The fall 2023 migration banding season has come to an end. We had a busy season at the Sulllivan’s Island Bird Banding Station, with a wide variety of warblers, sparrows and other songbirds. We banded 782 birds from 43 different species.
We recaptured 40 birds, including a gray catbird that was originally banded in the fall of 2015 as a hatching year bird, making him or her about 8.5 years old. Many songbirds can live a decade or more. It’s only possible to collect longevity data by placing a unique numbered band on the birds and catching them again in subsequent years.
We had many winter resident birds returning to Sullivan’s Island for a third or fourth year in a row. Site fidelity to a wintering grounds was documented this year for six species, including yellow-rumped warblers, gray catbirds, orange-crowned warblers and a ruby-crowned kinglet.
We never captured many of the species that we heard and witnessed on a daily basis, including northern flickers, cedar waxwings, American goldfinches, blue-headed vireos and tree swallows. We watched thousands of tree swallows descending into the wax myrtles and cedars like mini tornados. Their flocks looked like smaller versions of the starling murmurations in Europe.
We finally captured one tree swallow this year – the first one since 2016. Presumably, the birds must have superior vision and are able to easily avoid the nets. The bird pictured is another winter resident, the white-throated sparrow. You can hear their sweet whistled song in the early spring before they depart for their breeding grounds in Canada.
Sept. 6 – Nov. 19, 2023 Totals
Species / # Banded
American Redstart
33
Baltimore Oriole
1
Black-and-white Warbler
5
Blue Jay
4
Blackpoll Warbler
1
Black-throated Blue Warbler
8
Brown Thrasher
9
Cape May Warbler
1
Carolina Chickadee
6
Carolina Wren
6
Chestnut-sided Warbler
1
Common Yellowthroat
60
Downy Woodpecker
1
Eastern Kingbird
1
Eastern Phoebe
2
Gray Catbird
353
Gray-cheeked/Bicknell's Thrush
1
Great-crested Flycatcher
1
Hermit Thrush
1
House Wren
9
Indigo Bunting
4
Magnolia Warbler
5
Myrtle Warbler
53
Northern Cardinal
14
Northern Mockingbird
1
Northern Waterthrush
34
Ovenbird
2
Painted Bunting
5
Philadelphia Vireo
1
Prairie Warbler
18
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
8
Red-eyed Vireo
26
Slate-colored Junco
1
Song Sparrow
2
Swamp Sparrow
2
Swainson's Thrush
3
Tree Swallow
1
Traill's Flycatcher
1
White-eyed Vireo
27
Western Palm Warbler
65
Yellow-breasted Chat
1
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
2
Yellow Warbler
2
Total:
782