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Carnegie Museum of Natural History

One of the Four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh

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Male Hooded Warbler

Male Hooded Warbler, a bright yellow and black bird

The age of this bird is usually identifiable with a quick examination of the throat feathers.  If the black throat has extensive yellow tipping it is a hatching-year and if it lacks this tipping (or has very little) it is an after-hatching-year.

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.

 

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Ovenbird

ovenbird shown from the back

Although the young and adult birds have essentially the same general plumage, there are some slight differences. The rusty tipping on this bird’s tertials identify it as a hatching-year bird (adults lack the rusty tipping). By spring this tipping frequently is worn off, and age is best determined by using the presence or absence of a molt limit.  As in many birds, the shape of the tail also can be useful in ageing warblers.

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.

 

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Bay-breasted and Blackpoll Warblers

Bay-breasted and Blackpoll Warblers

The first warbler benefits from spruce budworm outbreaks when the caterpillars provide abundant food. The second type of warbler has a high-pitched, almost inaudible song that drifts through boreal forests of Canada.

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.

 

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8½-year-Old Black-capped Chickadee at Powdermill

black-capped chickadee, a black, white, and tan bird

Residents of western Pennsylvania are familiar with the small and spunky black-capped chickadees that often visit their birdfeeders. These fearless birds are also frequent visitors at our banding lab at Powdermill Nature Reserve.

Last winter, this chickadee was one of the oldest of his species banded at the lab. It was first banded as a hatch-year bird at the end of August 2007, which means its age was 8½ years!

This individual has been captured 42 times in its life (so far!), at least twice every year, most often in the winter months.
It has shown up in every month of the year except June and July. In 2011, the only year that we saw this bird in May, it had a cloacal protuberance, an enlargement of the cloaca indicating breeding condition in males. So we know it is a male and that his territory is obviously not near our nets.

We are hoping to see this individual in the future. The oldest known black-capped chickadee was 11½ years old when it was banded in Minnesota in 2002.

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.

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Hummingbird Bands

tiny hummingbird band similar in size to the point of a pencil

At Powdermilll Nature Reserve, researchers use different sized bands for different sized birds, which helps them track the movement and lifespan of populations.

The band pictured above is a hummingbird band. It is so small that the customary nine-digit band number is reduced to five digits with a letter prefix.

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.

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1,400 Miles in Three Weeks

hummingbird with a bright red throat and black head

We received word this spring from the National Banding Lab that a young male ruby-throated hummingbird banded at Powdermill Nature Reserve on September 18, 2014 was recaptured three weeks later (October 10) in Lake Jackson, Texas.

A journey of 1,425 miles in three weeks is pretty astounding when one considers that this male weighed in at just 3.5 grams, not much more than a penny. His wings measured 42 mm (a little over 1.5″).

The hummingbird’s wing beat has been measured at 50 times per second. Now we’re not sure exactly when he left our banding area or if he was caught the day he arrived in Texas, but if he used every day in the interval to fly south, he would have averaged 65 miles per day. Pretty impressive!

Once the data was collected in Texas, the bird was released and probably spent a few days fattening up for the next leg of its migration—a nonstop crossing of the Gulf of Mexico!

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.