniles caught for the season: a WBNU [White-breasted Nuthatch] and a DOWO [Downy Woodpecker]. The DOWO was extremely cute, as you can see:

Baby Downy Woodpecker
Baby Downy Woodpecker, photo by blogger

Since it wasn’t too busy for most of the day, we had more time for photos. I managed to post a picture of the baby Downy Woodpecker to Facebook while in the field.


Shooting a Downy Woodpecker with an iPhone, photo by Janice Sweet

Late in the morning we were treated to a visit by a Great Spangled Fritillary, who posed on all sorts of objects on our banding table.


Great Spangled Fritillary, photo by Janice Sweet


Great Spangled Fritillary, photo by Janice Sweet

Finally, a Blue Jay provided comic relief when it held tightly onto some prized seeds while it was being processed. Those tasty seeds may have saved the bander from a bite or two.


Blue Jay bites seeds while being examined, photo by Janice Sweet


Blue Jay with seeds in beak, photo by Janice Sweet

Many thanks again to Janice Sweet for the use of her photos. The third session took place on June 20th — with highlights coming soon!

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Bird Art in Waukegan Art Windows

The other day we were in Waukegan to see a movie. On the way to the parking lot, Arthur noticed some unusual, bold bird art in what we presumed was an art gallery. We walked over to have a look, and found paintings by artist José F. Bolet in an empty store front. The paintings were placed there Part of the Waukegan Art Windows program, where empty storefronts are used to display works of art.

I’m not a big fan of the birds-as-humans ones. I do like the last one, though. What do you think?

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Drama Kings

I had fun watching the Red-winged Blackbirds on a spring visit to the Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary.

Red-winged Blackbird

Red-winged Blackbird

Our primary focus during our time at Montrose was spent looking for migrating warblers between the leaves of the Magic Hedge, but the Red-wingeds were hard to ignore. Especially when they do this:

Red-winged Blackbird

The males put on such a show, while the females seem much more polite.

Red-winged Blackbird

Red-winged Blackbird (female)

Bird Photography Weekly is a regular collection of user-submitted bird photos from all over the world. The new edition comes out every Sunday. Go have a look at this week’s submissions!

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More MAPS bird banding highlights

Shortly after we set up for the second banding session at Rollins Savanna last week, I was handed a CD full of photos from the first week. Janice Sweet took photos of the banding team all morning, and I requested permission to share some of them here on the blog. All of the following photos are from the May 31st session.

The first thing we do when processing a bird is to determine the species. For most birds this is not a problem. Although not all of the bird banders in our group are also birders, there are enough team members that can quickly and confidently identify the birds. When we catch an Empidonax flycatcher, ID can get a bit tricky.

After the bird is identified, a band is placed around the leg. The band sizes for each species are listed in the Pyle guide. For example, a band size of 2 or 3 is mentioned for the Blue Jay. Here the bands are being held up by the bird’s leg to determine the appropriate size for this individual.


Finding the right size band for a Blue Jay; photo by Janice Sweet

Next the band is carefully pulled apart using a special pair of pliers. The band is then transferred to the appropriately-sized hole in another special type of pliers to be placed onto the bird. Here are some photos of bands being applied.


Me banding an American Goldfinch; photo by Janice Sweet


Banding a Song Sparrow; photo by Janice Sweet


Me banding an American Robin; photo by Janice Sweet


Banding a Common Grackle; photo by Janice Sweet

Next we determine the sex and age of the bird. For sexually dichromatic species, like Northern Cardinals, Baltimore Orioles or American Goldfinches, determining sex is easy.


Me holding a male American Goldfinch; photo by Janice Sweet

For other species, we look for things like a brood patch or a cloacal protuberance to determine sex. To view these, we blow gently on the bird’s abdominal area to clear away feathers. You can see that the feathers of this Brown Thrasher are being blown up away from the body.

Thrasher belly check
Checking a Brown Thrasher for brood patch; photo by blogger

Without getting too technical, age is often determined by looking very closely at certain feathers. We also look at the level of bone growth in the skull, viewed by clearing away head feathers with a bit of water. Eye color, other plumage clues and even bill color are also used to help determine age.


Skulling an American Robin; photo by blogger

Next, more measurements may be taken, including wing length, feather wear, feather molt, and fat level.


Measuring wing length of a Common Grackle; photo by Janice Sweet


Examining a Red-winged Blackbird’s wing; photo by Janice Sweet

Throughout the entire process, the safety of the bird is foremost in our minds. Part of this is keeping a firm but gentle grip on the bird during the procedure, and processing the bird quickly for a timely release.


Blue Jay; photo by Janice Sweet


Red-winged Blackbird; photo by Janice Swee


Field Sparrow; photo by Janice Sweet

My heartfelt thanks to Janice Sweet for allowing the use of her photos. Thanks, too, to the rest of the team. I am learning so much and having a lot of fun! Our second session was on June 11, and our third is planned for June 20. I will have more to share about these soon!

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A richness of martins

When I was a kid, my dad built a pair of impressive birdhouse complexes intended for Purple Martins. One was a long ‘rowhouse’ style, while the other was a wonderful jumble of boxes three stories high with entrances all around. They were placed high up in the back of our yard and I remember every year before spring they would have to be cleaned. And I remember my dad hopefully wishing for Purple Martins every year, but only attracting House Sparrows. Because he had a hard time attracting PUMAs to the birdhouses, I somehow got the idea that it was hard to find them at all in our area. Years passed and I forgot about the birdhouses. I moved away and became interested in birds on a different continent, and when I returned to the area where I grew up I was delighted to finally understand that Purple Martins actually aren’t too hard to find around here. In fact, there is a busy little colony using a series of houses down the road from my parents at the Chicago Botanic Garden, where these photos were taken.

PUMA1

PUMA2

PUMA3

PUMA4

PUMA5

(Knowing just a little bit more about martins now, I think my parent’s back yard isn’t the ideal habitat for PUMAs. Just don’t tell my dad!) To learn more about Purple Martins, visit the Purple Martin Conservation Association. By the way, the title of this post refers to a collective noun used for groups of martins. Others include circlage, gulp, and colony.

Bird Photography Weekly is a regular collection of user-submitted bird photos from all over the world. The new edition comes out every Sunday. Go have a look at this week’s submissions!

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Posted in Bird Photography Weekly, Illinois | 3 Comments