Western Birds Journal

Volume 21, No. 3

Published July 1, 1990

Issue description

Volume 21, number 3 of Western Birds, published 1990

Articles

  1. Cover image V21(3)

    AMADEO M. REA, KENNETH L. WEAVER (Author)

    THE TAXONOMY, DISTRIBUTION, AND STATUS OF COASTAL CALIFORNIA CACTUS WRENS

    The southern coastal sage scrub is a distinctive plant community of southern California (Munz and Keck 1959, Mooney 1977). Beginning very narrowly in the Santa Barbara region, it is best developed in Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego counties, and ends in northwestern Baja California, where a different plant assemblage, the maritime desert scrub, begins (Thorne 1976). One very prominent feature of coastal sage scrub is thickets of cactus, including the Coastal Cholla, Opuntia prolifera, and two species of prickly-pears, Opuntia littoralis and O. oricola. The coastal sage scrub is the primary habitat of two birds, the California Gnatcatcher, Polioptila californica californica, and the San Diego Cactus Wren, Campylorhynchus brunneicapillus sandiegensis, that are declining rapidly because of loss of habitat to urbanization. (For explanation of variations in the spelling of the Cactus Wren’s scientific name, see Appendix 1).

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    A. TOWNSEND PETERSON (Author)

    BIRDS OF EAGLE MOUNTAIN, JOSHUA TREE NATIONAL MONUMENT, CALIFORNIA

    The Little San Bernardino Mountains of Riverside and San Bernardino Counties in southern California support a peninsula of oak-pine woodland running southeast from the higher San Bernardino Mountains (Figure 1). In spite of the continuity of the woodland connecting the two ranges, the birds of the Little San Bernardino Mountains are remarkably differentiated from populations to the west. Three subspecies requiring woodland are endemic to the range: a Mountain Quail, Oreortyx pictus russelli, a Plain Titmouse, Parus inornatus mohavensis, and a Bushtit, Psaltriparus minimus sociabilis (Miller 1946), and another, a Scrub Jay, Aphelocoma coerulescens cana, is endemic to the nearby Eagle Mountains (Miller 1946, Pitelka 1951).

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    JOHN J. PIAZZA (Author)

    NOTES: FIRST DOCUMENTED RECORD OF CHUCK-WILL’S-WIDOW IN NEW MEXICO

    In September or October 1987 I found a Chuck-will’s-widow (Caprimulgus carolinensis) dead on the campus of Eastern New Mexico University, Portales, Roosevelt County, New Mexico. It was found lying near the base of the university’s science hall approximately fifteen yards from South Avenue K. The specimen appeared to have been dead for several hours and was missing all its rectrices. The exact date was lost while the bird was stored in the university’s freezer.

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    GUY McCASKIE, RICHARD E. WEBSTER (Author)

    NOTES: A SECOND WEDGE-TAILED SHEARWATER IN CALIFORNIA

    On 31 July 1988 we started a day of birding at the mouth of the Whitewater River at the north end of the Salton Sea, Riverside County. At about 0630 we waded across the rivermouth to check the area to the west of the river. When partially across the river we stopped on an exposed sandbar and looked over the open water to the south. Almost immediately Webster spotted a procellariiform flying toward us from the southwest and pointed it out to McCaskie. As we watched the bird flying toward us we initially considered the Flesh-footed Shearwater (Puffinus carneipes) since the uniform dark coloration of the bird, along with its slow manner of flight, closely matched that species.