One less Redpoll Bird Band

I found a dead bird outside yesterday. It was one of the Common Redpolls that have been so numerous around the feeders. We’ve had a few of them (and the Evening Grosbeaks, Chickadees, Nuthatches, and Mourning Doves) bang into the windows from time to time as they attempt to take a shortcut through the Aerie. Sometimes they lay stunned on the ground or deck for a short time before they fly off. Sometimes they don’t. I’ve removed about 5 or 6 tiny bodies from the yard. (The neighbors’ semi-feral cats may have accounted for an equal number although that’s just a guess. I’ve actually seen them take 3 small birds.)

This one—the one I found yesterday—was different. It wore a bracelet. There, around its tiny ankle was a bird band with a series of numbers attached. I participated in a small bird-banding exercise, many, many years ago and I tagged my share of white-footed deer mice when doing my field research for my Master’s Degree, so I have an inkling of how important that little band might be to someone.

I placed the bird in a Zip-Loc bag and placed it in the freezer while I went on-line to find out to whom I should report my recovered band. Interestingly, the very short search using ask.com produced the answer in the first link. The USGS’s Patuxent Wildlife Research Center want to know all about it. They even have a place on line where you can enter the numbers on the band, which is, like, totally cool since postage would cost me 41 cents.

I entered my information as to the ID numbers and location of the find and got back, instantly, a message telling me that this bird had been banded on April 14, 2002 in Quebec. The little guy was six years old! A freakin’ Methuselah of the Redpoll world! Unfortunately, whoever put the band on my little buddy IDed the bird as a Hoary Redpoll, a very similar species but with some very distinctive characteristics that the bird in my hand lacked.

Receiving an email from the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center thanking me for my report, I emailed back with the information that I believed this bird to have been misidentified. (And suggesting that they could be a wee bit more specific as to where in Quebec the bird was banded, ‘cause, you know, it’s a pretty big Province, eh?)

Anyway, there’s an Ecology/Biology professor at Mansfield University who wishes to add my little guy to their collection so he’s still in the freezer until we can make arrangements to meet. (You think it would be okay for me to be seen handing over a small glassine bag to a college prof?)

[On a side note, Terry, wondered way the USGS should be doing this instead of the Fish and Wildlife folks. I just looked at her and reminded her she was the one who worked for the Federal Gov’t for 32 years, not me, so why is she asking such a silly question?]