Summer Banding Summary – June-July 2026

September 30, 2026

This summary was compiled by Point Blue’s Palomarin Banding Apprentices Peter Budko, Yuna Chitea, and Kaia Hilgendorf-Roost with help from Larissa Babicz, Banding Supervisor.

Exciting Captures and Observations:

One of our most exciting captures this season was a lovely Band-tailed Pigeon. Although these birds are very common around Palo, serenading us with a song that sounds like someone repeatedly saying, “Oh, no!”, they are more likely to tear a hole in a net than to get caught in one, as they are quite strong and large! Every now and then, banders get lucky and catch one of these stunning birds in the mist nets.

July was an unseasonably slow month at the Palomarin Field Station. On one such slow day, July 16th, one of the few birds we caught was a MacGillivray’s warbler, the second caught for the spring/summer season – turning the slow day into an exciting one! These birds have white arcs around their eyes, a gray head, and a yellow belly.

 

On June 11th, we caught a female Tree Swallow at the Palomarin Field Station. Few of our nets are located in areas where swallows can be caught easily, so this was a pleasant surprise! Male Tree Swallows are beautifully iridescent, with shiny bluish feathers dazzling observers. Females are typically a little less bright and can even be a little brown-ish in color, though they do show some iridescence, as well. They can be tricky to tell apart from Violet-green Swallows in flight, but they lack the white patches on the sides of the rump that are typically quite visible in Violet-green Swallows.

 

We caught a handful of Black-headed Grosbeaks this summer, and they were always an exciting, if bitey, capture. On June 2nd at our banding site at Muddy Hollow in the Point Reyes National Seashore, we caught two males at the same time. It was interesting to see the side-by-side comparison of two different ages. Banders can often tell the general age of a bird based on feather characteristics, and grosbeaks can be quite obvious! In the picture below, the bird with the mixed brown and black feathers in the wing is a bird that hatched last year. The other bird is at least a year older and looks quite different!

 

Another exciting capture at the Palomarin Field Station was the first Hermit Warbler of the season. This bird was captured on June 13th at the top of our net trail and was seen with a brood patch, indicating that it was likely breeding somewhere in the area. Compared to the similar-looking Townsend’s Warbler (which does not breed at the Palomarin Field Station), the Hermit Warbler is exclusively yellow on the head and has a plain white belly with no streaking. It was a wonderful surprise to catch one without previously knowing if there were any nearby. It was also a lifer (first time seeing a particular species) for one of the apprentices!

 

At our Palo Grid Uppers site located just up the hill from the Palomarin Field Station, everyone was excited to see a Cooper’s Hawk that was captured in one of our nets on June 24th! This hawk likely hatched the previous year as it was still in its brown, streaky plumage and had light-colored eyes. Young Cooper’s Hawks have yellow eyes that slowly transition to orange and then red as they get older. Later on, this bird will take on a different look with a dark cap on the head, dark gray back, and an orange, barred underside.

 

As the birds that hatched this year get older and become more independent in the coming months, some will lose their drab juvenile plumage in exchange for their more recognizable adult plumage. Young Wilson’s Warblers are often a dull olive color when they first leave the nest, but they quickly replace those feathers to look more like their adult counterparts – bright yellow with a black cap. (Although remarkably, some have already started molting into this yellow plumage while in the nest!) Banders often catch birds that are between plumages and showing characteristics of both juveniles and adults, as was the case for this young warbler who was still growing its crown feathers!

 

While banding at Pine Gulch, our banding site at the Bolinas Lagoon Preserve, our two banding technicians caught a bird that took some time to identify! The overall shape and bill indicated that it was a wren, but because it was a young bird that happened to be growing some new feathers, it didn’t look quite right for any of our common species. After some discussion, they determined that it was a Marsh Wren! This species is common at in the wetland surrounding the banding station, but we catch them so infrequently that they’re always considered a special treat.

Apprentices settled into a nice banding rhythm during the busy weeks of summer when bird numbers reached their peak. All in all, it was a very rewarding summer season with many exciting captures at Palomarin and our other nearby banding sites.

Let’s Do the Numbers:

In 55 days (5403 net hours) of mist-netting at Palomarin in June and July, we captured 385 new birds and recaptured 216 previously banded birds. A total of 601 birds of 33 species were caught. Approximately 11 birds were caught per banding day.

At our other West Marin banding sites, we captured 437 new birds and recaptured 246 previously banded birds. A total of 683 birds of 33 species were caught over 25 banding days in June and July (1251 net hours), an average of approximately 27 birds per day.

The highest capture rates at Palomarin and our other West Marin banding sites were on June 23rd at Palomarin with 26 birds, and June 2nd at Muddy Hollow Trailhead (Point Reyes National Seashore), with 66 birds.

At Palomarin, the following species were caught in the highest numbers: Swainson’s Thrush (100), Wilson’s Warbler (71), Chestnut-backed Chickadee (52), Allen’s Hummingbird (46), and Brown Creeper (45).

Across all our other west Marin banding sites, the highest numbers of captures by species were: Swainson’s Thrush (183), Song Sparrow (155), Wilson’s Warbler (102), Wrentit (41), and Pacific Wren (21).

About these Summaries:

Point Blue apprentices and staff at our Palomarin Field Station share these blog posts in an effort to further engage the public in our science. We are grateful to our partners at the Point Reyes National Seashore, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and Marin County Parks, and to our surrounding Bolinas and West Marin County community and our funders for their support of our work.

Early-career bird banders are part of a rigorous training program at Point Blue’s Palomarin Field Station, where they learn to capture birds safely using mist nets and record data on each bird caught. The information collected allows us to better understand how populations of birds are doing and in turn gives us insight into the health of the systems we research. Learn more about our seasonal apprenticeships by visiting the careers page on our website.

All banding, marking, and sampling is being conducted under a federally authorized Bird Banding Permit issued by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Bird Banding Laboratory.

Our Palomarin Field Station is open to the public. Consider visiting us! Learn how on our contact & visit us web page.