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Posted On: July 27th 2024, 11:02 pm
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eight of nine weeks down this season and I’ve yet to share a single bird—proof of the near-vacuum that is & has been & will be Montana summer.
Lazuli Buntings (Passerina amoena, LAZB) are a staple at two of our banding sites / imbuing smoked-out skies with buzzy, loping songs that drone into late midday hours like cicadas.
compared here are the wings of a second-year (SY) & after-second-year (ASY) LAZB [2]. in the SY bird, all secondary coverts (l.covs, m.covs, g.covs combined) have been replaced in the pre-formative (PF) molt [3], with the new-to-me exception (!!) of the thumb-sized patch just above the bird’s shoulders [5]. the loose, brown p.covs are also retained juvenile: feathers this bird has worn since nest-bound last summer. within the primaries, we see an eccentric limit [4]: the darker, blue-tinted pp4-9 contrasting the brown, juvenile pp1-3. finally, all three tertials (ss7-9) & s6 have been replaced in the PF.
generous with their gem-tones & apparent molt limits, LAZB are straightforward to age—yet their patterns of replacement are actually a skosh complicated amongst North American songbirds.
hatching-year (HY) LAZB undergo not only an incomplete, eccentric formative molt in their first fall, but also—in some individuals—an inserted, limited body molt on the summer grounds before the typical formative molt (PF) even begins, called a pre-auxillary molt (PFa). the scattered body feathers replaced by HY LAZB in the PFa will be replaced a second time, sometimes just weeks later, during the true PF… so, individuals can wear up to 3 plumages in just their first few months of life!
a classic “molt migrant,” a LAZB’s PF replacement begins on the journey to & once arriving on molting specific stopover sites in the monsoon region of the N. American southwest.
// everywhere I’ve banded, I’ve had a bunting / to narrate my breath & sweat & riotous cheer / to capture my naïve heart with their color-block extremism. / it’s not our first meeting but this time they sound out belonging.
[All banding is conducted under a federally authorized permit issued by the USGS Bird Banding Lab.]
#bb_global
Lazuli Buntings (Passerina amoena, LAZB) are a staple at two of our banding sites / imbuing smoked-out skies with buzzy, loping songs that drone into late midday hours like cicadas.
compared here are the wings of a second-year (SY) & after-second-year (ASY) LAZB [2]. in the SY bird, all secondary coverts (l.covs, m.covs, g.covs combined) have been replaced in the pre-formative (PF) molt [3], with the new-to-me exception (!!) of the thumb-sized patch just above the bird’s shoulders [5]. the loose, brown p.covs are also retained juvenile: feathers this bird has worn since nest-bound last summer. within the primaries, we see an eccentric limit [4]: the darker, blue-tinted pp4-9 contrasting the brown, juvenile pp1-3. finally, all three tertials (ss7-9) & s6 have been replaced in the PF.
generous with their gem-tones & apparent molt limits, LAZB are straightforward to age—yet their patterns of replacement are actually a skosh complicated amongst North American songbirds.
hatching-year (HY) LAZB undergo not only an incomplete, eccentric formative molt in their first fall, but also—in some individuals—an inserted, limited body molt on the summer grounds before the typical formative molt (PF) even begins, called a pre-auxillary molt (PFa). the scattered body feathers replaced by HY LAZB in the PFa will be replaced a second time, sometimes just weeks later, during the true PF… so, individuals can wear up to 3 plumages in just their first few months of life!
a classic “molt migrant,” a LAZB’s PF replacement begins on the journey to & once arriving on molting specific stopover sites in the monsoon region of the N. American southwest.
// everywhere I’ve banded, I’ve had a bunting / to narrate my breath & sweat & riotous cheer / to capture my naïve heart with their color-block extremism. / it’s not our first meeting but this time they sound out belonging.
[All banding is conducted under a federally authorized permit issued by the USGS Bird Banding Lab.]
#bb_global
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