Carnegie Museum of Natural History

One of the Four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh

Powdermill

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Sharp shinned hawk

small hawk being held by a researcher

This sharp shinned hawk banded in August at Powdermill Nature Reserve, the museum’s environmental research center, was born just this summer. When it matures into an adult its chest will become red and its back grey.

(Photo courtesy Powdermill’s Instagram)

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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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.

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Eastern Bluebird

Eastern Bluebird, a small vibrant blue bird

This pretty little eastern bluebird was banded this year at Powdermill Nature Reserve’s bird banding lab in Rector, Pa.

Although they are common winter residents in a field just over the hill from the banding lab, eastern bluebirds only occasionally stray into the banding area, so it was a pleasant surprise to find this individual in one of our nets.

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.