bird banding

February 8, 2024 by Erin Southerland

A Year in Review: Bird Banding 2023

by Annie Lindsay

Nestled between the Chestnut and Laurel Ridges near the town of Rector, Pennsylvania lies Powdermill Nature Reserve, Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s environmental field research station, where ornithologists have been operating a long-term bird banding station since June 1961. In 62 years of banding birds year-round, we’ve gathered more than 830,000 banding records of nearly 200 species. Some, like the Cedar Waxwing, have tens of thousands of records in our dataset, whereas single individuals are the only representatives of other species, like Kirtland’s Warbler.

Banding Field Tech Grace Muench releasing a Sharp-shinned Hawk. — *Banding Field Tech Grace Muench releasing a Sharp-shinned Hawk, one of her favorite moments from the year*.

At Powdermill, we band birds all year, varying our effort seasonally, which gives us a picture of what species we expect to see at any given time of year and the relative abundance of those species. Each season brings something new. By March we are eagerly awaiting the earliest spring migrants and as spring progresses, we revel in the flood of colorful songbirds in their breeding plumage. Summer brings breeding birds and our anticipation of which individuals will return year after year. As summer fades into fall, we enjoy the subtle beauty of birds in their non-breeding plumage as they migrate south to their wintering grounds. By mid-November, almost all migrating songbirds have passed through and we are in our winter banding season, dominated by cold-hardy birds that are often recaptured between years.

*Fall Banding Field Tech Jordan Mouton using a black light to age a Northern Saw-whet Owl. Saw-whet and screech owls were the highlights of Jordan’s season.*

In 2023, we banded 9,095 new birds and recaptured 5,074 individuals of 123 species (plus one hybrid). The most abundant species was Swainson’s Thrush with 631 new birds banded this year, followed by Ruby-crowned Kinglet (596), Gray Catbird (484), and Cedar Waxwing (447). The year saw slightly lower numbers than average overall, but several species had notably high captures and some even set spring or fall season records. In spring, 11 Black-billed Cuckoos edged out last year’s ten to claim that season’s record, and in the fall nine Louisiana Waterthrushes (a species that is a very early migrant and generally scarce during our fall months), 158 Ovenbirds, and two Bicknell’s Thrushes set fall high records.

We can use these numbers to compare 2023 to previous years and to totals from other banding stations, but the stories about the year’s highlights are most compelling. Each year when we analyze our data, we eagerly look for species that set new record high totals, individuals that represent early or late banding dates, or recaptures that are particularly old birds, and await reports that our banded birds have been recaptured at another station.

This year, as in recent years, many of the species that had above average totals are species that have been increasing in southwestern Pennsylvania, which is a trend that is reflected in Christmas Bird Count data. The core of these species’ ranges has historically been a bit farther south, but they seem to have recently been expanding northward. For example, Carolina Wrens and Red-bellied Woodpeckers are year-round residents in southwestern Pennsylvania and are encountered far more often now than they were a few decades ago. Similarly, Yellow-throated Warbler is a species that tends not to breed much farther north than non-Appalachian Pennsylvania, but is a species that we’ve seen in spring attempting to establish territories and even breeding.

Swainson’s Warbler caught in spring 2023, the 8th of its species ever banded at Powdermill. — *Swainson’s Warbler caught in spring 2023, the 8^th of its species ever banded at Powdermill.*

This year’s exciting captures began with a Swainson’s Warbler that was caught on May 11, only the eighth individual of that species in Powdermill’s banding dataset. Swainson’s Warblers breed significantly south of Pennsylvania in the very southern part of West Virginia, but since 2020, birders have spotted several nearby in the spring and summer and the first breeding record in the state was confirmed in summer 2023. This unexpected capture, affectionately nicknamed “Sword-billed Warbler” by the banding crew, was certainly a favorite.

