Powdermill Nature Reserve

08/23/2026

Always fun hosting this group!

08/22/2026

Adopt-a-Mist-Net!

Help support the birds, research, and staff at Powdermill Avian Research Center by adopting a mist net today. All donors will receive updates about the birds that are caught in their adopted net, and additional tiered benefits include virtual programming, event invitations, and private banding demos with PARC scientists.

Please visit our Adopt-a-Net page for more info:
https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/ecb382a9c87d4949a5114999c3a1a11b

Pictured here is a Mourning Warbler.

All birds are captured and banded under a federal permit issued by the Bird Banding Lab, part of the US Geological Survey, and a state permit issued by the PA Game Commission.

08/21/2026

The bird-of-the-day today was a Traill's Flycatcher that was banded on June 6, 2026 near Les Bergeronnes, Quebec! Foreign recaptures (birds that are banded at one station and recaptured at another) aren't common, and it's exciting to find a band that is unfamiliar.

Traill's Flycatcher refers to both Alder and Willow Flycatchers. Although their songs are recognizable and easy to identify, the two species are very difficult to separate in the hand. A series of measurements may help distinguish only ~10% of them!

Observatoire d'oiseaux de Tadoussac is about 1200km (750 miles) from PARC, so this bird is heading south on its fall migration. Traill's Flycatchers spend the winter months in Central America and northwestern South America - quite the journey!

All birds are captured and banded under a federal permit issued by the Bird Banding Lab, part of the US Geological Survey, and under a state permit issued by the PA Game Commission.

08/19/2026

Surprise! This morning we caught and banded a juvenile Grasshopper Sparrow, a species that we catch infrequently. Although they breed in a nearby field, the habitat at the banding station (shrubby wetland, forest edge) isn’t their preference (pastures, hayfields). In fact, we haven’t caught one since 2021!

The individual we caught today was still in juvenile plumage, but the plumage was fully grown. This indicates that the bird likely hatched somewhere nearby and is in its post-juvenile dispersal phase when it wanders away from the hatching site scoping out possible territories.

Why is it called “grasshopper sparrow”? Its song sounds very insect-like - very fitting for a field species!

All birds are captured and banded under a federal permit issued by the Bird Banding Lab, part of the U.S. Geological Survey, and a state permit issued by the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

PA Bird Atlas

08/14/2026

Spend tomorrow morning 9am - 12pm (Saturday) at Powdermill Nature Center learning about colorful, tiny, fast-flying, over-achieving hummingbirds and their important place as pollinators in their ecosystems. Go on a hike inspired by hummingbird migration, do pollinator-inspired crafts, and find out which plants in our area are perfect for pollinators. If we’re lucky, we’ll get to see some hummingbirds being banded up close.

https://carnegiemnh.org/event/wings-over-westmoreland/

08/06/2026

Certify your yard as a monarch waystation at no cost as part of this Westmoreland Pollinator Partners initiative!

Community members across the Laurel Highlands are supporting the declining monarch butterfly population by registering their gardens as monarch habitats.

08/05/2026

Exactly one year ago, we banded and released a Red-tailed Hawk. This bird is a local celebrity - it's almost all white, a plumage aberration called "leucism," so it is immediately noticeable and recognizable, and those who live nearby are delighted to see it. Leucism refers to a reduction in pigments. It's different than albanism, which is a lack of pigment.

Last year, on July 25, the hawk was found along a road near Powdermill, unable to fly. We rescued the hawk and a trained volunteer from Wildlife In Need PA transported it to the local wildlife rehab, Wildlife Works Inc. where it was determined that it had minor head trauma and needed a few days of rest before it could be released.

Wildlife Works successfully rehabbed the hawk and we released it on August 5, 2025!

So, what has happened in the last year? We regularly see the leucistic Red-tail soaring over Powdermill's bird banding lab, sometimes with a presumed mate. And this spring, the bird was spotted incubating nestlings in a nest very close to Powdermill! This is an amazing success story - thank you, WIN and Wildlife Works!

The photo of the hawk in hand was taken by Wildlife Works. The photo of the hawk on the nest was taken by ​Kennedy Zapata-Schleicher.

07/27/2026

This week's Molt Monday features something called "adventitious molt." Adventitious molt happens when a bird loses one or more feathers at a time other than during a predictable molting period, and can be thought of as an accidental loss of feathers. This accidental loss is often due to things like squabbling with other birds, narrow escapes from predators, injuries, etc.

When a bird loses a feather, a new one grows in its place. But what's really cool is that the replacement feather(s) grows in as if it's part of the next feather generation. This might mean that the feather is more colorful or bold, and means that the feather is fresher in comparison to the feathers that were not adventitiously lost.

In the photo below, this Indigo Bunting adventitiously replaced several tail feathers - orange arrows are pointing to the newer feathers. Note how they contrast with the feathers that were not lost: those feathers are faded and worn, and appear browner and duller.

All birds are captured and banded under a federal permit issued by the Bird Banding Lab, part of the UG Geological Survey, and a state permit issued by the PA Game Commission.

07/26/2026

Join us for Family Fishing and Mark-Recapture at Powdermill Nature Reserve

Bring your fishing poles and tackle and join us at The Powdermill Avian Research Center for an evening of family fishing and hands-on research. We will catch bass and sunfish at the Powdermill ponds. For each fish caught, PNR researchers will collect data and implant each fish with a PIT tag (Passive Integrated transponders) before they are released. All ages are welcome. Children must be accompanied by an adult.

New to fishing? No problem, we will have extra poles and tackle and we can teach you!

Note: Fishing only allowed at Powdermill during these events.

Details:
Sunday July 26th 4 pm to 6 pm
Meet at the Avian Research Center parking lot
Bring chairs and coolers if you like!

07/21/2026

What's this ladybug doing?

The story is actually rather complicated. Weeks ago, a parasitic wasp (Dinocampus coccinellae) laid her egg in the body of this spotted pink lady beetle (Coleomegilla maculata). At the same time a virus (Iflavirus dinococcinellae) was also injected into the beetle. The wasp egg hatched into a larva, fed off the insides of the beetle, and emerged as a mature larva, ready to pupate. Meanwhile, the virus had been replicating inside the brain of the beetle, altering its behavior, so that when the larva spun its silken cocoon, the beetle was ready to stand guard over top of it for about a week until the adult wasp emerges. Now its red-and-black aposematic warning coloration will warn predators not to attack, and it will also twitch if disturbed to startle a threat. Shockingly, there's still hope for the poor ladybug, about a quarter of which fully recover from the bizarre and traumatic experience.

Read more about this sci-fi film-worthy phenomenon here: https://www.science.org/content/article/wasp-virus-turns-ladybugs-zombie-babysitters #