Notes from the Station

Species: Ash-throated Flycatcher
Most recent capture date: 7/25/2023
Age: less than five months old

Species: Dark-eyed Junco, “Oregon” form
Most recent capture date: 7/25/2023
Age: less than five months old

Notes: This bird is partway through their preformative molt, which is when they drop their mottled juvenile plumage for the more solid adult pattern. You can see juvenile plumage on the head, throat, and in a line down the center of the belly, and you can see new rosy-and-white adult plumage on the flanks.

Species: Nuttall’s Woodpecker
Most recent capture date: 7/23/2023
​Earliest capture date: 7/9/2023
Age: less than five months old
​Sex: male

Notes: How often do you pay attention to woodpeckers’ tails? Woodpeckers have distinctive stiff tailfeathers that they use to prop themselves up as they move around on the sides of trees.

Species: Lazuli Bunting
Most recent capture date: 7/23/2023
Age: just over one year old
​Sex: male

Notes: Often, molting birds that are a mix of dull and bright plumage, as this one is, are young birds just growing in their fancy adult plumage. A close look at this fellow, however, reveals that the new growing feathers are the dull ones: he isn’t a dull juvenile becoming bright, he’s a bright male growing in his less-bright nonbreeding plumage.

Species: Purple Martin
Most recent capture date: 7/18/2023
Age: 3 weeks old

Notes: This kiddo was probably surprised to see the big wide world outside his nest cavity. We color-banded him so that he could be identified from a distance, then put him back in his nest, where (we were able to observe on the nestcam) he settled back down and his parents promptly returned and fed him. With his color band, Midpen wildlife biologists will be able to identify him from afar after he fledges and find out whether he returns to his natal colony in future years.

Species: Purple Martin
Most recent capture date: 7/18/2023
Age: at least two years old
​Sex: male

Notes: We are helping the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District monitor their breeding colony of Purple Martins by banding their martins with colored leg bands so that individuals can be identified from a distance. This was our first adult male, and therefore our first actually *purple* (well, purplish-blue) martin.

Species: Hermit Thrush
Most recent capture date: 7/14/2023
Age: less than 10 weeks old

Species: Wilson’s Warbler
Most recent capture date: 7/07/2023
Age: a few months old

Species: Wrentit
Most recent capture date: 7/07/2023
​Earliest capture date: 6/10/2022
Age: just over one year old

Notes: Wrentits are the best at giving pointed Looks.

Species: House Finch
Most recent capture date: 6/30/2023
Age: more than one year old
​Sex: male

Notes: Birds have very thin skin, so much so that it is translucent: you can see through the skin to muscle, bone, and fat. (Yes, it’s weird!) For this bird, in addition to those physical components, I could also see that his crop was completely full of seeds.