Western Birds Journal

Volume 1, No. 2

Published April 1, 1970

Issue description

Volume 1, number 2 of Western Birds, published 1970

Articles

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    Guy McCaskie (Author)

    THE AMERICAN REDSTART IN CALIFORNIA

    The American Redstart (Setophaga ruticilla), one of the most abundant breeding species in the eastern portion of North America, reaches as far west as the coast of southeastern Alaska and extreme northeastern Oregon as a nesting bird. It winters primarily in Central America and in the West Indies with numbers reaching the northern portions of South America and southern Mexico, and part of the population is known to winter along the west coast of Mexico north to Sonora. Its migration route is primarily across the Gulf of Mexico and through the West Indies, with significant numbers using the east coast of Mexico; the northwestern population is thought to migrate east of the Rockies both during the spring and fall, and it is considered a rare migrant in the southwestern United States.

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    NOTES: AN INLAND RECORD OF THE BLACK OYSTERCATCHER

    On the afternoon of 5 July 1969 I saw a Black Oystercatcher (Haematopus bachmani) flying among the deciduous trees along Bear Creek about two miles east of Shelter Cove, Humboldt County, California. This point is about twenty miles upstream and is at an elevation of about 1400 feet; it is separated from the nearby coast by a ridge with peaks reaching more than 3000 feet. The weather was bright and clear for the week prior to the observation; thus the possibility of the bird having become lost in the usually common coastal fog is unlikely.

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    CORRIGENDUM: CALIFORNIA CHECKLIST NOMENCLATURE CHANGES

    We are grateful to Eugene Eisenmann, Chairman, A.O.U. Committee on Classification and Nomenclature, for the following comments pertaining to the nomenclature used in “A Checklist of the Birds of California” (Calif. Birds 1: 4–28):

    “I note that your California species list adopts a number of changes from the nomenclature of the last A.O.U. Check-list of North American Birds. May I point out a few others, involving purely nomenclatural (not taxonomic) considerations, worth bearing in mind? Your list overlooked a few corrections made by the last A.O.U. Check-list Committee shortly after the printing of the 1957 Check-list, which were embodied in the second printing and were published in The Auk 79 (3): 493–494, 1962. Those pertinent that you did not catch were the correction of the ending of the specific name of the Cape Petrel which should be Daption capense and of the Bohemian Waxwing which should be Bombycilla garrulus, and the correction of the English specific name by inclusion of a hyphen in Red-winged Blackbird. If one follows the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature the correct spelling of the specific name of the Wandering Tattler should be Heteroscelus incanus. Further, the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature has directed that the following changes in specific or generic names be made (despite priority of some other name): Eared Grebe – Podiceps nigricollis; Common Snipe – Gallinago gallinago; Cardinal – Cardinalis cardinalis.”

     
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    Pierre Devillers (Author)

    IDENTIFICATION AND DISTRIBUTION IN CALIFORNIA OF THE SPHYRAPICUS VARIUS GROUP OF SAPSUCKERS

    In his recent paper on avian hybridization, Short (1969) recommended that the three sapsuckers, Yellow-bellied Sphyrapicus varius, Red-naped S. nuchalis, and Red-breasted S. ruber be treated as distinct species, thus opening a new chapter in a long controversy. S. ruber was described as a new species in 1788 by Gmelin. Ridgway was the first to suggest its subordination to S. varius in 1872 and again in 1873 and 1874. In his Birds of North and Middle America (1914) he returned to treating it as a distinct species.

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    NOTES: TWO CALIFORNIA RECORDS OF GRACE’S WARBLER

    The summer range of Grace’s Warbler Dendroica graciae extends as far north and west as southern Nevada. In Nevada it is recorded as a fairly common summer resident in the Sheep Range (Johnson, 1965) and it has also been observed by Jaeger (1927) and Austin (1969) during the nesting season in the Spring Mountains (although both Johnson, and Jaeger himself, have questioned the earlier observation). These two localities are within sixty and thirty miles, respectively, of the California border. D. g. graciae, the race which breeds in the United States, is a fairly long distance migrant; definite winter records of this race in Mexico range from Tepic, Nayarit to Amecameca, State of Mexico and Tres Marias, Morelos (Webster, 1961). Considering its normal range and migratory habits, one may expect Grace’s Warbler to stray into California occasionally.

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    NOTES: AN OLIVACEOUS FLYCATCHER IN CALIFORNIA

    An Olivaceous Flycatcher Myiarchus tuberculifer was discovered in the extensive grove of old date palms at Furnace Creek Ranch in Death Valley National Monument, Inyo County, California, on the afternoon of 23 November 1968. Furnace Creek Ranch is an isolated oasis with abundant water and vegetation and is surrounded for many miles in all directions by dry rocky hills and sterile alkaline flats. As such, it concentrates wandering birds, and a number of “vagrants” have been found there in recent years.

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    NOTES: BLUE JAY IN CALIFORNIA

    On 30 October 1963 Dr. John D. Goodman of the University of Redlands heard a strange call outside his home in Igos, San Bernardino County, and upon investigating found a Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata). This bird remained in and around Igos, a small community along Mill Creek Canyon at 3900 ft. elevation in the San Bernardino Mountains, until 20 April 1964. It was usually with a loose mixed flock of Steller’s Jays (Cyanocitta stelleri) and Scrub Jays (Aphelocoma coerulescens) frequenting the area, and often came to feeders maintained by the local residents.