Matt et al.-- I do not recall ever recapturing a siskin or a redpoll in a subsequent year from banding. None of my redpolls were ever found elsewhere, although I am aware of a South Dakota-banded redpoll being recovered in Connecticut. I have had South Dakota siskins recaptured in California and Maryland.
In South Dakota, I once caught someone else's goldfinch banded in southeastern Colorado. One of my Minnesota goldfinches was recovered in west-central Saskatchewan. I am pretty sure I have recovered goldfinches banded locally after a year, but I would have to check on that. dan On Sun, Mar 10, 2013 at 3:17 PM, Matt Dufort <[email protected]> wrote: > I find these regional and local movements of finches fascinating. The hard > part is that the tools we have to track those movements don't work well for > these species. To figure out what they're really doing, we need to be able > to follow individual birds, and that's nearly impossible for small, nomadic > bids. Satellite transmitters are too big for most of the finches, and these > new geolocators that are illuminating lots of bird movements require > recapturing the birds to get the data. We could track them with radio > transmitters, but those have limited range. Banding recoveries are probably > our best bet, but they're rare enough that we don't get a very complete > picture. So it may be a while before we get a thorough understanding of > finch movements. > > Dan, did you ever recapture birds from previous years? I'm really curious > how often birds come back to the same wintering areas. > > We know that many finches move around based on regional availability of > food, to the point that there's an annual forecast of those movements for > the northeast ( > http://10000birds.com/winter-finch-forecast-for-2012-2013.htm). > I think this food-based nomadic movement is very true for siskins and > redpolls, and might be true on a smaller scale for goldfinches. Several > years ago, siskins completely disappeared from Washington state for close > to a year. People started worrying that there had been a big die-off. Then, > they reappeared as mysteriously as they'd gone, and I'm not sure if anyone > knows where they went during that time. > > As a final note, there are a ton of bird species in Australia that wander > around from season to season and year to year, depending on where water and > food are available. There are a few groups of birds that we know do that in > North America (owls, finches), but I wonder how much of it occurs with > other species (diurnal raptors, for example). > > So much we still have to learn. > > Matt Dufort > Minneapolis > > > On Sun, Mar 10, 2013 at 2:15 PM, Steve Weston <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > We have about six to twelve Goldfinches regularly coming to the sunflower > > feeders, along with about the same number of House Finches. Pine Siskins > > come in for short periods of time, but I can often hear them in the tree > > tops. It has seemed like only two to four were around most of the > winter, > > but numbers appear to be higher now with about six at the bird bath and > > feeder yesterday at a time. Greater numbers of finches are in the > treetops > > and may be coming to neighboring feeders. Redpolls have enjoyed my > > neighbor's feeder much more than mine. Nobody has interest in my thistle > > seed. > > > > > > On Sat, Mar 9, 2013 at 12:01 PM, dan&erika <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > Betsy and All-- > > > > > > I banded great numbers of goldfinches, redpolls, and siskins for almost > > 30 > > > years in South Dakota. At first it appeared that goldfinches were > > replaced > > > by siskins, which in turn were replaced by redpolls--depending on the > > > winter. As time passed, however, I came to agree with Betsy Beneke. I > > > concluded that these winter finch cycles are random and unpredictable. > > Some > > > winters I banded numbers of all three species. This winter, here in > > > Minnesota, we have many siskins and redpolls but very few goldfinches. > > > > > > dan > > > > > > > > > On Fri, Mar 8, 2013 at 7:23 AM, Betsy Beneke <[email protected]> > > > wrote: > > > > > > > I'm still feeding anywhere from 50 to 125 common redpo > > > > Erika, and all, > > > > > > > > I'm still feeding anywhere from 50 to 125 common redpolls at my house > > > east > > > > of St. Cloud every day. No pine siskins or goldfinches all winter. > > > > > > > > At Sherburne Refuge, I've had scattered goldfinches all winter - no > > > > regulars - there are 2-6 birds one or two days a week. No siskins. > > > Still > > > > seeing a couple of large flocks of redpolls on the east side of the > > > refuge, > > > > but I haven't had a single one at my bird feeder at HQ all winter. > > Guess > > > > they just never found me. > > > > > > > > I've found in my many years of feeding birds in MN that goldfinches > and > > > > pine siskins are always roaming, you can never count on them from one > > > year > > > > or even season to the next. > > > > > > > > Betsy Beneke > > > > > > > > ---- > > > > Join or Leave mou-net: > http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net > > > > Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > > Dan or Erika Tallman > > > Northfield, Minnesota > > > [email protected] > > > > > > http://sites.google.com/site/tallmanorum > > > http://dantallmansbirdblog.blogspot.com > > > http://picasaweb.google.com/danerika > > > > > > The White Album: Portraits of Minnesota > > > Birds< > > > > > > http://www.blurb.com/b/3992062-the-white-album-portraits-of-minnesota-birds-dan-t > > > > > > > Two Years Among the Odonates < > > > http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/3467428> > > > > > > ".... the best shod travel with wet feet...Beware of all enterprises > that > > > require new clothes ....”—H. D. Thoreau; "Back off, man. I'm a > > > scientist."—Dr. Peter Venkman > > > > > > ---- > > > Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net > > > Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > Steve Weston > > On Quigley Lake in Eagan, MN > > [email protected] > > > > ---- > > Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net > > Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html > > > > ---- > Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net > Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html > -- Dan or Erika Tallman Northfield, Minnesota [email protected] http://sites.google.com/site/tallmanorum http://dantallmansbirdblog.blogspot.com http://picasaweb.google.com/danerika The White Album: Portraits of Minnesota Birds<http://www.blurb.com/b/3992062-the-white-album-portraits-of-minnesota-birds-dan-t> Two Years Among the Odonates <http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/3467428> ".... the best shod travel with wet feet...Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes ....”—H. D. Thoreau; "Back off, man. I'm a scientist."—Dr. Peter Venkman ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
