BANDED BIRD FOREIGN ENCOUNTERS
This page includes records for birds banded at Hilton Pond North and encountered elsewhere, as well as birds banded elsewhere and recaptured here. Anyone who finds a banded bird should report it to the federal Bird Banding Laboratory (BBL) via reportband.gov for details about who banded it, where, and when. This information exchange is invaluable in helping science learn about bird migration, longevity, site fidelity, and population dynamics.
A Purple Finch was banded (1761-57982) on 05 April 2025 at Hilton Pond North as an after-hatch year brown individual of unknown sex. It was found dead at a feeder by Kathy Repp in Manistique MI, still brown, on 20 August 2026; by that date she was an after-second-year female. (A male PUFI would have been red at that age.) The encounter was 700 straight-line miles from our North Carolina banding site. The PUFI was likely on or near her breeding grounds in Michigan or neighboring Canada.
All photos, videos, maps, charts, drawings, and text © Hilton Pond North
All photos, videos, maps, charts, drawings, and text © Hilton Pond North
Through August 2026, two birds—both Purple Finches— were banded elsewhere and encountered at Hilton Pond North. The first (2881-03078), a red after-second-year male, was trapped here on 14 April 2024. The federal Bird Banding Laboratory (BBL) connected us with Gordon Howard, who banded the PUFI two months earlier (23 February) at Seneca SC, about 152 straight-line miles southwest of here. We suspect this bird, upon release here, was headed much further northeast—possibly to breeding grounds in New England or the boreal forests of eastern Canada.
We mist netted a brown Purple Finch (3141-35019) on 14 January 2026 and learned from the BBL it had been banded as after-hatch-year at Hilliardton Marsh Research & Education Centre, Ontario about a year-and-a-half earlier on 08 August 2024, by or under supervision of Bruce Murphy. It was banded about 780 straight-line miles almost due north of Hilton Pond North. Since the bird was brown when banded and still brown at recapture it was classified as an after-third-year female. She likely was banded on or near her breeding grounds and may have made a roundtrip migration a couple of times.
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