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  • ABOUT
    • Mission and Vision Statement
    • Equality and Diversity Policy
    • Annual Report
    • BSBO Board of Directors
    • BSBO Staff
    • BSBO's Visitors' Center >
      • Visit BSBO
      • Anna Macke Mikolajczyk Window On Wildlife
      • John Gallagher Memorial Birding Trail
    • eNews
    • BSBO Videos >
      • BSBO's 20th Anniversary by Deb Neidert
    • BSBO Blogs >
      • Kenn Kaufman's Crane Creek - Magee Birding Blog
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      • BSBO Education and Outreach Blog
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    • Passerines >
      • Passerine Research
      • Prothonotary Warbler Research
      • Building Collision Study
      • Oak Openings
    • Project SNOWstorm >
      • About Project SNOWstorm
      • Meet Buckeye
      • Meet Wolverine
    • Northern Saw-whet Owls
    • Research Highlights >
      • Gray-Cheeked Thrush from Colombia, South America
      • BSBO Bird Bander's Blog
    • Past Research >
      • Colonial Wading Birds
      • Ohio Winter Bird Atlas
      • Shorebirds
    • Reports >
      • Navarre Marsh Annual Banding and Survey Data
      • Annual Project Reports
    • Research Volunteer Form
    • Research Volunteer Page
  • EDUCATION
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    • Family Activities >
      • Free Online Resources
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      • Ohio Young Birders Club
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      • Youth Birding Camps
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      • Songbird Banding and Migration Programs
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    • Group Programs >
      • Presentations by Request
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  • Conservation
    • BioBlitzes
    • Bird-safe / Birder-friendly Communities
    • Responsible Wind Energy
    • Conservation Updates
    • Position Statement on Feral and Free-Ranging Cats
    • Habitat Designations
    • Easy Ways for YOU to Support Conservation
    • Breeding Bird Surveys
  • EVENTS & ACTIVITIES
    • Birds at Home
    • Highway Clean-up
    • BSBO's Biggest Week In American Birding
  • NW OHIO BIRDING
    • Responsible Owl Viewing
    • Magee Marsh WA Closures
    • Kenn Kaufman's Crane Creek - Magee Birding Blog
    • Local Birding Hotspots
    • Local eBird Tips
    • Regional Bird Checklist
    • Timing of Spring Migration
    • Timing of Fall Migration
    • Timing of Fall Shorebird Migration
    • ABA Code of Birding Ethics
    • Ohio Bird Alpha Codes
    • Birder Calling Cards
    • Birding Ohio

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An awesome look at molt!

7/5/2018

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Due to oncoming thunderstorms, rain, heat, and about 150% humidity, our MAPS banding operations at BSBO were cut short a little bit early today. From the little time we did band, however, we were able to gather that more young Yellow Warblers are on the move with their parents, there are already some completely molted (into formative plumage) hatching-year (HY) YEWAs roaming around on their own, and young Gray Catbirds are just starting to leave the nest, still in their complete floofy juvenal plumage. But our best surprise this morning was a bird we don't often have at BSBO during the summer....American Redstart. 
Picture
​Without catching young or locating a nest, we can't positively say that AMRE have bred at BSBO this summer. The more likely scenario is that this (and other AMRE we've heard this summer and past summers) are simply un-mated birds moving through the region, or birds that have already fledged young somewhere else and are preparing for migration.

Unlike migration banding, summer banding offers us a glimpse of birds in active molt - a fairly short period in a bird's life cycle. But due to the plumage differences in male AMRE, this bird's molt was exceptionally interesting! 

Male AMRE have delayed plumage maturation, meaning that HY and second-year (SY) birds look completely different than their adult counterparts. In AMRE, young males are gray with yellow accents, gaining minute black splotches by their first spring. Whereas adult males are black with orange accents. This plumage difference always makes aging adult male AMRE simple: if the bird is black and orange in spring, it's an after-second-year (ASY); if its black and orange in the fall, its an after-hatching-year (AHY). During the pre-basic molt in late summer, young males will begin replacing their gray and yellow feathers for black and orange feathers, producing the bird's definitive basic (or adult) plumage. The bird we captured today is undergoing that molt right now, showing off a very unique look during this transitional phase. 

Picture
While in active molt, an accurate age can often be difficult to discern, and sometimes we simply have to say that it's an AHY bird (we don't know when it was hatched, but it wasn't this year). But despite being in active molt, due to the species' delayed plumage maturation, we were able to confidently age this male AMRE as an SY (a bird hatched last year). Black feathers in the head, tertials, greater coverts, primary coverts, inner primaries with orange, and rectrices are all recently replaced, basic feathers. The remaining gray/brown back and face feathers, secondaries with yellow, alula, and outer primaries are retained juvenal feathers (formative for the body feathers). If this were an ASY male AMRE, he would be replacing basic feathers for new basic feathers...black and orange feathers, for new black and orange feathers.    

Picture
Picture
Due to the obvious difference in feather ages, our fingers are crossed that this scruffy lad will stick around the area long enough for us to reacapture him and track his advancement in molt, documenting this often unseen and short lived period. In another week or so, this bird will look completely different than today. Gaining all black feathers with orange accents. Because of the timing of this capture, we've added another point of information to the record of this bird, and subsequent recaptures will keep track of his exact age. And, while he may look a "hot mess," isn't this guy just too cool looking!?   
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    ABOUT THE
    ​NAVARRE MARSH BANDING STATION

    The Observatory's primary banding station is located in Navarre Marsh behind the Davis Besse Nuclear Power Station on Toledo Edison property. Migration monitoring consists of constant effort mist netting and migration point counts (5 minute counts at 6 locations at the research site). 

    Habitat is remnant beach ridge consisting of canopy trees of Hackberry, Kentucky Coffeetree, and Cottonwood with tremendous under story of rough-leaved Dogwood on the sand ridges. This is similar to the vegetation found on the well-known beach ridge of the Magee Marsh Bird Wildlife Area where the world-famous boardwalk is situated. 

    Two other remnant beach ridge habitats in Northwest Ohio are the Darby unit of the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge and the Cedar Point National Wildlife Refuge. The Navarre beach ridge is the largest of them all occupying about 370 acres of wetland and beach ridge habitat. 

    The Navarre Marsh Migration Monitoring Station is on private property and not open to the public; however, we are able to give access to research students when special arrangements are made in advance. 

    We'd love to hear from you! Let us know how you like the BSBO Bird Bander's Blog by emailing us at: researcher@bsbo.org. 
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The mission of the Black Swamp Bird Observatory is to inspire the appreciation, enjoyment, 
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