This fall, something happened that is rare for a 62-year-old banding station: we added a new species to our dataset. Bicknell’s Thrush was considered a subspecies of the more common Gray-cheeked Thrush until 1995 when there was enough evidence (based on morphology, vocalizations, habitat, and migration patterns) to elevate Bicknell’s to full species status. Over the years, a few possible Bicknell’s Thrushes were banded at Powdermill, but it wasn’t until this year that two were definitively identified here, one on September 14 and one on October 8.

solitary sandpiper — *Solitary Sandpiper, fall Banding Field Tech Lindsey Doyel’s season highlight.*

One of the questions we are frequently asked is how long birds live. While it’s difficult to know how long each species lives on average, recapturing birds between seasons tells us something about how long they can live. In general, smaller birds are shorter-lived and larger birds are longer-lived. Catching a bird with a band and looking back through the data to see how long ago it was initially banded and how many times it’s been captured over the years is a highlight for the banding crew. Several notable standouts in 2023 include:

A Ruby-throated Hummingbird that was banded in August 2021 and aged as a bird that had hatched in a previous year was recaptured exactly two years later, making her at least three years old.

A Kentucky Warbler that was banded in June 2018 and aged as a bird that had hatched the previous summer was recaptured in May, making it six years old.

A Gray Catbird that was banded in August 2015, the summer it hatched, was recaptured this fall when it had a refeathering brood patch (the bare patch of skin on the belly that songbirds develop to help incubate eggs). This catbird was eight years old and, because female catbirds develop brood patches when they’re breeding, we were able to determine that she was breeding at Powdermill that summer.

Black-capped Chickadees are frequently recaptured because they’re year-round residents at Powdermill and because they tend to spend time at feeders near the banding station. Because of this, we often have their band numbers memorized and sometimes can recognize individual mannerisms. This fall, we caught one such chickadee several times; it was banded in April 2016 and aged as a bird that had hatched the previous summer, making it eight years old!

Brewster's Warbler — *“Brewster’s” Warbler, a hybrid between Golden-winged and Blue-winged Warblers, was fall Banding Field Tech Connor O’Hea’s season highlight.*

There were many more old birds captured in 2023, each one delighting the crew with its history.

PARC is back to the winter banding schedule and we’re looking forward to what 2024 will bring us!

To learn more about bird banding, please see the post “What is bird banding?”

Annie Lindsay is the Banding Program Manager at Powdermill Nature Reserve.

60 Years, One Bird at a Time

by Mary Shidel, with special thanks to Pam Curtin, for her detailed history of the Powdermill Bird Banding Program

On June 18, 1961, a small brown bird with hints of blue on its wings and tail left its shrubby perch or perhaps its nest and flew into a soft nylon net. Little did this Indigo Bunting know that she would be the first data point in a long history of bird banding at the Powdermill Nature Reserve. Bob Leberman carefully extracted the bunting from the net, placed it in a bag for transport, then attached a small, almost weightless metal band to her leg, and collected data for age, sex, wing length and mass. Within minutes she was out flitting through the vegetation foraging for food. This same process has continued for 60 years, one bird at a time—capture, band, collect data, and release.

Powdermill Nature Reserve is the biological field station of Carnegie Museum of Natural History. In 1961, Bob Leberman, who had experience banding birds in Erie and near his hometown of Meadville, Pennsylvania, was hired by the museum’s director, Dr. Graham Netting, to establish a banding program at the Nature Reserve. Over the first decade or so the program evolved as Bob experimented with net sizes and placement, and honed skills and techniques for ageing and sexing that are still widely used today. In September 1961, a large pond was constructed and christened “Crisp Pond” after the village that used to exist nearby, and in 1975 two smaller ponds were added with shallower habitat for wading birds.

white building with tall evergreen trees behind it

In the early days, Bob banded from mid-March to mid-November. It wasn’t until 1974, when a permanent residence was established at the reserve for him, that Bob became the first person in the country to band year-round. By 1970, as Bob’s research expanded, a nearby garage and service building were repurposed into a laboratory and office space for the Banding Program.

A 1967 publication of the Carnegie Museum notes that “one of the most valuable assets” of Powdermill Bird Banding is the “considerable effort made to keep data consistent and comparable.” This is still true sixty years later. Just as Bob did in the early days, nets are opened one half hour before sunrise and checked every forty minutes (or adjusted if necessary due to weather conditions). Nets are kept in the same exact location from year to year, and net lanes are trimmed frequently to keep the vegetation surrounding the nets in an early successional state rather than just letting the forest overtake the banding area.

