Queentown - an update

With good weather and not too many chores I have managed to get some banding in most days. Catches varied between 8 and 50. The lower days were when I attempted to catch some of the Bellbirds that inhabit scrubby gullies at the side of the property.  Unfortunately, no Bellbirds and very little else. So far I have banded 169 birds of 9 species and made 18 recaptures.

Total birds caught are - (recaps in brackets)
Blackbird - 13 (1)
Song Thrush - 8
Starling - 2

The first Starling caught

Dunnock - 8 (2)
Chaffinch - 30 (2) Males outnumber females 2 to 1 - 20 M 10 F
Goldfinch - 4 -
House Sparrow 50 (2) Also more males than females 32 M 18 F
Yellowhammer - 4 (1)
Silvereye - 50 (10) The Silvereyes down here appear to have longer wings than those in Wellington.

One of the Silvereye was moulting head feathers.