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	MacGillivray's Warbler Banded at Braddock Bay!!
	Cindy Marino thought she heard an unfamiliar song while opening nets on the morning of June 4, 2003. Little did she know how unusual the songster was. At the second hour after sunrise, a beautiful male MacGillivray's Warbler was cradled in a net at the Kaiser-Manitou Beach banding station. How unusual is it to find this western-breeding species in New York? Only one previous record of this species has been accepted by the New York State Avian Records Committee.
	Cindy, a relative newcomer to the "bander-in-charge" title at the Observatory, knew immediately that she had something special. Fortunately, Laurie Zagmester, a recent graduate of BBBO's bander training course, had a digital camera ready. She snapped numerous photos to document this rare find. The bird was identified as an after-hatch-year male (likely after-second-year). His measurements were: unflattened wing chord = 60 mm flattened wing chord = 62 mm tarsus length = 22.4 mm fat score = 0 tail length = 49 mm mass = 12.1 g The bird's left outer tail feathers (4 - 6) were being replaced (adventitious molt?). The bird was captured in the bottom bag of the 90 elevated net. For those not familiar with the banding station, this net is located near an open field with dense deciduous shrubs on the north side and approximately 25' tall Scotch pines on the south side.
	MacGillivray's are similar in appearance to Mourning Warblers. The bright white split eye ring is a distinguishing characteristic, as is the dark black patch in front of the eye on this male. The picture at the right shows a Mourning Warbler (left) next to the MacGillivray's Warbler. Congratulations to Cindy and her assistants, Laurie Zagmester, Coby Klein, and Judy Engerman who were present to record this historic event!