Unusual Birds

The only Painted Bunting caught at Powdermill is this SY male that was far off course when it was captured in 1996. … [Read more...] about Painted Bunting

November 2001 Northern Saw-whet Owl #764-53706 poses for a picture or two after banding! Its wing plumage lacked any contrasts among molted and unmolted flight feathers, showing it to be a hatching year (HY) bird. In order to determine its age, Powdermill banding intern, Adrienne Leppold, examines the wing plumage of #764-53706. Because heavy white frost that had settled onto all of our open nets overnight (making them both highly visible and very … [Read more...] about Owls – Saw-whet Owl and Two Recaptured Eastern Screech Owls

We have only banded a single long-eared owl at Powdermill and it was a bird that was brought in from a local farm. Other than being a bit dazed, the bird was fine and was banded and released. … [Read more...] about Long-eared Owl

This Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow (Ammodramus nelsonii) was banded at Powdermill Biological Station on 30 September 2000. This is the first occurrence of the species at the Station and one of very few records in western Pennsylvania away from Presque Isle on the southern shore of Lake Erie. It is the 183rd species on the Station's banding list (which also includes an additional five distinctive subspecies and hybrid forms). It was identified, compared to the very similar Salt Marsh … [Read more...] about Nelson’s Sharp-tailed Sparrow

A single Le Conte’s Sparrow was banded in 1991. … [Read more...] about Le Conte’s Sparrow

The rarest bird ever banded at Powdermill is this Kirtland’s Warbler captured in 1971 when there were estimated to be about 200 males in the global population of this species (~1,400 today). … [Read more...] about Kirtland’s Warbler