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2008/2009 Report - A Yellow Warbler Dendroica petechia Banded in Costa Rica was Recaptured in USA
John & Maureen Woodcock banded a Yellow Warbler Dendroica petechia on Nov. 19 2006 in the mangroves at Playa Grande. They recaptured this bird in the same location on Dec. 11 2006, thereby establishing its residency in Costa Rica during the dry season. This same bird was again recaptured on May 31 2007 at the Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory near Littleton, Arapahoe County, Colorado, USA, thereby confirming its dual citizenship. It is likely that this bird was hatched somewhere near Littleton, Colorado in June or July of 2006 and then embarked on a journey south of approximately 3,700 km to spend the winter in the mangroves at Playa Grande. This bird was recaptured near Littleton, Colorado after making the return journey north of another 3,700 km. This is quite an amazing feat for a bird that weighs only 9 grams. John & Maureen have now banded about 5,000 birds in Costa Rica (600 were Yellow Warblers) but this was the first time that one of their birds was recaptured outside the country. They continue their bird monitoring in Guanacaste from Nov. 2008 to March 2009 and are on the lookout for this amazing bird. John & Maureen were involved in two other recapture events involving Central America: They recaptured a Tennessee Warbler Vermivora peregrina at Playa Grande on November 23 2006 that was banded at Delta Marsh Bird Observatory, Portage La Prairie, Manitboa, Canada on October 10 2006, approximately 4,000 km north. They banded a Tennessee Warbler Vermivora peregrina at Thunder Cape Bird Observatory (http://www.tbfn.net/tcbotbfn.htm) on Sept. 12 2005, near their home in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada that was recaptured at Chriqui, Panama on October 28 2006 4,600 km to the south. John & Maureen (www.saveoursongbirds.org) have been banding birds in Guanacaste since 2001 in collaboration with M.I.N.A.E. See Zeledonia, Boletín de la Asociación Ornitológica de Costa Rica, Volumen 11, número 1 Junio 2007 for a summary. They are major contributors to the Monitoreo de Sobrevivencia Invernal (MoSI) program, coordinated by The Institute for Bird Populations (IBP). The MoSI program is a cooperative effort among researchers, bird banders, and conservationists in Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and South America to operate a network of mist-netting and banding stations to provide data on habitat-specific overwintering survival rates and late winter physical condition for 20+ target Neotropical migratory landbird species, many of which are experiencing significant population declines. The overarching goal of this effort is to apply broad-scale bird monitoring data to formulate conservation strategies for these species on their wintering grounds. These conservation strategies will help reverse population declines and promote increasing and stable populations. See http://www.birdpop.org/MoSI/MoSI.htm for more information on this collaborative project. Data collected by John and his wife Maureen at their four MoSI monitoring stations in Guanacaste, Costa Rica represent a large proportion of the program’s data for several target species, including Prothonotary Warbler (Protonotaria citrea) and Northern Waterthrush (Seiurus noveboracensis). John and Maureen’s work is also critical to the program because it represents the only data contributed from highly sensitive Central American mangrove habitats. In addition to providing critical avian monitoring data, John & Maureen have been the most consistent contributors to a collaborative avian influenza and migratory connectivity study being conducted by IBP and the University of California Los Angeles’ Center for Tropical Studies. More information on this project can be found at http://www.ioe.ucla.edu/ctr/research/AvPath/avian_influenza_main.html.
John Woodcock Feb. 9 2009 Playa Grande, Guanacaste, Costa Rica |