Well it turned out to be less than a week as yesterday a Common Yellowthroat (Geothlypis trichas) was trapped and ringed at the Parque Ambiental in Vilamoura. The bird was found in a mist-net late in the afternoon by John Hodson, part of a team of British ringers led by Fergus Henderson who had arrived in Portugal only that day.
Common Yellowthroat is a common enough bird in North America, breeding in most of the USA and southern Canada; birds from the north of its range are migratory, most spending the winter in Mexico and Central America south as far as Panama. This one, a hatch-year male, has the distinction of being the first passerine from across the Atlantic to be found in mainland Portugal.
Marshes and other wet areas with dense low vegetation are its favoured habitat and the Parque Ambiental is absolutely ideal. Maybe it will be seen again...
3 comments:
Congratulations!
You might want to share your techniques with the rest of the ringing community, particularly since you've foreseen last week you'd be getting N American passerines soon.
It's as well that we didn't predict which North American passerine as Common Yellowthroat certainly wouldn't have been in the top ten!
I have noticed from photos like this (bird in hand) that nearly all ringers "bite their fingernails" - I wonder why that is?
Fabulous bird though - well done.
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