COS MAPS Bird Banding Station Enters Year 4

Gray Catbird being released. Note this bird’s prominent fault bar on its tail. This is a sign that the bird experienced a period of stress and perhaps a food shortage while it was first growing in its tail feathers. This sign of past stress will disappear when the bird undergoes its annual molt in the fall.

words by Stephanie Beilke

In June, a team of volunteers kicked off the fourth year of bird banding research taking place at the COS MAPS Station at Big Marsh Park. As a MAPS station (Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship) guided by the Institute for Bird Populations, bird banders are collecting information across the continent using a standardized bird banding protocol that will help researchers better understand survival and reproductive trends of various songbirds. This year, the MAPS station will also contribute to the Bird Genoscape Project, which uses DNA extracted from feathers to map bird populations across the western hemisphere.

Female Orchard Oriole, a first record for the station. Photo by Stephanie Beilke.

As we begin to shift into the later summer season, we are starting to see more young (or hatch year) birds popping up in our nets. The late summer breeders, such as American Goldfinch, are also increasingly active and starting to show up more frequently in the nets. Gray Catbird and Yellow Warbler continue to be the most common captures, along with other familiar Big Marsh breeding birds such as House Wren, American Robin and Willow Flycatcher. The best surprise so far this year was the station’s first ever Orchard Oriole, a female in breeding condition. Orchard Oriole was already a documented breeder on site and they seem to be having a good year at Big Marsh with several pairs observed throughout the site.

Bird banding assistant, Lila Fried, researching how to age a male Northern Flicker. Photo by Stephanie Beilke.

The MAPS station will have three more days of operation this summer. We’ll look forward to sharing the results of our effort in the fall. As always we thank our many volunteers who rise before dawn, walk many miles to and from our nets, and help make this project possible!

All banding operations are conducted under state and federal permits.