Data consistency and integrity is also still paramount at the banding lab. Over the years, very few people have held the “bander in charge” position, and those collecting the data work closely to calibrate measurements and methods. Amazingly, of the 800,000 records now in the banding database, Bob Leberman, who retired in 2004, collected the data for almost half! In 1983, Bob Mulvihill, whose connection to the banding program began as a volunteer four years earlier, joined Bob Leberman as Powdermill’s second full-time bander. Through the efforts of both “Bobs” the program grew and expanded. In 2004, in a recognition of ongoing research projects beyond the scope of the bird banding program, the lab was renamed “Powdermill Avian research Center,” a name frequently abbreviated as PARC.

The number of people who have supported the banding program in small and great ways over the years is much too vast to name here, but the program could never have grown and flourished without the thousands of volunteer hours and strong support from the staff at both Carnegie Museum of Natural History and Powdermill Nature Reserve. Generous funding from private donors and foundations over the years has extended the influence of PARC both nationally and globally.

Today, PARC is under the direction of Lucas DeGroote, Avian Research Coordinator, with Annie Lindsay, Banding Program Manager, directing day-to-day operations at the Banding Lab. Countless avenues of research focus on finding new ways to help birds. Each banding day, Annie and her staff will be opening nets before sunrise, checking the nets every forty minutes, and safely collecting and measuring the birds, growing the database and avian knowledge, one bird at a time.

And so the tradition continues…

Mary Shidel is a Banding Assistant at Powdermill Nature Reserve, Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s environmental research center. Museum employees blog about their unique experiences and knowledge gained from working at the museum.

Milestones at Powdermill’s Banding Lab

by Annie Lindsay

On the morning of July 11, 2001, Powdermill’s bird banding crew knew that was the day they’d catch the program’s 500,000th banding record (which includes new birds and recaptured birds). With only 10 birds to go, each person on the field crew guessed what species #500,000 would be, then set out on a net round together. As we checked each net, our eager anticipation grew with each bird we extracted. It turned out that I, a young, green banding intern, guessed correctly: number 500,000 was a Gray Catbird, a very common species at Powdermill during the breeding season, and a charismatically sassy species that endears itself to many banders and birders.

Man holding a bird outside. — *Bob Leberman, founder of Powdermill’s bird banding program, with the 500,000th banding record, a Gray Catbird, caught and banded on July 11, 2001.*

We released #500,000, celebrated with sparkling grape juice, then continued the banding day with a demonstration for children attending Powdermill’s summer camp. The catbird was made famous in the local newspaper, and because we’d each wagered a dollar on our guesses, I earned a $5 bill with the catbird’s band number on it for correctly guessing the species. That year marked the 40th anniversary of Powdermill’s banding program, and another milestone about two months prior: the 400,000th new bird banded.

Over the next two decades, the number of birds banded continued to creep up. Before spring migration this year, we determined that we needed just over 5,000 birds to reach 800,000 banding records. The countdown was on, and by mid-summer we knew that we could expect to reach that number by early- to mid-August, perfect timing to celebrate the banding program’s 60th anniversary.

The morning of August 6 was the day! With 45 birds to go after banding on August 5, we knew 800,000 was within sight. We opened the nets at 5:50 a.m., but the first two net checks yielded surprisingly fewer birds than we expected. At the 7:50 a.m. net check, we still had 20 birds to go, and given the pace of the morning we assumed The Bird wouldn’t be caught until the following round, so the banding crew set out in different directions to clear the nets. About five minutes later our long-term volunteer and colleague, Nick, radioed back to say that he had 11 birds in the second set of nets he was checking! The nets in the other directions had only a few birds, so we all converged on Nick’s location, and the final countdown began with five birds to go.

