Painted Bunting Research:
A Look Back
Story and photographs by Sarah Latshaw
“H
ey, are you the painted bunting lady?” That was the
question I often heard as I trekked through the marsh,
woods, and backyards of residents on Kiawah Island
searching for those beautiful birds. From 2007–2011, I
was, and I embraced the nickname with pride. Because during those years, I studied
which general habitats and which specific plants the painted bunting (Passerina
ciris) used on Kiawah Island. With my co-author I synthesized the findings to
recommend ways that Island residents can attract buntings and potentially boost
their numbers and reverse their declining population. Of course, I did not—and
could not—do that alone. I had loads of support from the Kiawah Conservancy,
South Carolina and North Carolina bird biologists, my Master of Environmental
Studies thesis advisor, Town of Kiawah biologists, Kiawah Island Naturalists, tough
field technicians, hospitable Island residents, and a National Science Foundation
Graduate Research Fellowship.
Why Study the Painted Bunting?
According to Breeding Bird Surveys (a cooperative effort between the U. S.
Geological Survey’s Patuxent Wildlife Research Center and Environmental Canada’s
Canadian Wildlife Service) conducted for decades across the continent, painted
bunting populations declined over 60 percent from 1966–1995, mostly due to habitat
loss. Because of this decline, the painted bunting has become a high priority for many
conservation organizations. The birds have a relatively small territory, on average
less than one acre apiece on Kiawah Island, making meaningful habitat restoration
feasible even on developed home sites. But to restore bunting habitat on the Island we
needed to understand specifically what habitat and vegetation they preferred.
The Methodology
To learn more about painted bunting habitat and plant use, territory size, and
nesting sites, we needed to track specific buntings using radio telemetry technology.
Catching them was the “easy” part, because they frequently visited millet filled
feeders that many residents already had established. In place of the feeder, we hung
a cage trap that resembled a crab pot. The buntings would fly in, feed, and not know
how to exit the trap. Once we had the bird, we compiled data on sex, weight, age,
and other characteristics for each bird. Unique combinations of colored leg bands
were also added for field identification, not only for this study, but also to aid in a
citizen science project called the Painted Bunting Observer Team (more on that
later). Lastly, we attached tiny radio transmitters to the birds’ backs using a figure
eight harness that fit like a backpack. Each bird had a transmitter that emitted a
different radio frequency, similar to your favorite radio station, which could be
picked up using our antenna and receivers. After the birds were radio tagged, we
followed them multiple times a day, until the transmitter batteries died about 20–25
50
Naturally Kiawah