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on the subject of nature november 2014 on the subject of nature a blog about the natural world around us whether it be birds insects plants geology or more thursday november 27 2014 bird banding two weekends ago on the 15th i woke up as the sun was rising donned four layers and made the short trek to the ridges in the brisk 16 degree weather why to go bird banding of course one of the ohio university graduate students specializing in ornithology has been setting up banding stations at the ridges and he invited the ou wildlife club to see what banding is all about sadly the early time and the cold weather turned most people away in the end only me the secretary alayna the president olivia brooks who runs the twitter account wild earth and one other member showed up for those of you who ve never been the ridges is a large tract of land now owned by ohio university which sits on the outskirts of the city of athens in athens county the main point of interest is the old insane asylum but there s also dozens of acres of forests and grasslands with miles of hiking trails which i ve partially covered before the graduate student set up a total of three nets near the nature walk trail in order to catch and band birds what exactly is bird banding though well bird banding is where a certified bander will place a small metal ring on the leg of a wild bird that was caught in a mist net each band has a unique number and that number along with morphological data of the bird goes into a giant database the idea is to be able to mark an individual recapture it at a later date identify the individual and then gather more data on a large scale this process helps us learn more about migration routes morphology age and various other information so what did we catch that day i ll start off with this tufted titmouse baeolophus bicolor this common backyard species is a part of the tit and chickadee family know as paridae if any of you are birders you re probably well acquainted with these guys many of the species in paridae are known to form medium sized flocks during the winter right about now you ll see flocks of chickadees moving throughout areas searching for food the tufted titmouse is a bit different they actually don t form winter flocks instead a breeding pair will continue to stay on their summer territory and search for food many times one of the hatchlings from the previous summer might join them as well as other random juveniles from the area occasionally they will join those chickadee based flocks these flocks have a very hierarchical nature and the tufted titmice when they re part of those mixed winter flocks will assume the most dominant role a closer look at the feet reveals extremely long and very sharp talons tufted titmice are denizens of forests particularly forests with dense canopies as these provide excellent cover and foraging opportunities a large part of a tufted titmouse s diet is arthropods these large sharp talons help them grasp the bark of trees as they search it for insects spiders and the like i m always struck by just how dinosaur like birds legs are it really makes sure you re reminded of their reptilian origins also in the family paridae is the well known and much loved caroline chickadee poecile carolinensis if you know nothing about birds you have still probably heard about the chickadee we have two chickadee species here in ohio identification between these two species is difficult due to their very very similar appearance but typically this isn t a problem due to the fact most people are only in one of the species range if you re in athens for example you know 99 9 of the chickadees you ll see are carolinas but ohio as i mentioned previously has both species generally to the north is the black capped chickadee and to the south is the carolina chickadee but this also means we have a dreaded transitional zone between the species this roughly exists along the lima mansfield canton line across the state what makes this line even worse for birders but cool for scientists is the fact these two species will even hybridize within this zone carolina chickadees are very intelligent and interesting birds many times this species will act as alarms for other songbirds in the event of a threat coming into the area upon sighting a threat carolina chickadees will many times give a buzzy chick a dee dee dee call which is where they get their name interestingly studies have found that the carolina chickadee tailors that chick a dee call to the severity of each threat for example one stud y soard c and g ritchison 2009 found that for lower threats such as a red tailed hawk which would typically not hunt chickadees carolina chickadees gave a call with more of the introductory chick notes than the buzzy dee notes on the flip side predators posing a significant threat resulted in the chickadees giving a call with more of the dee notes than the introductory chick notes if there were any chick notes at all if you re interested in that study you can download a pdf from this link the largest bird we caught that day was this female northern cardinal cardinalis cardinalis this bird also called the redbird by some is a very common species in ohio in fact it s even the state bird along with six other states with most songbirds only the male sings bird songs are employed by males to mark territories and to attract mates with the northern cardinal the females will also sing while songs vary both sexes will sing the same types of song the final bird we caught that morning was the ubiquitous song sparrow melospiza melodia these are one of my favorite birds and they have one of my favorite songs song sparrows don t actually have a set song there s a whole range of bits and pieces