PICTORIAL HIGHLIGHTS, WEEK
04/10/01-04/16/01
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First capture on 4/14 of a Green Heron
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Closeup views of the Green Heron's iridescent
back plumage
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First Brown-headed Cowbirds banded for the season
on 4/11 (although a returning banded male was recaptured a week earlier).
Retained brownish juvenal underwing coverts are conspicuous among the molted
blackish underwing coverts in SY males, but some banders may not realize
that females can also be aged SY in this way. Although the contrast
between retained and molted coverts is not very obvious in females, their
juvenal coverts are nonetheless distinguishable based on their looser texture
and lighter coloration. In the female's underwing pictured below,
all coverts are retained juvenal except for the row of marginal underwing
coverts (just below the edge of the alula at the top center of the photo).
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First spring capture for Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
on 4/10. This tiny ASY male, with his sex-specific dark "eyebrows,"
looks kind of mean!
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The equally diminutive Ruby-crowned Kinglet looks
anything but!
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