Operating one of the busiest banding stations in North America, the BSBO
research team at Navarre Marsh is accustomed to surprises. Every morning
during migration, the banding team opens the nets with the possibility that
the next bird could teach us something new.
That was the case on a quiet August morning that brought a very special
bird:
*It had already been banded, and the band wasn’t new. ***
After searching through banding records, the team discovered that this
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher was originally banded by our team in Navarre
Marsh in May 2018 as an after-hatching year bird. This means that it had
already been hatched by 2017, making it at least nine years old when it
returned to our nets in August 2026. This changed everything! The previous
North American Bird Banding Program longevity record for a Yellow-bellied
Flycatcher was 6 years 0 months. This bird had surpassed that record by
more than three years.
T*his tiny traveler is the oldest banded Yellow-bellied Flycatcher ever
recorded!*
*"A bird that could fit in the palm of your hand has traveled more than
one-fifth the distance from the Earth to the moon."*
Yellow-bellied Flycatchers are long-distance migrants that breed across the
boreal forests of Canada and the northern United States before heading
south to overwinter in Mexico and Central America. Even more astonishingly,
they only weigh 10 grams, or two nickels. If we imagine this bird spending
its summers somewhere in the northern reaches of its breeding range, then
traveling to winter in Central America, and making this journey twice each
year, this tiny bird has traveled more than 50,000 miles in its nine years.
A bird that could fit in the palm of your hand has traveled more than
one-fifth the distance from the Earth to the moon.
And somehow along the way, this little flycatcher chose Navarre Marsh as
one of its stopping places – not once, but twice.
Bird banding gives us a way to turn a fleeting encounter into a story that
can unfold over years, or even almost a decade. At Navarre Marsh, we band
thousands of birds during migration, and only a small fraction are ever
recaptured. For this particular bird to have been caught, banded, and
released, to have survived the perils of migration year after year, and to
have found its way back into our nets *again* nearly a decade later is an
extraordinary chain of events.
*The band placed on this bird by the BSBO staff NINE years ago! Band
#2900-00286*
*Certificate from USGS showing the original banding information. If you
find and report a banded bird, you will receive one of these certificates
too!*
This is why we keep the nets open, why our banding team gets up before
sunrise, why our dedicated volunteers show up.
*It’s why your support matters.*
Discoveries like this don't happen because of one remarkable bird alone.
They happen because of years of consistent research, careful
record-keeping, dedicated people, and protected habitat.
*They happen because of people like YOU. *
Behind every net check, every data point, and every bird we band, there are
supporters like you standing with us.
We hope you'll renew your support today with a donation to help pay our
staff or by sponsoring a mist net, our most important tool for banding.
