About a month ago, I posted two pictures of sage sparrows that have recently been split out as two separate species by the Ornithologists who are in charge of such scientific things. For us laymen this is always interesting and for those bird listers looking for another tick on the list, it is a welcome challenge. This particular split is almost controversial and as I learned today it is still presenting a challenge even for the experts.
I was lucky enough to see a post on a bird listserve asking for volunteers for a project to conduct further study on this split and start to determine how these two “different” sparrows are dispersed. It has initially been the belief that the Bell's Sparrow ranged in California along the coastal sage step habitat and that as you went inland, the Sagebrush Sparrow took over the habitat.
Birders were finding more and more of what appeared to be Bell's Sparrows in Arizona so a couple of energetic young biologists proposed a study to capture and band as well as test blood for DNA to further add to the knowledge base of this relatively unstudied species. So they have been searching for places where there are enough sage type sparrows to study and as it turns out, about a month ago I stumbled upon the largest flock of “sage” sparrows I had ever seen, well over 25 all around me. I reported this to ebird and the editor had it flagged as way too many for that area so it came up on the radar of the guys doing the study and they checked it out. Sure enough they were everywhere. So I was asked to join them this weekend on a Sparrow Wrangling expedition.
Ornithologists have developed standards of study over the years and there is an elite group that have licenses to trap and band birds. A very fancy net with very thin webbing is strung in a place where birds are know to be and then the “wranglers” form a line and “shoo” the birds into the net. The fineness of it prevents them from seeing it and they become entangled in the web and if they are removed in a timely manner, no harm comes to them.
Removing birds from the net
They are taken to a station where a standard form is filled out compiling the exact same info on any bird so no mater where or what species is being studied, all the same info is recorded. In order to get a license to capture and band birds, you have to study and know all the necessary protocol for these studies. Measurements are taken on all the body parts and observations are made as to feather wear, feather color, age, sex, and several other parameters. Each band of course has a number and all this info is recorded in a national database so if the bird is recaptured anywhere else in the world, they can find out where it previously was.
The banding station
Weighing in
Discussing Feather Wear
We met this morning at sunup set up the nets and proceed to do several “roundups" from different directions to see what we could find. Some Sagebrush/Bells Sparrows were capture and we also caught lots of Black-throated Sparrows a very common desert sparrow, a Cactus Wren, a couple of Rock Wrens an Gambles Quail some White-crowned sparrows, a common wintering sparrow, and at least one Verdin, and a Costa's Hummingbird.
Black-throated Sparrow
Cactus Wren
A very educational morning with great weather, good companionship and another life experience.
1 comment:
I'm impressed that you can catch a hummer in a mist net.
Post a Comment