We were visiting a friend at his farm in East Texas. It was Easter weekend in 2001. An ornithologist bands birds at the farm every spring, and we were out that day helping collect the birds from the mist nets for banding. The Painted Bunting below was the first one caught at the farm ever, so we were very excited when we found it. Everyone took a photo since it is such a cool looking bird. To me they look like someone took a regular looking bird and painted every part a different color.
In 2002 we returned to our friend's farm at Easter again and went back out for the bird banding. One person in our group brought an 8X10 color print of the Bunting that was caught and banded the previous year in 2001.
Well, in the exact same mist net we found another Painted Bunting and it was wearing a band. When the records were checked we discovered it was the exact same bird since the band number matched the record book. That was the only one ever caught there and it was caught two years in a row. Painted Buntings migrate to Central America for winter so it is shocking to find the same one twice.
