As
reported in Western Bander’s News last year, support from the
Association assisted me in planning a colour banding project in the
Wyndham area to gather data on some of the less-known finches of the
Kimberley region.
In
summary, the results are as follows:
·
Star
Finch are remarkably easy to catch. Put up a net near where they roost
at night or where they drink at midday and the whole flock flies in like
sheep (sorry – I can’t think of a bird analogy)
·
Despite
some hints from a long-retired finch catcher, I have yet to learn what
the distribution of Pictorella Mannikin in the area is. A few
individuals were caught, but finding large flocks and then finding where
those large flocks drink was beyond the time available. Having seen huge
flocks in the drier country on Mornington station, I guess the density
in the Wyndham area is not high
·
I
never saw a Yellow-rumped Mannikin near any of my banding sites.
·
I was
refused permission to band Masked Finch. It is already on Macquarie
University’s study list for the area, and ABBBS didn’t want two
projects on the same bird. In fact Macquarie are not currently studying
Masked Finch, but they didn’t want to give up their option.
So,
this article is about banding Star Finch. The data in the table
following reveals a number of successes.
For example:
·
The
21% retrap rate, where many juveniles were retrapped twice and several 3
or 4 times, provided excellent data on the progress of juvenile moult.
Previously only 125 recoveries have been made nationally, so the 307
records from this project offer great potential for new understandings.
Interestingly, none of the juveniles banded in May that were retrapped
in September had moulted into adult plumage. Unlike some finch species
where juveniles can breed in the same season they are born, for example
the Long-tailed Finch being studied in the Wyndham area, Star Finch seem
to take their progress to adulthood more slowly.
·
The
previous record for Star Finch movement on the ABBS website was 4km. The
51 movements to date in this project revealed the mobility of the Star
Finch population. Not only do Star Finch move along the King River Road
to use different water points on different days or at different times of
the day, their sphere of interest is much wider. Two juveniles
originally banded on the King River Road flew over 15km and over a range
of hills to be retrapped at a feeding site near Parry Creek Farm; even
more astonishingly one flew back and was retrapped again on the King
River Road. Later in the season, birds that had been caught whilst
feeding and drinking on the Wyndham Town Oval were retrapped out of town
on the King River Road. The Shire policy of keeping the Oval grass
short, and therefore seedless, from June onwards, seemed to be the
trigger for this movement. In September several birds banded elsewhere
were attracted to the town Cemetery by the sprinkler that was switched
on there mid morning.
|
In
2009 banding probably started a little late.
Several females in the first catch had brood patches, but
no birds in subsequent catches did.
Because of the early end to the Wet in Wyndham, the cane
grass that provides easy habitat to trap Star Finch in along the
sides of roads and creeks dried up rather quickly, so
opportunities for catching at some sites was missed, around the
sewerage works in the town being a good example.
My
plan for next year is to chose 3 new cohort band colours and begin
banding again as soon as there’s been at least one month of good
rain. This year I found blue, red and yellow worked well – all
are easy to see in the field.
|
The ‘Star’ of the project
|
The
choice for next year is yet to be made: purple and green are definite,
but the last colour is yet to be decided.
If you are likely to be in Wyndham I’d be happy to point you to
some favourite finch spots. And
if I’m there too, I can always use a hand with banding the sheep.
Table
1: Summary of Star Finch
data from the Wyndham banding project in 2009
