Lower Columbia Basin Audubon Bird Feeding

Lower Columbia Basin Audubon Society
White-crowned Sparrow Study

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Photographs byJordene Lucas

White-crowned Sparrow Color Banding Study
First banding cycle 2007-2008

Do the same White-crowned Sparrows you befriend and feed each winter return to your backyard year after year? Do the young ones experiencing their first migration find your hospitality to their liking and so "memorize" your address for future reference? In short, do White-crowned Sparrows (WCSP) return to known feeding locations each year?

Our study is designed to run for 5 years and the same three banding locations will be used each year, Richland, Finley, and Benton City. We try to band as many as possible because the recovery rate for small sparrows is extremely low. In addition to banding birds with US Fish and Wildlife Service aluminum bands, we color band them to increase our chances of observing returning birds without having to actually recapture them.

In this first year of our study, we banded intermittently from September, 2007 to April, 2008. During that time 461 birds were banded including:

197 White-crowned Sparrows born in 2007
98 White-crowned Sparrows born before 2007
79 Dark-eyed Juncos
39 American Goldfinches
38 House Finches
3 Yellow-rumped Warblers
2 Song Sparrows
1 each

Wilson’s Warbler
Mourning Dove
Spotted Towhee
Red-winged Blackbird
Harris’s Sparrow.

We were rewarded when birds we banded showed up at 2 other feeder locations this past winter/spring and were noted by the color bands they were wearing.

The first of these locations was along the Yakima River 2 linear miles from the Richland site. An immature bird was noted on December 14, December 22, January 14, March 10, April 14, April 16, and April 24. The bird was in immature plumage when banded so we know that it was born in 2007.

The second location was only 750 feet from the Richland banding site yet only this 1 immature bird was observed on April 10 and 11. That gives us a hint that perhaps the birds of the year wander around to find a feeder they like while the adults know where they are going to spend the winter.

But note that out of a total of 295 banded WCSPs, just 2 birds were observed at feeder locations other than where they were captured and banded!

We are looking forward to this fall migration when we will find out if any of our birds return faithfully to the place they were banded. We will be adding more banded birds to the study population and will let you know the color schemes in case you find a WCSP in your yard that is wearing color bands on its legs. What a surprise that would be!

Nancy and Bill LaFramboise, Bonnie Dunham, Howard Browers, and Ed Rykiel

Key to color bands - 1st Cycle 2007-2008

Location	Immature Hatch Year (HY)	Mature After Hatch Year (AHY)
Benton City (Red Mtn area)	Light Green	Light Blue
Finley (Terrill Rd area)	Hot Pink	Mauve
Richland (Canyon Terrace area)	Red	Black

If you do see a color-banded WCSP, please note the band color, date, time, and location of your observation, and send that information to Nancy LaFramboise who is in charge of record keeping for our study.
Email to: N LaFramboise

Phone: 509/627-3695

Thanks for your help and keep an eye out for color-banded WCSPs.