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On the Cape-Sable
Sparrow Project, we are looking at the effect of fire on the demographics
of the sparrow over a five year period. You’ll notice the color bands on
its legs, the split black/white band indicates that it’s a 2002 adult.
All juveniles banded this year, and adults next year will have a split
red/white band it its place, and some other split band the following year,
etc. This will enable us to age the birds with a single glance. The Aluminum
band contains a unique number that is reported to the U.S. Banding Lab
for their records, and allows for that bird to be identified if found dead
or recaptured (more likely in migratory species). On the other leg you’ll
see two color bands, in this case, Red over Red. This identifies the individual
bird for us while we’re in the field. Being able to identify individuals
allows us to map their territories (following from song perch to song perch),
identify mate choices, determine maternal and paternal relationships of
juveniles, and recognize birds that have disappeared from the study area,
etc., etc…
The pictures were taken with a Coolpix 990 digital camera through
a Leica Televid APO 77 spotting scope (except for the nest picture, it
was camera-only). They were then post-processed in Photoshop.
All images Copyright David La Puma 2002
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