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Checklist changes, Whooping Crane update, research on bird-window collisions, and photo gallery of recent rare-bird sightings.
Checklist changes, Whooping Crane update, research on bird-window collisions, and photo gallery of recent rare-bird sightings.Birding Briefs -- October 2009
Published: August 21, 2009 Tanager by name only
Reflecting recent observations off Newfoundland, in Alaska, and in Panama, and responding to discoveries made by researchers using mtDNA and nuclear data, the American Ornithologists' Union has again revised its Check-list of North American Birds.
It added seven species - Graylag Goose, Brown Hawk-Owl, Sedge Warbler, Yellow-browed Bunting, and three South American birds - bringing the total to 2,055.
It shortened the names Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow and Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow to Nelson's Sparrow and Saltmarsh Sparrow.
And it shuffled the composition of several families. Among the species assuming new places on the taxonomic tree are our Summer, Hepatic, Scarlet, and Western Tanagers. Despite their names, they no longer perch in Thraupidae (tanagers) but in Cardinalidae (cardinals, grosbeaks, and allies). |
Crane heartbreak
A pair of Whooping Crane eggs that hatched in Wisconsin after our August issue reached newsstands briefly raised hopes that the reintroduced flock might still add a wild-hatched chick to the population this year.
The first was a captive-produced egg placed in the nest of cranes whose own eggs were infertile. The egg hatched on June 12, but the chick disappeared one month later.
The second egg, produced by the cranes that successfully raised a young bird in 2006, hatched on June 14 or 15, but the chick died within a few weeks.
Operation Migration personnel described the losses as heartbreaking but vowed to continue on. The team is busy preparing 23 cranes - the largest group ever - to follow ultralights to Florida this fall. |
The science of window collisions
New research suggests that the number of birds killed in collisions with windows in urban areas in North America during spring and fall migrations is far greater than ever imagined - more than 34 million each year.
"Our results confirm that sheet glass consisting of small windows to entire walls of buildings is a lethal hazard for birds," says Muhlenberg College ornithology professor Daniel Klem Jr.
"There is no window size, building structure, time of day, season of year, or set of weather conditions during which birds elude the lethal hazards of glass in urban, suburban, or rural environments."
Minimizing the use of large expanses of glass when constructing buildings will mitigate bird-glass collisions, Klem suggests, as will reducing ground cover, changing the height of surrounding vegetation, and eliminating shrubs and trees from areas in front of already-standing buildings.
Commercially available window films, both clear and opaque or translucent coverings, will also prevent collisions. "Applications that combine alternating and contrasting UV-reflecting and UV-absorbing patterns to existing clear and reflective windows have promise of preventing bird strikes while offering little or no visual distraction for humans."
Lone decals or other individual objects placed on or hung in front of windows are ineffective. To prevent collisions, decals or strings of feathers and beads must cover the window surface uniformly. Separating them by 5-10 cm provides complete or near-complete avoidance.
Klem published his findings in the Wilson Journal of Ornithology. |
Violet-crowned Hummingbird, Brown-backed Solitaire, and more rare bird sightings.
Spoonbills on the move
Roseate Spoonbills flew north of Florida and the Gulf coast in unheard-of numbers this summer. Birders recorded at least 12 birds each along the coasts of North Carolina and South Carolina. Virginia, which had only one previous sighting, netted two at Chincoteague NWR and one in the mountainous west. Delaware had three spoonbills, including the bird at left. (Read how the photographer found it.) One pink beauty was at Forsythe NWR in New Jersey. And in Indiana, the state's first spoonbill spent weeks at a wildlife area west of Bloomington. |
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