An efficient method of capturing Painted Buntings and other small granivorous passerines

To study survival in the eastern breeding population of the Painted Bunting (Passerina ciris), I developed a technique to capture a large sample of buntings for color marking with leg-bands. This involved the use of bird feeders and an array of three short mist nets located at 40 sites in four states, each site meeting five specific criteria. In five years of mist netting (1999-2003), 4174 captures (including recaptures) of Painted Buntings were made in 3393 net-hours or 123 captures per 100 net-hours. The technique proved to be effective and efficient, and may have broad application for capturing large numbers of small granivorous passerines.