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This page will be used to link other resources on aging and sexing birds, and to provide information on acceptable criteria for certain species.
Sam Carney's photographic guide to aging and sexing ducks by wing plumage can be accessed online at Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center's Home Page. This guide includes techniques for the identification of selected species as well as information on aging and sexing ducks. The wing keys were developed for the Waterfowl Parts Collection Survey. Species, Age and Sex Identification of Ducks Using Wing Plumage.
The Identification Guide to North American Birds: Part 1 by Peter Pyle is a landmark volume, much more than a revision of The Identification Guide to North American Passerines. The new guide was expanded to include pigeons and doves; cuckoos, roadrunners and anis; owls; nightjars; hummingbirds and swifts; trogons; kingfishers and woodpeckers as well as revisions of the passerine information. New material has been added, including (but not limited to) information on subspecies and subspecific variation and bar graphs showing acceptable age-sex codes by month. Watch for Part 2 covering the non-passerines not in Part 1, it should be out within two years!
The new Pyle guide is intended to replace the existing keys in the North American Bird Banding Manual, V. 2 for all species that are included in the Manual. All use of other, older information (e.g. Wood's Manual) should be discontinued immediately. Banders should purchase and use the new Pyle as the primary reference to aging and sexing the species in the new Pyle in North America. Banders may continue to use the North American Bird Banding Manual V. 2 during the transition period, except for Summer Tanager and Common Yellowthroat. The new Pyle represents the opportunity for banders to have a common reference, and we are sure that the benefits this represents will make all the effort needed to learn to use this book worthwhile. Thanks to Peter Pyle for working closely with both the US and Canadian offices to ensure acceptance of this new guide as the North American standard reference for all species covered.
The BBL will not query banders about species that are not aged as precisely as possible during the transition. It is very important to not guess at ages and sexes. AHY is not incorrect when SY and ASY are allowed; it is not as informative but it is not incorrect. During the transition and learning period banders should do their best to learn to use this guide but should not feel pressured to identify every individual bird to a precise age.
We expect that there will be some transition time for banders to learn to use the new Pyle, and encourage state and regional banding meetings to include sessions on how to use the new guide in their next meetings. Please keep an open mind about the guide, it is not that difficult to use once you spend some time with it! Read the section Directions for Use carefully, and learn to interpret the bar graphs before using this book in the field. All banders will find that it will take some time to learn to use this book correctly, but the effort will be well worthwhile. All banders of species covered in this guide are strongly encouraged to purchase and use the new guide. For those who have never been through a major change in banding techniques like the advent of skulling or the original appearance of the dichotomous keys in Volume 2 of the Banding Manual, please have patience learning to use the new guide, and by all means seek out banders who are using the guide and ask for assistance.
With the large amount of new information present in this guide, it is not unexpected that some characters will be found less useful that was thought at the time of publication, and others will be found to be reliable. This guide represents one uniform starting point for all banders, and banders are asked to contribute to the next edition by publishing information on aging and sexing criteria in the relevant journals or by writing to the author or BBL.
Please note that acceptance of specific age codes is only for those techniques in the new book, and does not necessarily indicate acceptance of other techniques. Banders may continue to use peer-reviewed information in the major journals as it is published in addition to the new Pyle. We will be adding errata and hints on using the new Pyle on our home page. Additions and corrections for the new guide can be sent to the BBL, and will be forwarded to Peter as well. Please contribute!
We regret that we can not supply this book to banders as we have supplied the North American Bird Banding Manual in the past. We hope that the additional information in the new Pyle will offset the added expense to banders. The cost of the new Pyle can be reduced by up to 30% by ordering in quantity, so gather up all the banders you know to place an order, or check with your state or regional banding associations to see if they are placing a group order.
This book can not be ordered from the BBL To order, contact Slate Creek Press at P.O. Box 219, Bolinas CA 94924 or click here to go to Point Reyes' Bird Observatory ordering information page.
Congratulations to Peter on this new book! We note that this is just Part 1, and we look forward to Part 2, now in preparation!.
Go to Point Reyes' Bird Observatory page for errata
A new guide from Slate Creek Press is available to help banders learn to see molt limits and interpret them using Pyle (1997). The guide is called Ageing North American Landbirds By Molt Limits And Plumage Criteria: A Photographic Companion to the Identification Guide to North American Birds, Part 1 and it is written by Dan Froehlich. This guide contains 32 color photographs illustrating molt limits and ageing criteria, and points out juvenal, first-basic, alternate, and adult-basic feathers among wing coverts, primaries, and secondaries. For more information see http://www.birdpop.org/danflyer.htm.
HY indicates that a bird was hatched in the calendar year when it was banded. When is an HY not an HY? When it should be reported as an L, or Local! An unfledged chick in a nest or a young bird incapable of powered flight should be reported as a L or Local (age 4). This allows the separation of those birds that could have traveled to the banding site from those that were certainly hatched where they were banded.
It is not appropriate to use age U from January 1 until the species fledges young each year. By definition these birds are AHY. If you cannot tell if the birds are SY or ASY, the correct default age at this season is AHY. On January 1, the bird cannot have hatched in that calendar year (now one day old), so it must be an After Hatch Year (AHY) and cannot be an Unknown. Unknown always includes young of the current calendar year. If the bird in your hand cannot have hatched and fledged in the current calendar year (January 1 until the day you caught it) it cannot be an Unknown/U but must be an AHY if no more precise age can be determined.
Black-billed and Yellow-billed Cuckoos develop brood patches that are identical in males and females. For many species where brood patches occur in both sexes, there is a marked difference in size and extent between males and females. This is not true in the Cuckoos, and neither may be sexed by brood patch. If you capture a cuckoo with an egg in the oviduct, please use a remark to indicate this is the case!
True brood patches (BPs) and Cloacal Protuberances (CPs) are only found in birds in reproductive condition. With very few exceptions, BPs and CPs are not found in HYs. A bird with a BP or CP must be an AHY if a more precise age cannot be determined. It is important to emphasize that the BP must be a true BP and not the bare unfeathered belly of a recently fledged juvenile.
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