Zoo Stream Friday 9 Jan - First banding for 2015

Ross and I had a very successful session at the stream over the fence from the Zoo this afternoon. The stream at the moment is actually just a series of small puddles but birds find them enticing. We caught a total of 69 birds of 9 species with 59 new and 10 recaps. Surprisingly several birds were found to have already started primary moult.

The first bird caught in 2015 - a Greenfinch recap.

Species caught were - (Recaps in brackets)
Blackbird - 3 (0)
Dunnock - 1 (0)
Chaffinch - 12 (1) the recap was banded at the Prince of Wales Park in March 2013 and is now the oldest recaptured bird banded there.

One of the Chaffinch had started to moult its primaries.

Goldfinch - 14 (1)
Greenfinch - 10 (4) One of the recaps originally banded in Dec 2009 is the oldest Greenfinch we have recaptured in the last couple of years.

We caught our first juvenile Greenfinch for the summer - Juvenile on right compared to adult on left

House Sparrow - 1 (1)
Silvereye - 14 (3) The oldest recap was banded in July 2008 so is a reasonably old bird. Interestingly although banded at the Zoo this is the first time it has been recaptured.

Several of the Silvereye had also started their moult.

Grey Warbler - 1 (0)
Fantail - 3 (0)