Hi,

We banded our first juvenile Dark-eyed Junco this morning. A male who
followed a territorial male into the net.

It was behavior we have seen before without catching a second bird.  The
breeding males are very dark slate gray. They come to the decoy and
aggressively go after it.  In other instances as today we have observed
other birds accompanying the aggressive breeding male and staying close
by.

Today we had three birds near the decoy.  One was high and behaving
aggressively.  One was on the ground and passive.  The third was hanging
well back and not well observed.

When the territorial male went into the net the bird on the ground stayed
right there.  I approached the net and the bird remained allowing me to get
very close (within a few feet).  He went under the net and then got caught
coming back toward me from the other side.

The measurements of the non aggressive bird showed it to have a smaller
beak and much shorter wing cord than the dark territorial male.
Additionally this bird was much lighter gray and still showed a slight bit
of streaking in the breast feathers.

We have now color banded 23 birds in 5 locations around Holden and
Kirtland.  This was a new location today because we were doing a program
for the education department to demonstrate our research and needed to be
within easy walking distance of the visitor center.


Haans

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