Western Birds Journal

Volume 44, No. 3

Published July 1, 2013

Issue description

Volume 44, number 3 of Western Birds, published 2013

Articles

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    ROBERT H. DAY, ADRIAN E. GALL, TAWNA C. MORGAN, JOHN R ROSE, JONATHAN H. PLISSNER, PETER M. SANZENBACHER, JAMIE D. FENNMAN, KATHERINE J. KULEZT, BRIDGET H. WATTS (Author)

    SEABIRDS NEW TO THE EASTERN CHUKCHI AND BEAUFORT SEAS, ALASKA: RESPONSE TO A CHANGING CLIMATE?

    Seabirds at high latitudes may respond to climate change in a variety of ways, including range contractions or expansions and/or seasonal or annual shifts in distribution. Since 2006, three species of seabirds have been reported in the eastern Chukchi Sea for the first time: the Short-tailed Albatross (Phoebastria albatrus), Northern Gannet (Morus bassanus), and Rhinoceros Auklet (Cerorhinca monocerata). Sometime prior to 2006, the Ancient Murrelet (Synthliboramphus antiquus) expanded its usual maritime range north into the eastern Chukchi and now has reached the Beaufort Sea. The gannet appears to have entered the Pacific via the Northwest Passage, whereas the other three species have moved north from the Pacific. Whales, other seabirds, and diatoms have been recorded moving between the Atlantic and Pacific via the Northwest Passage in the past 15 years as sea ice has retreated and the passage has opened. Because of broad-scale changes to the Chukchi ecosystem and because of increased sampling of the region, we anticipate that additional seabirds will be recorded in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas from the North Pacific and possibly the North Atlantic.

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    DANIEL D. GIBSON, LUCASH H. DeCICCO, ROBERT E. GILL JR., STEVEN C. HEINL, AARON J. LANG, THEODORE G. TOBISH JR., JACK J. WITHROW (Author)

    THIRD REPORT OF THE ALASKA CHECKLIST COMMITTEE, 2008–2012

    The third report of the Alaska Checklist Committee outlines 15 species and three subspecies added to, and one species and one subspecies deleted from, the Checklist of Alaska Birds, resulting in a net total of 499 species and 117 additional subspecies currently recognized as occurring or having occurred naturally in Alaska.

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

    THE IMPORTANCE OF AGRICULTURE TO LONG-BILLED CURLEWS IN CALIFORNIA’S CENTRAL VALLEY IN FALL

    The Long-billed Curlew (Numenius americanus)—a large shorebird of continental conservation concern—is a migrant and winter resident in California’s Central Valley. The size of the curlew’s North American breeding population has been estimated recently, but little is known about its abundance and habitat needs at migratory stopovers and wintering areas. Following two broad-scale surveys of the curlew in the central and southern portions of the Central Valley in fall in 2007 and 2008, we coordinated a survey of it throughout the valley in August 2009, recording 20,469 curlews in 195 flocks. On all three surveys, during this otherwise arid season, curlews were found primarily in irrigated alfalfa and irrigated pasture. There was a strong, positive relationship between curlew abundance by subregion of the Central Valley and the subregion’s proportion of the entire valley’s acreage of both alfalfa and irrigated pasture. Identifying the habitat features important to curlews at both fine and landscape scales, documenting the birds’ movements (within and between seasons) in the Central Valley, and monitoring their populations is needed to aid in the conservation of this shorebird at risk.

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    KRISTIE N. NELSON, STEPHEN C. ROTTENBORN, SCOTT B. TERRILL (Author)

    THE 37TH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE CALIFORNIA BIRD RECORDS COMMITTEE: 2011 RECORDS

    The California Bird Records Committee reached decisions on 254 records representing 309 individuals of 75 species and three species pairs documented since the 36th report (Johnson et al. 2012), endorsing 210 records of 264 individuals. The recent split of the Xantus’s Murrelet into the Scripps’s Murrelet (Synthliboramphus scrippsi) and Guadalupe Murrelet (S. hypoleucus), combined with first accepted state records of the Taiga/Tundra Bean-Goose (Anser fabalis/seriorstris), Common Crane (Grus grus), Common Ringed Plover (Charadrius hiaticula), and Snipe (Gallinago gallinago) outlined in this report, brings California’s total list of accepted species to 649 as of the end of 2011, 10 of which are established introductions. Other notable records detailed in this report include those of the western Atlantic subspecies of the Common Eider (Somateria mollissima dresseri), White-chinned Petrel (Procellaria aequinoctialis), and Red-flanked Bluetail (Tarsiger cyanurus).

