We spent Father's Day at our third MAPS session of 2024. I would like to highlight some avian fathers in this post. We netted a pair of hairy woodpeckers, a species in which the male shares equally in sitting on the eggs. He had a full brood patch, which is pictured! Go daddy! We also recaptured a male second year indigo bunting with an engorged cloacal protuberance, indicating that he is probably currently working on a nest. The second year buntings are particularly interesting to age as you can see the retained brown feathers, which are juvenile feathers left from its hatching year of 2023. He has almost acquired all of his blue adult feathers. Lastly, we caught our first hatch year warbler of the season, a worm-eating warbler. We did not catch his father, but we believe he is out there somewhere. Happy Father's Day to all!
Our MAPS banding season is off to a great start. We had our second session today. We banded 29 birds with the highlight being a chestnut-sided warbler, a species we had not encountered during the breeding season at our station. We also found a female hooded warbler and a variety of other species. Last week, at our bird banding camp, we banded a prothonotary warbler and two pileated woodpeckers in addition to around 50 other birds. 
A video of our Woodcock release!
Blue-winged wonder!
...And here is a three minute long video of me banding and assessing a blue-winged warbler on Friday, May 22nd.
