Friday 20 November 2015

Wilson's Warbler - 5 winters faithful ?

16th November 2015, adult male Wilson's Warbler,... Costa Rica Highlands.
What a great looking bird, with an amazing deep yellow forehead.
We knew from the band that the bird was ringed at least a couple of years ago at a CRBO site. As good practice we photograph all our banding sheets, and hopefully Wendy, though back home in Wales, would be able to help. The conclusion from our records that the bird was banded in 2012 or earlier.
We band between 10 and 33 Wilson's Warbler in a season at Madre Selva. (33 my maximum  in 2014)
This species along with Black-throated Green Warbler, are by far the commonest wintering warblers in the Costa Rica Highlands, so great to prove a site faithful wintering bird.

A return call from the CRBO office both confirmed, and excelled our thoughts !
The bird was first banded on the 6th January 2011 as an adult male. This is the bird's 5th winter as a banded bird, and I guess that this male has likely been site faithful for those five winters or more..
I am still to research the longevity of these tiny 6-7g migrants...
Help with the answer please?

Slate-throated Redstart, another New World Warbler.
This is a resident of slightly lower elevations, and we catch about one per year. This bird our first this year and on our final day...

The track home...
.....from a  fourth year of fantastic banding trips to the Highlands of Costa Rica.

The first of the two Scaled Antpittas.....
The absolutely heart stopping bird of the trip....

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