Spring migration banding at Tishomingo National Wildlife Refuge, Johnston County, Oklahoma, 2004-2007

Abstract

We studied use of small habitat fragments by migrant and resident songbirds at the Tishomingo National Wildlife Refuge (TNWR) from 2004 to 2007. We banded birds at 6 study sites in bottomland hardwood forests, upland hardwood forests, wetland scrub-shrub, and upland scrub-shrub habitats. We logged 2,420 mist net hours with an average of 0.4 birds captured/mist net hour. We had 765 total captures of 53 species including unbanded and recaptured birds. Thirty Nearctic-Neotropical and 10 Nearctic-Nearctic migrant species were banded. Ten species were added to the TNWR checklist, and 5 species were confirmed as nesting at TNWR that were not previously documented. We confirmed nesting of 22 species previously not documented in Johnston County. We report new data on age and sex ratios of migrant and resident songbirds at TNWR.