[TN-Bird] banding at tremont

From: Charlie <cmmbirds@xxxxxxxxx>
To: Panther Lounge <thepantherlounge@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, TN-Bird <TN-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, butternuts <butternuts@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 7 Jun 2006 06:50:43 -0700 (PDT)
Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Blount County, TN

Hi folks,

On Tuesday, June 6, 2006 we opened our usual 10 nets to band birds at
Tremont.  We caught a total of 16 birds, which is about average for
this time of year.  A great relief, as our first banding day of the
season, May 22, netted only 4 birds.

The most interesting news was a Black-throated Green Warbler, which
looked like a young male, with plenty of white in the tail, a chin
that was half black and a throat that was at least half black.  The
cheek patches also looked brighter yellow than average.  However,
when I processed the bird it had a brood patch!

For those who don?t handle birds, a brood patch is something that any
bird that ?sits? on the eggs will develop.  Birds don?t really sit on
eggs.  When they incubate, they actually lie down on the eggs.  A
brood patch is an adaptation for transferring heat to the egg so it
will develop.  The bird drops feathers from the abdomen, and the
abdomen becomes highly vascularized ? it almost looks like the
swelling associated with a twisted ankle.  It is warm, swollen, and
?puffy? looking.  A bird bander can actually form an idea of where
the bird is in the nesting process by seeing the development of the
brood patch.  This bird?s brood patch was wrinkled, indicating that
the swelling was going down - similar to stretch marks on a woman?s
abdomen after childbirth.  This means she was probably done
incubating and hopefully was taking care of chicks.  Unfortunately,
she escaped my grasp before I was able to take pictures.

For most warblers, including this species, only the female incubates
the eggs, so only the female will develop a brood patch.  So while
this bird looked like a second year (hatched last year) male, it was
actually a female.

So why did a female bird look like a male?  In sexually dimorphic
birds (where males and females look different) the males usually have
brighter, more colorful plumage.  But as female age, sometimes they
begin to take on male coloration.  So while all we know about this
bird is that she is at least in her third year of life, we suspect
she may be older ? 5?  6?  7?  We don?t know.  We can only hope to
catch her again next year!

Louisiana Waterthrush 7 (3 young of the year)
Red-eyed Vireo 1
Black-throated Green Warbler 1
Eastern Phoebe 2
American Goldfinch 2

Recaptures (birds we captured and banded before):
Louisiana Waterthrush banded 5/23/05 as ASY (meaning it was in at
least its 3rd year of life and is now in at least its 4th)
Louisiana Waterthrush banded 6/6/05 as ASY
Red-eyed Vireo  banded 6/30/05 as ASY


*******************************************************************
Charlie Muise, Naturalist near
Great Smoky Mountains National Park

"To the dull mind all nature is leaden.  To the illuminated mind 
the whole world sparkles with light."  - Ralph Waldo Emerson

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[TN-Bird] banding at tremont

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