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The Louisiana Waterthrush (pinnacle of avian evolution) nest we found last week fledged three youngin’s yesterday – there was one unhatched egg left in the nest. With a great deal of luck (and a little skill) we were able to capture and band both parents and all three fledglings on the same day.

The nest was in a stream bank on an intermittent tributary to a somewhat larger intermittent tributary. We placed two nets across two of these reaches, each about 15m from the nest itself. The trick is to get the adults bringing food to the nest or leaving to get more food after a delivery. They visit the nest with beakfuls of stonefly and mayfly larvae, tadpoles, water spiders, etc., about every 10 minutes. When the get close to the nest they run along the ground, so nets set too close to the nest will never catch the adults.

The nest site – follow the trail of leaves.

The parents were wary while feeding, as a few crows were hanging around in the treetops. Eventually, though, we nabbed the female. Later we pulled the fledglings from the nest to band them and then tried (in vain) to get them to stay back in the nest when we were done. We got the male a little while later by playing a couple of bursts of waterthrush song.

beautiful female waterthrush

female’s brood patch – area of dropped feathers from the breast that aids in heat transfer to eggs and young during incubation and brooding.

lousy picture of squirmy fledgling

portrait of a haggard waterthrush father – worn out by fledgling care and territory defense

I’ve been informally studying waterthrushes in Oklahoma for a few years now. It looks as though their breeding densities in cross timbers forests are comparable to those of Appalachian forests in the core of their range. Yesterday’s banding effort could help me establish information related to site fidelity – to what degree do the adult birds return to the same territories to breed in subsequent years? Also, philopatry (the return of fledglings to their natal area) is of interest to me. Finally, banding can help me establish age structures – banding has revealed some individuals of this species live in excess of 10 years in the wild!