First Male Towhee Banded!

Today Laura and I caught and banded our first male towhee of the season! I had heard him calling and singing earlier in N2 right next to the tennis center, so we decided to set up a net right in the manicured/landscape type area in front of the tennis center. There is no ground cover whatsoever there, just mulch, and a few planted bushes and trees. Luckily a few tennis center members were only just starting to show up, so we didn’t have any curious bystanders. The best part is that we didn’t even seem to need Gus. Gus is our taxidermied male towhee that we use along with a towhee song playback to convince the unbanded male that his territory is being invaded and that he needs to fly around (into our nets!) to find and potentially attack the intruder. I have looked everywhere, but I have not been able to find Gus anywhere in my apartment or office, so I was hoping that we can get by with just the playback this season. A minute or so after setting up the net, starting the song playback, and finding our hiding places, the unbanded male arrived and perched on top of the umbrella tree next to the net. At first he just flew over the net, and we had to move the speaker back and forth to the other side of the net to persuade the male to fly towards the speaker (and the net!). After doing this a couple times he flew into the net. He didn’t seem to need the extra visual aid of Gus to attract him to the net, The speaker seemed to be enough. We banded him GABR.

Next we tried to catch the unbanded male down on Rainbow Trail who I had seen singing next to Rainbow Road a few days ago. We set up the net right along the trail. Two male towhees responded to the playback and one flew down right next to the speaker and hopped around doing the wing-raising display! Unfortunately we ended up accidentally catching YGAN (a male banded last year) and not the unbanded male that I had seen there previously. YGAN had approached the net from the north, while the unbanded male had approached the net from the south. We will set up the net further to the south next time to try to catch that unbanded male.

Later today I saw an unbanded male and female calling and foraging in Q16, near the school playground. In M2 ORBA (female) was calling and flying around with two unidentified males. In N9 (west) RRAP (male) was foraging and calling with an unbanded female. A few days ago I thought I saw RRAP down in the south part of the park, but today I saw his bands very clearly and he seems to have a female. In the south part of R9 BABY (male) was calling agitatedly. I still have not seen BABY with a female. Either he hasn’t found a mate yet or she is off on a nest somewhere incubating!

In X11 (technically in a backyard near the fence) an unknown male was singing and ORPA (female) was foraging nearby. They both then flew towards X12. In X13, near one of the footpaths, OBAN (male) was calling with - - A- (female, probably PORA, OBAN’s mate last year). They both flew into a large tree in the backyard bordering OBAN’s territory.

In N5 (east) BBAG (male) and Gimpy (-Y-A, female) were foraging and calling.