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    PHILLIP J. HOWARD, SARAH C. HARVEY, STEVEN M. RITT (Author)

    RARE AND UNUSUAL BIRDS OBSERVED ON TERN ISLAND, FRENCH FRIGATE SHOALS, NORTHWESTERN HAWAIIAN ISLANDS

    The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands are a series of 10 small islands and atolls that extend northwest for 2000 km from the main Hawaiian Islands (Pyle and Pyle 2009). The islands are part of the Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge, Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, and provide a sanctuary for millions of nesting seabirds and thousands of wintering shorebirds (Pyle and Pyle 2009). Tern Island is located at the northwestern tip of the French Frigate Shoals and is the largest (~12 hectares) and only human-made island in the shoals. The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands’ location in the Pacific Ocean offers exceptional opportunity for assessment of patterns of avian migration and vagrancy. The islands lie within the trans-Pacific migration route of several shorebirds from Alaska that migrate long distances (Gill et al. 2005) and are within the influence of several seasonal macro-meteorological processes (e.g., Aleutian Low, Hawaiian High, and associated synoptic disturbances) that affect bird movement and migration along the North Pacific coasts (e.g., Christoforou and Hameed 1997).

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    ALAN CONTRERAS, CRAIG TUMER (Author)

    A WINTER RECORD OF A LITTLE BUNTING FROM INTERIOR OREGON

    On 28 January 2013 we were birding in central Wallowa County, extreme northeastern Oregon. Late in the afternoon we entered the town of Joseph in order to check the town’s feeders a second time that day. There was 3-4 inches of snow on the ground and birds were concentrated. As we checked one feeder from the car, Contreras noticed a sparrow-like bird in a tree and was astonished to see a Little Bunting (Emberiza pusilla), a species he had seen only once before, at Gambell, Alaska. Tumer agreed with the identification and got out of the car and obtained several diagnostic photos, the best of which is Figure 1.

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    HÉCTOR GÓMEZ DE SILVA (Author)

    BOOK REVIEW: Moments of Discovery: Natural History Narratives from Mexico and Central America

    Moments of Discovery is a compilation of 20 autobiographic chapters by biologists who traveled in Middle America, mainly for ornithological field work, from the 1930s to the 1990s. The authors include big names in ornithology of this region: Miguel Álvarez del Toro (the only Mexican author), Robert F. Andrle, John M. Bates, Lula C. Coffey, Walter W. Dalquest, Robert W. Dickerman, Stephen W. Eaton, Ernest P. Edwards, John T. Emlen, Jr., Paul D. Haemig, Joyce Heck, Joe T. Marshall, Jr., Paul S. Martin, Don Owen-Lewis, A. Townsend Peterson, John H. Rappole, Charles G. Sibley, Walter A. Thurber, Dwain W. Warner, and Kevin Winker. This collection is intended to preserve a record of events that have gone mostly unrecorded in print. The majority of the travels described took place in Tamaulipas and Veracruz, with most others in central Mexico, Chiapas, and Central America; relatively few pages deal with field work in Baja California and Sonora. The black-and-white photographs included in some chapters are interesting. The map of Middle American states and countries inserted between the preface and chapter 1 should have been larger and should have indicated the location of places mentioned in each of the chapters; as it stands I do not think it is at all useful.

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    DAVE KRUEPER (Author)

    BOOK REVIEW: The Travails of Two Woodpeckers: Ivory-Bills & Imperials

    The Travails of Two Woodpeckers examines the historical perspectives and the apparent ultimate extermination of two of the most iconic bird species in North America. The authors thoughtfully weave an intriguing story for each of the species’ demise, replete with historical accounts, natural-history accounts, along with conservation theory and endangered-species management. The book has been broken up into three main chapters, the first focusing on the Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis), the second on the Imperial Woodpecker (C. imperialis), and the third addressing conservation issues, past and present.

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    PETER PYLE (Author)

    FEATURED PHOTO: DARK-FACED COMMON MURRES OFF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA IN FALL AND WINTER

    While most basic-plumaged Common Murres (Uria aalge) show white facial plumage and tips to the secondaries, some individuals of central California from September through November have dark faces and secondaries. To investigate the plumage state and age of such birds, I examined specimens and photographs of Common Murres taken off central California and conclude that outgoing and incoming alternate feathers as well as early-replaced and late-replaced dark basic and formative feathers all may contribute to this variation. Hypermelanism may account for a small proportion of cases. The early onset of prebasics molting—before hormone signaling switches from dark feathers typical of the alternate plumage to white feathers typical of the basic plumage—may be responsible for most of the darkest-faced birds in basic plumage. This type of asynchrony of molt and the signal for change in plumage appears to occur more often in second-cycle birds, which initiate the prebasic molt earlier than do older adults, and it may also explain plummages in chicks and juveniles molting during May and June. Common Murres in basic plumage from colonies in central California appear to acquire dark facial feathers more often than birds from more northerly colonies, which could relate to earlier breeding and molt in central California.