Did
I Just See a White-crowned Sparrow with a Color Leg-band?
Photographs byJordene Lucas
Nancy
LaFramboise and Ed Rykiel are hoping that you can answer “Yes” to that
question. They are conducting a study of wintering White-crowned
Sparrows
(WCSP) with the assistance of Bill LaFramboise, Howard Browers and
Bonnie Dunham.
The study is aimed at gathering
preliminary data
to assess the ability of WCSPs to return year after year to the same
wintering area, and in particular, to the same small feeding area like
a backyard or even a particular bird feeder.
WCSPs
were chosen
because it is easy to tell birds fledged the past breeding season from
older birds by the brown versus black head striping.
Therefore:
- Hatch
year (HY)
birds (brown stripes) have one band color
- Birds
older than hatch year – after hatch year (AHY) have another band color.
Unless
banding data is available, actual
age in years cannot be determined.
The
captured birds are banded with a USGS numbered aluminum band
on
one leg and a celluloid color band on the other leg. The
aluminum
band
then tells exactly who a particular WCSP is if the bird is
re-captured. The color band tells if the bird was
banded as
immature or mature, the location where the bird was banded,
and
requires only that it be observed and recorded.
Three
wide-spread banding locations are being used: the LaFramboise
yard in Richland, the
Browers place in Benton City, and the Dunham country home in Finley.
Very little data are available about what distances birds
move within
their wintering area. The belief is that winter residents do
not move
very far once they are settled in. So it would be exciting if
a bird
banded at one of our locations was observed elsewhere. The
movement
pattern of winter residents might very well change when they get the
urge to migrate.
Here’s the key to our color banded
birds:
| Location | Immature Hatch Year
(HY) | Mature
After Hatch Year (AHY) | | Benton
City (Red Mtn area) | Light
Green | Light
Blue | | Finley
(Terrill Rd area) | Hot
Pink | Mauve | | Richland
(Canyon Terrace area) | Red | Black |
If
you do see a color-banded WCSP, please note the band color, date, time,
and location of your observation, and send that information to Nancy
LaFramboise who is in charge of record keeping for our study.
Email to: 
Phone:
509/627-3695
Thanks for your help and keep
an eye out for color-banded WCSPs.
Observations
of Color-banded WCSPs
Date
& Time
Location
Band Color
Dec.
14, 2007 8:00 am View Drive,
Richland (3 miles from banding location)
Red Band
|