Two people outside removing birds from mist nets. — *Kevin Chumpitaz and Nick Liadis, part of Powdermill’s banding crew, extracting birds #799,993 and #799,994.*

The next three sets of nets were empty, but Long Lane, a series of nine nets connected in a long line, delivered a Black-and-White Warbler, a Black-throated Green Warbler, a Gray Catbird, and a Canada Warbler. With number 800,000 just ahead, Mallory, PARC’s Motus and banding assistant, called back to the rest of us, “It’s here!” Our milestone bird was a young Cedar Waxwing, a species that is quite common at Powdermill during the migration and breeding seasons, and often is spotted in nomadic flocks during the winter.

Cedar Waxwing held in a hand outside — *Powdermill’s 800,000th banding record, a young Cedar Waxwing, caught and banded on August 6, 2021.*

Just beyond the waxwing was another Gray Catbird, which concluded the net round. We all made our way back to the lab where we banded the celebrity waxwing, recorded the usual data (age, sex, measurements, and mass), snapped a few photos and a quick video, and then released the bird.

Based on the waxwing’s plumage, we know that it hatched this summer, and it displayed an interesting plumage characteristic that is relatively common in young waxwings in southwest Pennsylvania. Cedar Waxwings have a yellow terminal band on their tails, but if an individual eats invasive honeysuckle berries while feathers are growing, the pigment from the berries, called rhodoxanthin, is incorporated into the yellow parts of the growing feathers. Honeysuckle berries are plentiful at Powdermill, and are ripe when young Cedar Waxwings are still in the nest and growing their first set of feathers. If they’re fed these berries, their tails have an orange tail band instead of the normal yellow! Adult waxwings molt when the berries are no longer ripe, so their tails have a yellow stripe. This phenomenon is a great example of how introduced plants can affect their environment.

Woman holding a bird outside — *Annie Lindsay with the 800,000th banding record.*

In keeping with previous milestones at Powdermill, #800,000 is a common species: Cedar Waxwing is the sixth most banded species at Powdermill, with over 24,000 of them banded in our 60-year history. We often like to attach meaning to notable events, and Cedar Waxwings lend themselves to this one in particular: the aberration in tail stripe pigmentation was described by Powdermill banders in a paper published in 1992, and the species was a favorite of the founder of Powdermill’s bird banding program, Bob Leberman.

Five-dollar bill with writing on the edges commemorating the 500,000th bird banding record at Powdermill. — *The commemorative $5 bill for guessing correctly what species the 500,000th banding record would be.*

I still have the $5 bill with #500,000’s band number on it, and feel honored to have been part of both milestones at Powdermill. The crew didn’t place bets on what species #800,000 might be, but several had guesses, and I was sure it would be another catbird. Cedar Waxwing was an excellent surprise, and we’re all looking forward to #900,000 and #1,000,000 in the coming years!

Annie Lindsay is the Bird Banding Program Manager at Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s Powdermill Nature Reserve. Museum employees are encouraged to blog about their unique experiences and knowledge gained from working at the museum.

Bird Banding with a Crew of One

This year, spring migration was different. Cold weather early in the season (one night during peak migration saw a low of 23 degrees and was accompanied by snow) seemed to delay the arrival of many species. The paucity of insects resulting from the low temperatures seemed to drive many birds like Baltimore Orioles to find food at feeders, which delighted socially distancing observers. Then, when warm winds from the south brought the bulk of migrants north, there were a few days of really great birding until those birds either settled into local breeding territories or continued to trickle north.

One gauge of “really great birding” is seeing more than 20 species of warblers in one day, and this eye-pleasing event happened at Powdermill more than once this spring!

Just as spring migration was a bit different for the birds, it was quite different for those who study birds. Across the continent, field seasons were cancelled and research projects redesigned or postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. For the first time in nearly 60 years, Powdermill’s bird banding program was unable to be run as normal. A banding operation of this magnitude requires many staff and volunteers working as a team to safely and efficiently extract, band, and process birds each day. Because bird banders’ priorities place bird safety and well-being along with human health ahead of dataset continuity, the difficult decision was made to cancel the banding season.