that the song sparrow will string together to make one individual song many times a song will have certain parts which almost all use like the 2 or 3 introductory notes which most songs start with which allows birders to quickly know what they re hearing is a song sparrow even though it might sound nearly completely different than any they ve heard before song sparrows will actually learn the songs of neighboring individuals and add them to their repertoire an individual can know over a dozen different songs many times with hundreds of small variations on those general songs an individual can also improvise and tweak his songs and his learned songs to create new songs which other neighboring individuals can learn and tweak themselves as you can see the song sparrow s use of songs is a highly complex endeavor what s even more interesting is the effect they have on females as i stated previously males will use songs to attract females most of the times the females are attracted to the male s performance of a set species wide song with song sparrows studies have found that females are also attracted to the male s ability to learn which is reflected by the number of songs he knows on top of how well he actually performs them when the graduate student was taking measurements of the song sparrow i noticed something a little odd it looked like a tick was on the neck and sure enough upon checking there was a blood engorged tick attached to the neck this tick is probably ixodes brunneus also called the bird tick this is as most ticks are a bad thing not only do you have a blood sucking parasite but these birds can contract a condition known as tick paralysis from these ticks many ixodes tick species have a substance in their saliva which upon injection to a host will slowly paralyze that host eventually this can lead to death we decided to remove the tick so hopefully the sparrow will be fine that s it for this long post it s currently thanksgiving as i write this and this has been the first time in a few weeks that i ve had to sit down and actually write finals week is currently only two weeks away so once again i ll be tossed into the college craziness when i head back to athens this weekend i ve been slacking on posts recently and hopefully with break i can catch up thanks for reading posted by kyle brooks at 10 27 pm 3 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels nature ohio photography parks athens county ohio bird banding birding birds ornithology science newer posts older posts home subscribe to comments atom about me kyle brooks view my complete profile about this blog the natural world is filled with incredible and intriguing plants animals and places on the subject of nature aims to highlight such interesting subjects and talk about the science and the issues surrounding them this blog will cover a wide range of topics from the obscure to the mundane the tiniest insects to earth altering geologic forces the latest scientific trends to the most basic natural history and beyond check out my twitter account kyle from ohio on twitter blog archive 2019 2 january 2 2018 8 august 2 june 2 march 1 february 1 january 2 2017 18 november 1 october 1 september 2 august 2 june 4 may 4 march 2 february 1 january 1 2016 16 october 2 september 3 august 1 june 1 may 3 march 2 february 1 january 3 2015 34 december 3 november 4 october 7 september 5 august 3 july 4 june 2 may 3 april 1 march 1 february 1 2014 36 december 2 november 2 bird banding a feisty eastern garter snake october 2 september 2 august 1 july 7 june 6 may 3 april 5 march 4 january 2 2013 24 december 2 november 3 october 2 september 2 august 2 july 1 june 2 may 2 april 1 march 2 february 5 2012 5 october 3 september 2 search this blog labels acadia national park 1 adams county ohio 11 allegheny plateau 2 american southwest 4 amphibians 9 anthropology 1 apache county az 1 arachnids 5 arizona 3 arthropods 4 athens county 3 athens county ohio 19 atlantic ocean 2 backpacking 1 beaches 2 beetles 1 behavior 1 bird banding 1 birding 33 birds 26 birds of prey 3 botany 25 butterflies 5 camping 1 caterpillars 6 caves 1 champaign county 1 coastal plain 3 conservation 3 delaware county ohio 1 deserts 2 dragonflies 2 endangered species 1 erie county ohio 1 fact check 1 fairfield county ohio 5 fayette county ohio 1 federally listed species 1 frogs 1 geology 13 greene county ohio 1 herons 1 herpetology 6 herping 20 hiking 8 hocking county ohio 5 hocking hills 4 human history 1 important messages 1 insects 28 lake erie 3 lake erie islands 1 lepidoptera 20 licking county ohio 2 lizards 4 maine 2 mammals 3 marshes 4 moths 16 muskingum county ohio 1 national forests 3 national monuments 2 national parks 5 native americans 1 navajo county az 1 new mexico 1 new york 2 ohio 2 ohio history 5 ohio landmarks 1 ohio university 5 oklahoma 1 orb weavers 1 orchids 6 ornithology 12 ornithology class 8 ottawa county ohio 1 painted desert 1 parks 2 petrified forest national park 1 photography 7 pickaway county 1 pickaway county ohio 15 prairies 8 rare birds 9 rare habitats 1 rare plants 13 rare reptiles 1 rare species 1 rattlesnake 2 reptiles 14 research 3 road tripping 1 ross county ohio 3 salamanders 5 salt marshes 1 science 2 scioto county ohio 2 snakes 11 south carolina 9 south carolina history 1 species account 2 spiders 4 spring 1 state listed 1 swamps 4 tracks 1 travel 3 trees 2 turtles 3 unusual finds 1 updates 8 utah 2 venomous snakes 2 vinton county ohio 2 waterfalls 6 wetlands 6 wildflowers 21 zion national park 2 zoos and wildlife centers 2 popular posts caterpillars of the fuzzy variety witches and bong hill melanistic garter snake the geology of watkins glen state park fact check poisonous canadian caterpillar invades midwest picture window theme powered by blogger