Western Birds Journal

Volume 43, No. 2

Published April 1, 2012

Issue description

Volume 43, number 2 of Western Birds, published 2012

Articles

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    BRIAN E. SHARP (Author)

    THE CALIFORNIA CONDOR IN NORTHWESTERN NORTH AMERICA

    Native Americans, European and American explorers, fur trappers, and settlers observed the California Condor (Gymnogyps californianus) in the Columbia River basin, the Cascade Range, along the Snake River in Idaho, as far north as latitude 52° in British Columbia, and east of the Rocky Mountains in Alberta and Montana. Before European contact, indigenous people were familiar with and culturally connected to the California Condor in northwestern North America. The condor occurred year round and possibly persisted until the mid-20th century. Oral history of condor chicks kept in Indian villages attests to the condor’s nesting in the Pacific Northwest. Historical accounts of the condor’s food and foraging suggest that poisoning was the primary cause of the species’ extirpation from this region.

     
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    STEVEN C. LATTA, HORACIO DE LA CUEVA, ALAN B. HARPER (Author)

    ABUNDANCE AND SITE FIDELITY OF MIGRATORY BIRDS WINTERING IN RIPARIAN HABITAT OF BAJA CALIFORNIA

    The ecology of migratory landbirds in Baja California has been little studied, yet the nonbreeding season is of critical importance in the life cycle of any bird. We used mist netting to quantify the relative abundance and demographic indices of six species of landbirds wintering in riparian habitat at two sites in Baja California. In addition, we assessed their persistence at the sites through area searches for and recapture of individuals marked with a unique combination of color bands. From the winter of 2004–05 through the winter of 2006–07 we captured 561 individuals of the six species along the Río Santo Tomás and Río San Vicente. The most abundant species, the Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus), Yellow-rumped Warbler (Setophaga coronata), and Ruby-crowned Kinglet (Regulus calendula), together accounted for 83.1% of all net captures of target species. The sex ratios of the six target species were not significantly different from 1:1 except for the Yellow-rumped Warbler, of which we found significantly more males than females. Persistence beyond one day and annual rates of return of the color-banded target species were generally low and did not differ by sex.

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    T. R. JERVIS (Author)

    TYPE LOCALITY AND EARLY SPECIMENS OF THE MOUNTAIN CHICKADEE

    The type locality for the Mountain Chickadee (Poecile gambeli) has been somewhat confused in various editions of the American Ornithologists’ Union (AOU) Check-list of North American Birds. Consideration of the local geography and environmental conditions at the time the type specimen was collected in 1841 reveals that the type locality can, in fact, be identified more clearly, but not unambiguously.

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    BRUCE A. HAAK, SCOTT SAWBY (Author)

    RECENT NESTING AND SUBSPECIES IDENTITY OF THE MERLIN IN IDAHO

    Three subspecies of the Merlin (Falco columbarius) are recognized in North America. The Black Merlin (F. c. suckleyi) breeds in humid forests of the Pacific Northwest and has the darkest plumage of the three North American subspecies. Richardson’s Merlin (F. c. richardsonii) has pale plumage and breeds in the dry prairies of south-central Canada and the north-central USA. The Taiga Merlin (F. c. columbarius) breeds in forests across much of Alaska and Canada, extending south in some northern states and in western North America to parts of Washington, Idaho, and Montana; it is intermediate in plumage between the other two subspecies (Warkentin et al. 2005).

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    KIMBALL L. GARRETT (Author)

    BOOK REVIEW: Petrels, Albatrosses and Storm-Petrels of North America: A Photographic Guide

    It’s hard for seabirders today to imagine how little truly helpful popular literature existed about the field identification of the tubenoses (highly marine birds of the order Procellariiformes) just a couple of decades ago. Yes, Peter Harrison’s tour de force, Seabirds, An Identification Guide (1983, Houghton Mifflin, Boston), brought the world’s species into our consciousness, even if the painted illustrations sometimes strayed a bit from reality and many aspects of taxonomic and individual variation were not well understood at that time. Onley and Scofield’s Albatrosses, Petrels and Shearwaters (2007, Princeton University Press) incorporated considerable information coming to light in the two decades after Harrison’s guide, but it missed the mark on many details and used only paintings, albeit improved over Harrison’s. Some excellent journal articles have tackled particular identification issues, but Steve Howell’s new tubenose book represents a giant leap forward and one of the best single sources on seabird identification yet published.

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    TODD B. EASTERLA, LISA JORGENSEN (Author)

    FEATURED PHOTO: FIRST DOCUMENTATION OF A JUVENILE RED-NECKED STINT FOR THE LOWER 48 STATES

    On the clear morning of 30 August 2009, I (Easterla) discovered a juvenile Red-necked Stint (Calidris ruficollis), which had never been fully documented in the lower 48 states. At approximately 09:00, while scanning for shorebirds on a large mudflat at the Yolo Wildlife Area in Yolo County, California (managed by the California Department of Fish and Game), I noticed a peep, smaller than nearby Western Sandpipers (C. mauri), with a long primary projection, a full set of tertials, black legs, and a very short bill. The bird’s fresh plumage and overall scaled appearance showed it to be a juvenile. On the basis of my prior observations of juveniles of another Old World species of black-legged stint in California, the Little Stint (C. minuta), on 22 September 1994 (Howell and Pyle 1997) and 14 September 2008 (Pike and Compton 2010), as well as my experience observing stints in Europe, Russia, and southeast Asia, I felt confident this bird was a juvenile black-legged stint from Eurasia (Veit and Jonsson 1987) and probably a juvenile Red-necked Stint. Upon realizing the possibility of such a discovery, I phoned John Sterling and other birders who joined me to verify my observation.

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    THANK YOU TO OUR SUPPORTERS

    The board of Western Field ornithologists and the editorial team of Western Birds thank the following generous contributors who gave to WFO’s publication, scholar ship, and general funds in 2011. The generosity of our members in sustaining WFO  is an inspiration to us all.