Despite the pandemic, there were many bright spots this spring. Although a lot of research was put on hold, projects that could be run solo or by people in the same germ pool were given approval to proceed. As part of my dissertation work, I conducted a research project that is a collaboration between Powdermill and the University of Toledo to investigate the distance migratory songbirds fly between stopover locations. This project uses a novel method, sampling subcutaneous fat deposits to infer the geographic location of previous stopover areas using the data generated by stable-hydrogen isotope analysis. This first phase of the larger project was a success: I sampled 39 individuals of two species! I had mixed emotions about operating the mist nets at Powdermill alone. It was certainly lonely, but it was also peaceful and rewarding. Because the focus was on banding only a few study species, I released all other birds that I caught at the net. This meant that there were a few extra moments to marvel at the beauty of spring birds in their fresh and brightly colored breeding plumage, and to reflect on the incredible migratory journeys these relatively tiny birds make each year. There were even a few surprises in the nets, including a Prairie Warbler that stayed in the Powdermill banding area for a few weeks, and Powdermill’ s fifth ever capture of a Least Bittern, a secretive marsh bird that many yearn to see! Despite the pandemic and shutdown, spring banding with a crew of one was successful and productive.

Annie Lindsay is the Bird Banding Program Manager at Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s Powdermill Nature Reserve. Museum employees are encouraged to blog about their unique experiences and knowledge gained from working at the museum.

Getting Ready for the Great Backyard Bird Count

So you want to take part in the Great Backyard Bird Count? You’ve got your nature notebook ready and you’ve found the perfect spot to birdwatch. What do you do next? The Great Backyard Bird Count website has a lot of resources to help you organize your bird counts and submit your information, so you should check those out before the bird count starts. This post will give you a basic picture of how to document the birds you see and submit your observations properly.

Make a List, Check it Twice

two people taking notes outside in winter — Photo credit: Jim Judkis

Creating a checklist before you start birdwatching will be really helpful in organizing your research. You can print out this template, enter your location on the count’s website to create a checklist, or create your own guide using a list of birds found in your area. When you enter your observations online, you will submit a “checklist” for each different session of birdwatching. These lists will document where and when you observed, what species you noticed, and how many individual birds you estimated per species. A bird guide like the Merlin Bird ID app can help you identify birds you see.

You will want to make a new checklist for each new day, new location, or new time that you look for birds. For example, you’ll need two checklists if you observe in the same location on two different days, in two different locations on the same day, or in the same location but at two separate times. When you go to submit your observations, you will be asked to enter the location, date, time, and duration of your expedition. You will also be asked whether you were walking, standing, sitting, or even riding in a car while you were counting. Now go forth and count those birds!

Data Ready

Once you have collected your data, all you need to do is go online and enter in the number of birds you saw next to the name of the birds you noticed! You can also add details about each bird species and if you were able to take pictures of any birds, you can include them as well.

Keep in Mind

The submission form will have a question at the end, “Are you submitting a complete checklist of the birds you were able to identify?” which can be confusing to some. You should only click “no” if you are deliberately excluding a species from your list (for example you counted everything except crows).

Explore nature together. Visit Nature 360 for more activities and information.

Blog post by Melissa Cagan.

July 10, 2018 by wpengine

Adult Flycatcher

This adult Flycatcher undergoes the pre-basic molt of the wintering grounds. These adults can be readily identified by their white bars and wear on the feather tips.

Powdermill Nature Reserve’s avian research center is part of Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s biological research station in Rector, Pennsylvania. The research center operates a bird banding station, conducts bioacoustical research, and performs flight tunnel analysis with the goal of reducing window collisions.

A Year in Review: Bird Banding 2023

by Annie Lindsay

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Carnegie Museum of Natural History Blog Citation Information

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60 Years, One Bird at a Time

by Mary Shidel, with special thanks to Pam Curtin, for her detailed history of the Powdermill Bird Banding Program

Related Content

Carnegie Museum of Natural History Blog Citation Information

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Milestones at Powdermill’s Banding Lab

by Annie Lindsay

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Carnegie Museum of Natural History Blog Citation Information

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Share this post!

Bird Banding with a Crew of One

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Carnegie Museum of Natural History Blog Citation Information

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Getting Ready for the Great Backyard Bird Count

Make a List, Check it Twice

Data Ready

Keep in Mind

Adult Flycatcher

About

Get Involved

Bring a Group

Powdermill

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