I’m getting behind on my bycatch posts! These birds were all accidentally caught on the last trip, not the current one.
Mountain Chickadee:
I’m so angry at you that my wing and my tail are becoming one! This is my superpower!
A few days ago, we had a very good day: we caught two females! This brings our total banded females up to… five. Females are elusive.
ABBY
The two females we caught aren’t interesting only for their sex, however.
Almost all birds incubate their eggs: keeping them warm while the embryo develops into a chick. In order to transfer heat better from their body to the eggs, many birds develop brood patches (a.k.a. incubation patches). The bird loses feathers from her belly, and the bare skin becomes wrinkly and swollen with fluid. In juncos only the female develops a brood patch, since she does all the incubating, but in species where males also incubate, males can develop brood patches too.
White-crowned Sparrow with a brood patch that is beginning to show edema
Tough Little Birds 