Western Birds Journal

Volume 26, No. 2

Published April 1, 1995

Issue description

Volume 26, number 4 of Western Birds, published 1995

Articles

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    H. LEE JONES (Author)

    BIRD OBSERVATIONS ON WAKE ATOLL

    ke Atoll, at 19°18' N, 166°38' E, is one of the Earth's most isolated landmasses. It is approximately 1,700 miles (2,700 km) from Japan and 2,000 miles (3,100 km) from Honolulu. The nearest point of land is tiny Taongi Atoll in the northern Marshall Islands, located about 350 miles (550 km) to the southeast. As this island is seldom visited by ornithologists, its avifauna is little known. Wake Atoll—usually referred to as Wake Island—consists of three islets, though only one is correctly named Wake Island.

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    ELIZABETH P. ELLISTON, WILLIAM H. BALTOSSER (Author)

    SEX RATIOS AND BILL GROWTH IN NESTLING BLACK-CHINNED HUMMINGBIRDS

    Implicit in the analysis of sex ratios in wild bird populations is the assumption that equal numbers of males and females are conceived, hatched, and fledged. Sex ratios biased in favor of females have been reported for the Broad-tailed Hummingbird (Selasphorus platycercus) by Calder et al. (1983) and Calder (1990), and for the Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris) by Mulvihill et al. (1992) and Bill Hilton (in litt.).

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    W. DAVID SHUFORD, GARY W. PAGE, CATHERINE M. HICKEY (Author)

    DISTRIBUTION AND ABUNDANCE OF SNOWY PLOVERS WINTERING IN THE INTERIOR OF CALIFORNIA AND ADJACENT STATES

    Since the late 1970s, broad-scale surveys for the Snowy Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus) have been conducted in many western states (Page and Stenzel 1981; Wilson-Jacobs and Meslow 1984; Page et al. 1986; Herman et al. 1988; Halpin and Paul 1989; Page et al. 1991). In California, surveys of the breeding population have covered the entire state (Page and Stenzel 1981; Page et al. 1991), whereas surveys of the wintering population have focused mostly on the coast (Page et al. 1986).

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    EDUARDO PALACIOS, ERIC MELLINK (Author)

    BREEDING BIRDS OF ESTEROS TOBARI AND SAN JOS, SOUTHERN SONORA

    Although the ornithofauna of Sonora has been studied since at least the 19th century (van Rossem 1945), it is still rather poorly known. This is particularly true for its southern coastal area. Van Rossem and Hachisuka (1937) provided an extensive list of water birds from Estero Tóbari, but found little evidence of local breeding for most species.

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    ROBERT D. DORN, JANE L. DORN (Author)

    CASSIN'S SPARROW NESTING IN WYOMING

    Cassin's Sparrow (Aimophila cassinii) was first reported in Wyoming on 8 June 1978 near Columbine, northeastern Natrona County, in the central part of the state (Faanes et al. 1979). Another was reported in 1989 east of Glendo Reservoir in Platte County (Bill Hayes, pers. comm.). On 28 June 1990, William Howe of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found four singing males east of Torrington in Goshen County, near the Nebraska border (Ritter 1990; Kingery 1990; Scott 1993). Singing males were reported annually from the same area from 1991 (Ritter 1991; Kingery 1991) through 1994 (O.K. Scott, in litt.).

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    TARA Y. WILLIAMS, DAVID S. PENNOCK (Author)

    HOUSE WRENS FEEDING FISH TO THEIR NESTLINGS

    The House Wren (Troglodytes aedon) is a primarily insectivorous passerine that gleans most of its food from shrubs or trees (Kendeigh 1941; Guinan and Sealy 1987, 1989). Although the Winter Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes) and Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus) have been reported to feed on vertebrates occasionally (Haslam 1844; Bent 1948; Huxley 1949; Bagnall-Oakley 1968), we found no reports in the literature of House Wrens feeding on vertebrates. We report here House Wrens feeding fish to their nestlings.

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    Richard A. Erickson , Michael A. Patten (Author)

    CORRIGENDUM

    The statement in the final line of the summary in Erickson et al., First Record of the Marbled Murrelet and Third Record of the Ancient Murrelet for Mexico (Western Birds 26:39–45, 1995), concerning the southernmost locality for the Ancient Murrelet, is incorrect.

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    Robert McKernan (Author)

    PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

    The nineteenth annual meeting of the Western Field Ornithologists was held jointly with the Morro Coast Audubon Society in Morro Bay, California, from 30 September through 2 October 1994.

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    TIM MANOLIS (Author)

    COMMENTARY

    Following up on the essay by Patten et al. (Western Birds 26:54–64), I would like to illuminate some of their comments from a local perspective. There are a number of things that local groups (e.g., the Sacramento Audubon Society) can do on a small scale (e.g., Sacramento County and the greater Sacramento area) to improve our knowledge of the distribution of California's birds.