Yesterday was another cold day of banding at Niagara Boat Launch. I began setting up around 6:20 AM with clear skies and a few loons yodeling in the bay. The temperature was in the upper 30s, so I was glad to be moving. Once up, the nets stayed empty for almost four hours, despite several volunteers and visitors. Thankfully, we began catching birds while a group was visiting, so I was able to show them chickadees and a pair of Yellow-rumped Warblers (YRWA). We also captured Eastern Phoebe, American Robin, Hermit Thrush, House Wren and Palm Warbler.

The Yellow-rumps were males in alternate plumage, so were striking.



Their scientific name is Setophaga coronata, which refers to their golden crown, not easily seen in the field.

As with most YRWA, these are of the eastern, Myrtle, subspecies. The western, Audubon's subspecies is most easily distinguished by its yellow throat, our birds have white ones, as you can see below.



Th nice black auriculars (area behind the eyes) and dark breast band identified these two as males. The incomplete breast band and dull flight feathers tell us that they're both SY birds that hatched last year.


This picture shows the contrast between the black greater and median coverts (feathers with white tips on wing) and the dull primary coverts (small feathers to left of the greater coverts) and flight feathers.

The House Wren was less easy to age, so we called it an After Hatch Year (AHY) bird.

The cloudy weather makes for much nicer pictures of the birds.

We also aged the robin and phoebe by noting retained juvenal feathers in their wings.

The robin had some feathers with buffy tips among the coverts.



The phoebe had a molt limit among the greater coverts, i.e., it had replaced the inner greater coverts but retained the outer ones. You can see the difference in size and color between the inner (new) coverts and the outer (old) ones.



Did I mention it was cold? Here I am giving measurements for Barb Stull to record. She and several others were a great help on Saturday. If anyone is interested in volunteering, please let me know. I'm most in need of people on Mondays, tuesdays and Wednesdays.