Banded Black-faced Spoonbills!

One of the things I look for when birding is the presence of bands (U.S.) or rings (U.K., and perhaps everywhere else?). These indicate that the bird has been captured at least once and fitted with a unique identifying band/ring or combination of metal and colored bands/rings. Today, while birding at the Hiyagon, I saw two Black-faced Spoonbills, always a delight, with bands!  At first, they were not very cooperative and moved their foraging activity about as far away from my viewing spot as possible. Luckily, the spotting scope and point-and-shoot camera saved the day.

The efforts of mangrove restoration at Hiyagon are laudable, but steady influx of trash in this area prevents me from capturing birds in a pristine setting. See the umbrella in the background? Despite the trash, or maybe because of it, this appears to be an excellent area for foraging for wading birds and shorebirds year-round.

Still too far for me to get a good read on the bands, I stayed put. The birds were making their way back in my direction! Other species were foraging in the area. I attempted to include some other species in the photos, as a size comparison and an idea of the diversity of the area. The bird in the bottom left of the photo is a Little Egret and considerably smaller than the spoonbills.

Finally, very close! Reading the bands should be a cinch. Can you make them out?

The spoonbill on the left has a satellite transmitter attached to its back, which I did not notice until they were near to me. I snapped several photos to reference later. I was also hopeful that I would find a website interested in reports of banded Black-faced Spoonbills, in which case I could upload the photos showing these two individuals together on this date in Hiyagon.  The bird fitted with the satellite transmitter had two sets of bands:

I was so excited to see this species again, and two of them, and banded! I was sure to find a website to track these individuals...and I did. The Black-faced Spoonbill Conservation Network maintains a website of information about the species, a complete listing of banded individuals, and an opportunity to submit your sighting if you have one.  It's a good website, and many individuals have been banded and/or fitted with satellite transmitters.

If you don't have time to get to the website, I'll give the background on my two individuals. J18, without the satellite transmitter, was injured in March 2014 in Okinawa, rehabilitated, and released in Okinawa sometime during May 2014. My sighting this month is the first for this individual.  The other bird, S36, was banded and fitted with a transmitter in South Korea as a juvenile in June 2013. My sighting is the first for this individual as well! These and other migratory birds could probably tell some stories about navigation, places visited, habitat selection, and just plain luck. As satellite technology gets better and smaller, the ability to track individuals as they journey between wintering and breeding grounds offers an amazing opportunity to learn more about migration.

I seldom feel like a biologist in my job. Today offered a brief taste, and I gulped it down.

Not to be outdone by a couple of globally endangered species, Yamaneko offered one of her strange poses this evening.