Gunlock » Wildlife biologist Keith Day had his hands full. He was banding, measuring and assessing the condition of a summer tanager, a fiery-red migratory bird snagged in mid-flight as part of an annual inventory of Utah's songbirds.
The cantankerous bird was one of several netted Friday along the sandy banks of the Santa Clara river in Washington County. The state Division of Wildlife Resources is managing the event, and the Santa Clara is one of five Utah locations where birds are captured and banded with a serial number.
Day said the information will go into a national database operated by the U.S. Geological Survey in Patuxent, Md. It is all part of an annual program begun in 1994.
Day said the trapping began this month along a 2-mile segment of the river downstream from Gunlock Reservoir; it will continue about every 10 days through August.
As many as 400 birds can be captured overall, with 20 to 30 netted in each segment over the next three months.
In addition to tanagers, Day and his team of biologists are expecting to capture a variety of species, including wrens, warblers, robins, sparrows, flycatchers, woodpeckers, finches and an occasional raven.
Casey Swisher, also a DWR biologist, said the birds are captured in "mist nets" that are about 8-by-30 feet and stretched out in the morning when the birds are most active.
"The birds get tangled in the nets but don't break anything," she said. "But they do get scared."
Day said a lot of the birds are Neotropical species, migrating in fall from southern Utah to warmer climates in Mexico, Central America and northern South America.
They return in the spring -- usually to where they were born in Utah.
Day said that riparian areas in the state play an important role in the health of songbird populations, most of which feed on a diet of insects.
"In Utah, riparian zones are only 2 percent of the state, but 90 percent of the [bird] species use them in their life cycle, so they are important for all our birds."
