Western Birds Journal

Volume 27, No. 2

Published April 1, 1996

Issue description

Volume 2, number 27 of Western Birds, published 1996

Articles

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    STEVE N. G. HOWELL, SOPHIE WEBB, LARRY B. SPEAR (Author)

    IDENTIFICATION AT SEA OF COOK’S, DE FILIPPI’S, AND PYCROFT’S PETRELS

    Petrels of the genus Pterodroma are notorious for being difficult to identify at sea. Among the most problematic species are Cook’s (P. cooki), de Filippi’s (P. defilippiana) and Pycroft’s (P. pycrofti) petrels, the three most similar of those small Pterodroma united in the subgenus Cookilaria. P. defilippiana has also been called Defilippe’s Petrel (Roberson and Bailey 1991) or Masatierra Petrel (Harrison 1983, 1987). “Deflippe’s” is an anglicization of defilippiana, but as Giglioli and Salvadori (1869) named the bird for Professor F. de Filippi, the correct English spelling should be “de Filippi’s Petrel.”

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    JUAN-PABLO GALLO-REYNOSO, ANA-LUISA FIGUEROA-CARRANZA (Author)

    THE BREEDING COLONY OF LAYSAN ALBATROSSES ON ISLA DE GUADALUPE, MEXICO

    Early accounts of the birds of Isla de Guadalupe and adjacent waters did not mention the Laysan Albatross, Diomedea immutabilis (Jehl and Everett 1985), though Pitman (1986) and Jennings (1987) observed the species around the island from 1974 to 1984. Dunlap (1988) first reported it breeding on Isla de Guadalupe in May 1986, the first known breeding colony for the species east of the Hawaiian Islands and a major range extension. Howell and Webb (1992) noted additional new colonies established on Isla San Benedicto (19° 19'N, 110° 49'W) and Isla Clarión (18° 22'N, 114° 44'W) in the Revillagigedo Archipelago. The colony at Isla de Guadalupe has been reported on subsequently by Oberbauer et al. (1989) and Howell and Webb (1992). Here we summarize the growth and current status of this colony on the basis of our observations in 1991 and 1992 and those of the island’s military staff.

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    Kimball L. Garrett (Author)

    PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

    At a special meeting held on 1 August 1995, the Board of Directors of the Western Field Ornithologists elected me to fill its presidency. I’ve been a member of this organization for well over half of my life, all the while in awe of the “who’s who” of western North American field ornithology who have worked hard to build WFO into the premier organization of its kind. Being asked to fill the role of its president was an honor, but not without its challenges.

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    GLORIA J. MAENDER, KATHERINE L. HIETT, SCOTT JAY BAILEY (Author)

    NOTES: NESTING ANNA’S HUMMINGBIRDS IN URBAN TUCSON, ARIZONA

    Anna’s Hummingbird (Calypte anna), formerly regarded as a California species (Ridgway 1890), has extended its range in recent years. In Arizona, the species was thought to be a fall and winter resident only, with no positive breeding records prior to the mid-1960s (Phillips et al. 1964). Spring occurrences were not documented until after 1964, and only rarely prior to the 1970s were the birds noted in summer (Zimmerman 1973). The species first nested near Tucson in 1972; young fledged 14 March (Calder 1974). In Arizona, Anna’s Hummingbird’s breeding is confined mainly to cities (Zimmerman 1973).

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    ROBERTO CARMONA, SAUDIEL RAMÍREZ, BULMARA ZÁRATE, FELIPE BECERRIL (Author)

    NOTES: SOME NESTING WATERBIRDS FROM SOUTHERN SAN JOSE ISLAND AND ADJACENT ISLANDS, GULF OF CALIFORNIA, MEXICO

    The Gulf of California is important for nesting seabirds (Anderson 1983), but the low productivity of the southern portion causes the abundance of seabirds to decrease with latitude (Cody et al. 1983, Carmona et al. 1994). Perhaps for this reason there have been few recent ornithological studies of this area. San José Island, north of La Paz Bay, is one of the areas for which very few records exist (Grinnell 1928, Wilbur 1987, Velarde and Anderson 1993). This paper presents a preliminary list of waterbirds breeding in the southernmost portion of San José Island and on three smaller adjacent islands.

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    PAUL J. BAICICH, STEVEN C. HEINL, MIKE TOOCHIN (Author)

    NOTES: FIRST DOCUMENTED BREEDING OF THE EURASIAN SKYLARK IN ALASKA

    Introduced, resident populations of the Eurasian Skylark, nominate Alauda arvensis arvensis, breed locally on southern Vancouver Island, British Columbia, and the San Juan Islands, Washington. (AOU 1983: 488). In Alaska, the species occurs naturally as an annual rare migrant and casual summer visitant to the western Aleutian Islands (Near Islands group) and a casual migrant and summer visitant to St. Lawrence Island and the Pribilof Islands, in the Bering Sea (Kessel and Gibson 1978; Byrd et al. 1978; Gibson 1981). All Alaska specimens are of the northeast Asiatic form A. a. pekinensis, which breeds as far east as the Koryak Highlands, Kamchatka, and the Kurile Islands (fide D. D. Gibson, University of Alaska Museum; Vaurie 1959; Portenko 1963). Breeding has been suspected in Alaska (twelve birds, including a singing male, at St. Paul Island, 1–9 July 1970; Kessel and Gibson 1978), but there has been no solid evidence of breeding, and no skylarks have previously been identified as females in the field. Here we report the first evidence of breeding by the Eurasian Skylark in Alaska and the first evidence of breeding by non-introduced skylarks in North America.

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    EDGAR AMADOR, JUAN JOSE RAMIREZ (Author)

    NOTES: A RECORD OF THE ROSEATE SPOONBILL ON THE PACIFIC COAST OF THE PENINSULA OF BAJA CALIFORNIA

    On 18 March 1994, we observed and photographed a single Roseate Spoonbill (Ajaia ajaja) at Estero de Rancho Bueno (29° 19'N, 111° 29'W), Baja California Sur, Mexico. The bird was in breeding plumage and was roosting in the mangroves near the head of the estero. The photograph, on file at the Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas, La Paz, shows the spatulate bill, pale pink body plumage, and contrastingly bright pink shoulders, but the image is too small to be reproduced well for publication. Located at the southern end of the Bahía Magdalena–Bahía Almejas complex on the Pacific coast, the Estero de Rancho Bueno is a coastal lagoon, 11 km long and averaging 300 m wide, fringed by mangroves (Rhizophora mangle, Laguncularia racemosa, and Avicennia germinans).