FLORIDA IS “HEATING UP” JUST AS THE WEATHER IS COOLING OFF12 Nov 09

Perhaps you remember our friend Debbie C. in Stuart, FL, who reported a banded green bird that we tracked back to our banding site on Bald Head Island, NC? Debbie reports that a bird with the same bands has shown up again at her feeder this November, but this time in full color – her “green bird” is a male! The bands on her male allow us to know it is the same bird from last year, and shows the “site fidelity” of the Painted Bunting – they really do tend to return to the same location year after year. So if you are not seeing any Painted Buntings, but you hosted them last year, be patient – they should be on their way back to you! This is a great example of how leg bands help us track our birds from year to year. We have banded over 2,300 Painted Buntings in the last four years, so there are plenty of banded birds out there for you to spot. If you would like to know where and when we banded your Painted Bunting, write to me with the color combination (see the “Banded Birds” set on our Flickr page for photos that might help you identify your own bands) and I will try to find out! -– Here’s some exciting news for Florida PBOT: our own Dr. Jamie Rotenberg is going to be in your state in late December to meet some of you and run a few workshops! Our workshops have been very popular in the Carolinas, and we are excited to expand our public outreach to Florida as well. We hope you will enjoy meeting Dr. Jamie, and learning more about Painted Buntings and PBOT from the researcher who started the program. I’ll post details soon, so keep an eye out for them here. -– Thanks again to all our returning Florida PBOT, and a warm welcome to you new members! We really appreciate all your efforts to help us learn more about Painted Buntings! Leah