Ohio based Urban Birder takes us through his night of banding nocturnal migrating Saw-whet Owls during the fall of 2007.
My first time ever banding a Saw-whet Owl (brings my banding list up to 85 species.)
Much smaller than a screech-owl....weighing in around 90 grams.
In this picture you can see at least two different generations of feathers. This bird is in its second year (look for the paler brown feathers contrasting with the darker brown feathers).
Researchers now use black lights to light up a certain pigment in feathers that reveal how old they are...makes it easier to see multiple generations of feathers. Dark pink means youngest.
Owl in a net. Researchers bring owls into the nets with audio lures nowadays. When I was a kid volunteering at a local bird observatory, we netted at night during autumn but would only passively catch half a dozen birds in a season. I have a friend in Ontario, Canada who's banding in his family's back yard and has shattered all sorts of previous records and is now up to 276 owls in less than a month!
Aaron is Project Coordinator of the Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas IIwww.ohiobirds.org/obba2/