Earlier this year, a bird bander at the Bent of the River Audubon Center made an impressive find: a Blue-winged Warbler who was at least 11 years old!
Bird banding is an important tool in conservation. Licensed professionals set up “mist nets” to temporarily capture birds flying through an area. After being retrieved from the gentle nets, captured birds are identified, measured, and banded.
At the Bent, regular banding sessions throughout the spring and fall allow their staff to better understand how the center’s varied habitat is being used, and by who.
This particular Blue-winged Warbler is a repeat customer at the center’s banding site. It was even originally banded there in 2016 as an “after second year” bird, meaning that our bander was able to determine it had hatched at least two years prior.
In 2019 and then 2022 it was captured again. Notably, in both years it showed signs of breeding!
“The return of [this warbler] to the Bent speaks to the quality of habitat at the sanctuary,” explains Corrie Folsom-O’Keefe, Audubon Connecticut’s director of bird conservation, and the bander who made this exciting find. “This bird has used the early-successional cedar fields at the Bent as nesting habitat during at least four springs and summers of its life.”
Early successional habitat is the only habitat that Blue-winged Warblers nest in. It’s also hard to find in Connecticut, where it makes up less than 5 percent of the state’s landscape.
“Maintaining this habitat type is a core part of the conservation work we do at the Bent,” says Glen Somogie, the center’s land manager. Throughout the year, he and other staff engage in invasive plant removal, selective mowing, and other techniques key to conserving the early successional habitat in the center’s “Cedar Fields”.
“If it weren’t for the management actions taken by [Audubon staff] over the winter months, this bird, and many others, would not continue to find suitable habitat,” says Folsom-O’Keefe.
Regular bird banding, like what we do at the Bent, helps us better understand which birds are using this habitat, and how. Taking this information into account allows us to make management decisions that best benefit the birds that rely on the habitat we provide.
And as for capturing this impressively old Blue-winged Warbler?
“It’s an incredible sign that this management is working,” says Robin Ladouceur, center director for the Bent of the River Audubon Center.
