Wednesday, October 17, 2018

Tracking the Movements of Winged Rainbows – Painted Buntings

Painted Bunting male extraordinaire, photographed by Milton Hobbs.



Where do Painted Buntings go during winter? Painted Bunting populations are declining and biologists are anxious to learn where in the tropics they spend the winter so they can better assess conservation opportunities. To help unravel the mystery of Painted Buntings’ winter whereabouts, biologists with Audubon South Carolina, in partnership with the Smithsonian, are outfitting some buntings with geolocator backpacks.

The tiny geolocators record sunrise and sunset times wherever the bird is, allowing scientists to use this information to determine roughly when where the birds travel. The challenge, though, is that to download the data from the geolocator, the geo-outfitted buntings must be recaptured. So, after capturing the buntings at South Carolina nesting sites this year, and banding and outfitting the buntings with geolocators, the biologists will return next spring and try to recapture the same birds back on (or near) their nesting territories.

Watch the fascinating video about this project at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WkuD0jXTaU