PEEPS

Wood Sandpiper - Delaware

First discovered in on 5 May, a Wood Sandpiper, Tringa glareola, was found by Sharon Lynn at Braodkill Beach Impoundment, part of Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge, Delaware. The bird is still being seen as of 12 May.  Although accidental in the Lower 48, and much more so on the East Coast, Wood Sandpiper is sometimes uncommon in flocks of other Scolpacidae in northwestern Alaska, especially the Outer Aleutians, where it has bred.

As the shortish bill of this Tringa suggests, members of the tribe, Tringini, forgo the probing style of other sandpipers, but instead use their visual acuity to locate pray, which they chase and snatch in a manner similar to plovers. An abundant species with an estimated European population of about 1.4 million birds, as many as one million individuals of this long-distance migrant winter in Southeast Asia and in east and central Africa. 

In appearance, Wood Sandpiper is most similar to its congener, Green Sandpiper, T. ochropus, although in North America, it most closely resembles a Solitary Sandpiper, but with longer and slightly more yellow legs, shorter bill, slightly larger overall, and with a less attenuated body.  In flight, its call is described as being similar to Greater Yellowlegs, but more shrill.

Bill Maynard
Editor - Winging It   

Piratic Flycatcher - Texas

A Piratic Flycatcher, Legatus leucopalus, was found by Gene Blacklock on 3 May at Pollywog Pond, Corpus Christi, Nueces County, Texas. There are other records from Texas, New Mexico, and Florida, but see below.

On 15 March 1991, a "Variegated Flycatcher" was reported in the Dry Tortugas, Florida.  In a subsequent 2004 review, the Records Committee of the Florida Ornithological Society, voted 7-0 in favor of the Variegated Flycatcher being removed from the state list and correctly replaced by Piratic Flycatcher.  On 12 September 2003 a Piratic Flycatcher was identified from Bosque Redondo, near Fort Sumner, New Mexico.  Another record from Rattlesnake Springs, New Mexico, was originally identified as Variegated Flycatcher, and a 4 April 1998 record of Piratic Flycatcher from Big Bend National Park, Texas, was first identified as a Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher.

Piratic Flycatcher is a resident in Mexico as far north as southern Veracruz state.  It is a widespread species, breeding as far south as northern Argentina.  This species received its name from its habit of aggressively stealing nests of other species, especially those of becards and oropendolas in Mexcio.  It repeatedly drives away original nest owners, and then removes any existing eggs.  Piratic Flycatcher also takes over abandoned nests, but it is not known to build its own nest.

This species is easy to identify by voice, but is reported as being silent from extralimital records.  By plumage, they are separated from Variegated Flycatcher by Variegated's more obvious eyebrow and rufous, not brownish tail, along with Piratic's smaller, wider bill.  The migrant subspecies of Variegated, rufinus, lacks the distinct breast streaking found in Piratic.  For visual comparisons between Variegated, Sulphur-bellied, and Piratic Flycatchers, I recommend the new Birds of Northern South America, Volume 1-2, by Robin Restall, et. al. and Martin Reid's website, www.martinreid.com/Main%20website/piratic.html where excellent comparisons of the two species are presented.

Bill Maynard
Editor - Winging it

Yellow Grosbeak - Southeast Arizona

The husband-and-wife team of Rose Ann Rowlett and Richard Webster, both professional bird guides for Field Guides, Inc., discovered a female Yellow Grosbeak, Pheucticus chrysopeplus, in extreme Southeast Arizona on 5 May.  The bird was discovered at Slaughter (San Bernardino) Ranch on the Geronimo Trail, 15 miles east of Douglas, Arizona.  Slaughter Ranch (fee) is an historical foundation, open from 10 A.M - 3 P.M., Wednesday-Sunday.  The general area where the bird was found is considered a migrant trap and is described in ABA's A Birder's Guide to Southeastern Arizona by Rick Taylor, on pages 220-221.  The ranch was once owned by Texas John Slaughter, a predecessor to Wyatt Earp, and the person responsible for ridding Tombstone of the bad guys. 

