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A California Condor chick fledges, the Midwest Birding Symposium, a name change for the Rock Dove, and albatrosses facing extinction Birding Briefs
A California Condor chick fledges, the Midwest Birding Symposium, a name change for the Rock Dove, and albatrosses facing extinction Birding BriefsBirding Briefs -- December 2003
Published: October 29, 2003 
Photo by © Grand Canyon National Park
UPDATE: Condor Chick Fledges
From our December issue: Take a close look at this photo. If all goes right, by the time this magazine hits newsstands the young California Condor perched on the rim of its nest cave will have made history. It will be the first wild-hatched condor to leave its nest since the effort to save the species began 28 years ago.
Hatched in May in a cave in the Grand Canyon, the chick is the first condor nestling in Arizona in decades. The chick appeared healthy when biologists first saw it in mid-August.
The parents, two of the 36 wild condors in Arizona, nested the previous two years, but the eggs didn't hatch. Two other eggs were produced by adult pairs in Arizona this year, but their nests failed. In 2002, three condor eggs hatched in California, but the chicks died before they could fledge.
At press time, biologists from the Peregrine Fund and the National Park Service were keeping watch on the feathered chick and its nest cave, which is near the top of a 400-foot cliff. They report that the parents, both eight years old and released into the wild in 1997, are keeping the chick well fed. After fledging in mid- to late October at 5-6 months of age, the chick will be dependent on its parents for at least six more months.
"It was alert and active," said Chad Olson, a raptor technician for the National Park Service. "After the female fed it, it bounced around the cave like a little rabbit. It was indescribable to see the first condor chick in Arizona in more than 100 years in a setting like the Grand Canyon."
Meanwhile, another condor chick was born this year near Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Refuge north of Los Angeles. At about four months of age, biologists discovered the bird was in poor health, so they took it to the Los Angeles Zoo for treatment. Veterinarians later determined the chick was severely diseased, and euthanized it on September 24.
Captive breeding has brought the species from a low of 22 birds in 1982 to 221 condors: 138 in captivity, 82 wild adults, and one special juvenile.
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Big Bucks, Great Birding
Efforts to return Greater Prairie-Chickens to southwestern Minnesota got a big boost from the 2003 Midwest Birding Symposium. The September 11-14 festival in Green Bay, Wisconsin, raised more than $32,000 to support the reintroduction program operated by the Nature Conservancy of Minnesota and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
The symposium, hosted by Birder's World, Eagle Optics, and the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology, drew more than 430 attendees. Birders came from as far away as California, Florida, and New England to meet well-known birders, attend information-packed seminars, and look for birds throughout northeastern Wisconsin.
The symposium began just as a two-day rainstorm swept through Green Bay, bringing a much-needed soaking to the region. The rain produced great conditions for birds (albeit soggy conditions for birders). Shorebirds took to new mudflats and migrating songbirds were forced to wait out the storm in the woods. The weekend concluded with a tally of 169 species, including Marbled Godwit, Red Knot, and Merlin.
A fledgling effort to mobilize the political power of birders picked up momentum in Green Bay. The one-day Conservation Through Birding Summit, held prior to the symposium, focused on how birders can be more involved in conservation efforts.
Keynote speakers throughout the symposium also stressed the need for birders to participate more in conservation. Don and Lillian Stokes, for example, said birders must do more than learn the field marks of birds.
"They're not just little bunches of feathers with names," said Don Stokes. The well-known television hosts and authors encouraged birders to become active in conservation efforts.
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Dragged Down
Six albatross species are closer to extinction than previously thought, primarily due to longline fishing practices.
New research has discovered dramatic population decreases for six of the world's 21 albatross species. BirdLife International, which reported the findings, is designating each species closer to extinction in the worldwide endangered species evaluation known as the IUCN Red List.
The Laysan Albatross, which was once considered safe, is now listed as "vulnerable" due to a 30 percent population loss from the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.
The Atlantic Yellow-nosed, Black-browed, Black-footed, Indian Yellow-nosed, and Sooty Albatross have been designated "endangered" because their populations have declined by 50 to 75 percent in the last three generations.
Biologists estimate that longline fishing annually kills 100,000 albatrosses and 300,000 seabirds total. The birds drown or die of injuries from baited hooks on longline fishing ships. Despite increasing awareness of the problem, seabirds continue to die.
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A Dove No More
Good news! We can all stop correcting ourselves when we refer to the birds at right as "pigeons." The official common name has been changed from Rock Dove to Rock Pigeon. The bird's scientific name remains Columbia livia.
The new name was one of a handful of changes to the updated American Ornithologists' Union Check-list of North American Birds. The AOU accepted "Rock Pigeon" to conform with a recent name change by the British Ornithologists' Union. Whatever the reason, we're glad to be able to call a pigeon a pigeon.
Other Check-listnews:
The AOU split one species into two, increasing the total species in the AOU area to 2,031. Hispaniolan Crossbill (Loxia megaplaga), which occurs only in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, was split from the widespread White-winged Crossbill (Loxia leucoptera).
New World and Old World species of the Three-toed Woodpecker were split from each other on the basis of mitochondrial DNA and voice. The North American bird, formerly Picoides tridactylus, is now American Three-toed Woodpecker (Picoides dorsalis).
The screech-owls in the genus Otus are now in the genus Megascops. This reflects new findings that the New World's small owls differ from the Old World's small owls, especially in their vocalizations. The genus Otus is now restricted to the Eastern Hemisphere's scops-owls, and North America's Flammulated Owl.
Based on molecular biological studies, the Snowy Owl's scientific name changed from Nyctea scandiaca to Bubo scandiacus. It joins Great Horned Owl in the genus Bubo.
Scientific names also changed for Black-capped Vireo, Black-capped Chickadee, and Ovenbird.
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This Just In
Prestige Disaster Equals Exxon Valdez
The sinking of the oil tanker Prestige last year off the western coast of Spain killed more than 250,000 seabirds, says a final report on the disaster. The 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska killed about the same number of birds. The Prestige disaster killed birds of at least 62 species, and will affect marine life for at least 10 years.
Bald Eagle Numbers Up
Winter counts of Bald Eagles increased nearly two percent annually from 1986 to 2000 in the contiguous United States, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Eagle numbers climbed highest in the Northeast, where sightings increased 6.1 percent a year during the period. Other regions had relatively stable numbers of eagles, according to the Midwinter Bald Eagle Survey.
AOU Honors Editor, Top Scientists
Now that The Birds of North America series of 716 species monographs is complete, the American Ornithologists' Union has honored the series' founding editor, Peter Stettenheim. At this year's AOU meeting, Stettenheim received the Marion Jenkinson AOU Service Award. The AOU also honored Douglas W. Mock and Donald E. Kroodsma. Mock, of the University of Oklahoma, received the William Brewster Award for his study of birds' parenting and family behaviors. Kroodsma, of the University of Massachusetts, received the Elliott Coues Award for his pioneering studies of bird song. See the January 2004 issue of The Auk for full citations of the awards.
Raccoons Up, Songbirds Down
Songbirds are in trouble throughout the eastern United States, and new research suggests that raccoons are a major part of the problem. Raccoons love eggs, and an Illinois study shows that populations of birds with low nests have been dropping since raccoon populations began rising in the early 1980s. The report appeared in the August issue of Conservation Biology.
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