Red-winged Blackbird

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Red-winged Blackbird

6/16/2021

Species: Red-winged Blackbird
Most recent capture date: 5/23/21
Sex: female
Age: about 1 year old

Notes: A very unusual species for us to catch! This year Red-winged Blackbirds have been at CCFS in numbers that we haven't seen in at least a decade. This young female had a brood patch, a physical trait that indicates she was breeding. Maybe we will get young Red-winged Blackbirds in a few months!

1 Comment

10/12/2024 02:39:54 pm

Why do you catch the birds and band them? Is there any reason this is a necessary thing to do? What would be the impact if you didn't catch and band them? Is it for species conservation? Or is this a hobby posing as scientific research? I hope that the only purpose of interference with the birds is for their own benefit of survival and conservation. If this research facility is based upon tagging and categorizing species, stop immediately.

You can do this research without interfering with the birds. If a bird is sick or injured should be the only time a human interferes, and even then that can disrupt the natural cycle. You can birdwatch and photograph and categorize birds without catching and banding them.

About

You never know who you'll catch when you're bird banding! We wanted to share that sense of surprise, so we'll be posting here some of the birds we catch in the course of our research. Some birds will be here because they are unusual in some way; others just because they took a nice photo.

Authors

We are biologists who study landbirds in the south San Francisco Bay Area through bird banding at Coyote Creek Field Station. We have extensive training (and official permits) for our bird handling, and we prioritize bird safety over all else.

NOTES FROM THE STATION