Casualties continue at the Noble Research Center this week. Today (actually July 10th) I checked and noticed these birds here since yesterday, so I’m considering them the results of a July 9th survey that I technically did not conduct. Again, we had two birds of different species killed at the same spot on the NRC – the main entrance on the north side.
The first bird I noticed was the Carolina Chickadee, lying within arms’ reach of the Indigo Bunting I left out the other day:
About 2 m to the left of the chickadee was this female Painted Bunting:
Both birds were deteriorated (by beetles, isopods, and ants) to the point at which I wasn’t comfortable examining them for additional aging and body condition criteria.