Spring 2006 Notes and Highlights for May 2 - 14

• Just over 900 birds of 81 species were banded during the first two weeks of May.  We also added 28 new species to the season list, one of which has been a conspicuous miss during the last three spring seasons (see highlights below).  American Goldfinch came in first with 85 birds banded followed by Magnolia Warbler with 71.  Ruby-crowned Kinglet seized the third place spot with 67 birds banded, and Ruby-throated Hummingbird followed closely behind with 60.  Nashville Warbler rounded out the top five with 58 banded.  Overall, wood warblers made up 32% of the total species composition for this period.

• We owe tremendous thanks to Margaret Hahn, visiting bander from Kalamazoo, MI, for all her help with banding and banding related activities during her week long "bander's vacation" at Powdermill.  In the photo below, Margaret enjoys seeing her first ever Kentucky Warbler up close and personal.

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Just before the middle of May, we said a sad goodbye to a visiting post-doc researcher from the University of Sheffield - UK, Simone Immler, who became a fast friend to us all.  Simone arrived at Powdermill on April 24th and spent two weeks here collecting data for her research examining sperm morphology differences between species of North American wood warblers and also among selected species of the Emberizid, Fringilid, and Turdid families; ultimately she was interested in understanding how these differences might relate to sexual selection among individuals of these birds.  (For more information on this topic of study, please reference Simone's recently published coauthored article, Unusual sperm morphology in the Eurasian Bullfinch Pyrrhula pyrrhula, in the April 2006 edition of The Auk.)
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Simone's data collection involved extracting sperm from the liquid portion of fecal samples.  To obtain the fresh fecal material she needed, Simone used a custom sampling tray devised here at Powdermill.  A small plastric tray with a grate on the top was placed at the bottom of a paper bag and the birds were then placed in the bags for a few minutes (before or after banding), during which they would typically defecate.  The wire grate over the tray kept the bird from collecting its own fecal sample with its feathers (remember, Simone needed the wet part of the sample)!  In the photo to the left, Simone extracts sperm from a recently collected sample using a laboratory pipet.  The photo below is of an Ovenbird, just before being released, showing the collection method complete with a fresh sample..

• In addition to conducting her research, Simone was also a tremendous help and a great, if all-too-temporary, addition to the Powdermill banding team.  We thank her for all her help checking nets, banding birds, and recording, and for her wonderful spirit.  In the photo below, Simone (middle) poses with spring banding assistant, Keri Parker (left), and Bander-in-Charge, Adrienne Leppold (right), on top of the Dusquesne Incline overlooking the Three Rivers Point State Park and the City of Pittsburgh during a day-off sight-seeing field trip.

• We also thank Chris Meny, Pam Ferkett, Jessica Scopel, Molly McDermott, Fred and Carol McCullough, Brent Worls, Matt Shumar, Karen Light, Cokie Lindsay, and Jeff Michaels for their help with banding this period.

• May 2 proved to be a transitional day in banding with the first of many warblers for the season banded.  This beautiful adult male Magnolia Warbler...

• this adult male Black-throated Blue Warbler...

• an adult female Golden-winged Warbler...

• The top photo below shows our first "Brewster's Warbler" of the year, also banded on May 2--this clean and bright adult male resulted from the breeding of a "Brewster's Warbler" to a Golden-winged Warbler (called a second generation, or F2, backcross).  Compare it with the first generation SY/F "BRWA" (bottom photo below) banded a few days later...

• The first of three Yellow-breasted Chats banded throughout the week actually was the first of this species to have been banded since Spring of 2003; three YBCHs  gave us our highest season total since 1999 when six were banded.  And it was definitely a bird worth Chatting about!--a brilliantly colored (orange variant) adult (ASY) male.   As mentioned more commonly on this site in relation to abnormal orange coloration in the Cedar Waxwing, this YBCH's unusual coloring also comes from rhodoxanthin, a red carotenoid pigment, found in the berries of an introduced honeysuckle that this bird must have fed on heavily last summer while undergoing its annual molt.  In their study of orange tail-banded Cedar Waxwings, Mulvihill et al. (1992) reported that one third of 28 YBCH banded at Powdermill in the five preceding years exhibited the orange-breasted variation (click here for the pdf of this article).  The individual banded this spring was a particularly brilliant example.

• The following pictures are of the other two chats banded later in the week, showing the typical plumage for this species.  The top photo is of an immature (SY) male and the bottom photo is of an adult (ASY) female.

• Two of the twelve White-throated Sparrows banded on the 2nd provided a great side-by-side comparison and example of this species' plumage polymorphism.  While there are some intermediates, WTSP are typically considered to be either the white-stripe morph (left) or tan-striped morph (right), especially in their alternate, or breeding plumage.  While not directly age- or sex-related, analysis of crown morph types assigned to over 5,300 birds banded at Powdermill showed a greater tendency for adult males to be white striped.  Because we also found a positive relationship between wing length and the frequency of occurrence of WS morphs in both sexes, this raises the possibility that differences in frequency of the white morph between the sexes stems from differences in survival and/or reporductive success favoring larger size in males and smaller size in females.  Further results and analyses are currently under revision and will be submitted shortly for publication.

• Despite May 2nd being a fairly competitive day for bird highlights, this immature (SY) Wood Thrush was a tough act to follow.  Hence, we saved the best (oddest?) for last.  Even in Bob Leberman's 45+ years of banding birds and Bob Mulvihill's 30 years of bird banding, it was something never seen before here at Powdermill.  The left wing of the bird was completely normal, but the right wings (yes, wings, plural!) certainly were not!

• We have observed more than a few birds sporting extra, or supernumerary, flight feathers (including remiges, rectrices, and alula).  This WOTH, however, had a normal number of flight feathers on one of its two (!) right wings.  The second wing, sandwiched beneath the first wing, had five distal primaries, the corresponding primary coverts, and a three-feathered alula.

• We thank the staff of the Loyalhanna Veterinary Clinic for dropping everything and fulfilling our interesting request for x-rays of this bird's wing (i.e., we hoped to be able to determine if there were underlying skeletal abnormalities, such as a supernumerary second or third digit on the manus, or fused hand bones, which is the attachment point for the primaries).  While not conclusive at all, at least to our eye (the image below is from a photograph taken of the backlighted x-ray and converted to a negative), we're certainly interested in opinions from any avian anatomists out there among our web audience.  If after a little research it seems warranted, we may submit a short note on this occurrence for publication.  We would be very interested to hear if anyone else has ever seen this, or anything like this, before!

• Despite its abnormality, the bird flew away very strongly upon release.  Note, too, that it showed no unusual wear of the principal primaries of the right wing (the feathers of the third wing were arranged to be visible in the photo above, but they actually were well hidden beneath the functional right wing).

• Three days later we had another push of new migrants and banded 105 birds, our fourth highest single day banding total of the season.  Among the new species for the season were this Veery...

• White-crowned Sparrow...

• and beautiful adult male Chestnut-sided Warbler.

• For comparison, at the other end of the plumage spectrum, this adult female CSWA banded a few days later, beautiful nonetheless, was among the dullest expected for this age and sex class, nearly lacking any lore or malar streaking.

• Finally, 5 May also proved a perfect day for the Longwood Retirement Home's annual visit to see spring migration at the Powdermill Bird Banding Station.

Last Updated on 05/30/06
By Adrienne J. Leppold and
Robert S. Mulvihill