Yellow Grosbeak, ABA Code 4, is a Mexican species, and a casual vagrant to Southeast Arizona, primarily in late spring and early summer.  The call and song of this species is similar to the common western species, Black-headed Grosbeak.  Sightings of this species has increased recently, now with winter records accepted by the New Mexico Bird Records Committee (pers. Comm. William Howe).  In Mexico, Yellow Grosbeak is a resident north to central Sonora and southern Chihuahua, where it is found in deciduous and semideciduous forest and edge, thornscrub and clearings.  There are two groups of "Yellow Grosbeaks". Those in the southern part of its range, mainly in South America, are currently considered a separate species and called Golden-bellied Grosbeak by Clements and by the A.O.U., but called Southern Yellow Grosbeak by Hilty in The Birds of Venezuela and by Ridgely and Greenfield in The Birds of Ecuador.

Bill Maynard
Editor - Winging It

Tufted Flycatcher - Southeast Arizona

A Mexican species, Tufted Flycatcher, Mitrephanes phaeocercus, was discovered on 5 May, in Arizona's Chiricahua Mountains by Daniele Mitchell from Canada. Today, 6 May, the Tufted Flycatcher was being seen in Cave Creek Canyon at the Herb Martyr Campground, part of Coronado National Forest. 

Tufted Flycatcher was first found in the U.S. in Rio Grande Village, a part Big Bend National Park, Texas, from 3 November '91 - 17 January '92.  In Texas, this species if found as far north as southern Tamaulipas, Mexico.  South of Arizona, Tufted Flycatcher occurs north to northeast Sonora and northwest Chihuahua, where it is a migrant in the northern part of its range. 

It is pictured nicely in National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America,  Fifth Edition, and in A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Central America by Steve N.G. Howell and Sophie Webb. 

Tufted Flycatcher is a highland species, found in Mexico in humid and semihumid pine-oak associations, and in evergreen and semideciduous forests and edge  habitats.  In behavior it resembles a pewee, fly-catching from an open perch, often sallying out and returning to the same perch.

Bill Maynard
Editor - Winging It

Ruffs - Massachusetts and Colorado

A number of Ruffs, ABA Code 3, have been reported this spring, the latest from Rowley, Massachusetts, on 4 May. On May 1, the editor of Birding, Ted Floyd, found a Ruff, Philomachus pugnax, at Boulder Reservoir near Boulder, Colorado, a one-day wonder.  Also in Rowley, MA, a second, darker Ruff was reported on 3 May from Stilt Pond.

The most recent Rowley, MA, bird appears to be a white-variant adult, as pictured by David Sibley in The Sibley Guide to Birds, on page 189.  The Colorado bird has sparked some controversy, not as to its straightforward identification, but as to its gender.  Reported as a female or Reeve, experts from the U.K. and Kevin Karlson of shorebird guide fame, think the CO bird is a male. 

Three types of male Ruffs have been described.  Unlike the more common reproductive strategy in most shorebirds, monogamy, Ruffs use one of the more unusual strategies, polygamy.  In their special type of polygamy, Ruff males defend a small territory on a lek.  Lekking males are larger than female Reeves, and while displaying on their arena, they await females for the sole purpose of reproduction.  In addition to the wildly plumed males, there is a second group of smaller satellite males, less elaborately decorated, who do not defend a territory. While territorial males are strut-walking, wing-fluttering, wing-lifting, and tail-shaking, it is often the satellite males who breed with the females.

Recently, biometrics has revealed a third type of Ruff male, called faeders.  In a study in southern Belarus in 2004, 242 birds were sexed by DNA analysis.  Three birds, identified as males, had female plumage, but their wing lengths were intermediate between females and males with breeding plumage.  Less than one percent of male Ruffs are considered faeders.

The name Ruff is a contraction of the word ruffle, the spectacular feathers on male's necks and heads.  Perhaps because of the large size differences between males and females, the smaller females were given the distinct name Reeve, similar to the different names for male and female game birds.

Regardless, Ruffs have the most elaborate breeding system of all the Scolopacidae, and they are the most-studied.

Bill Maynard
Editor - Winging It

Red-footed Booby - Dry Tortugas

On 26 April 2008, an immature Red-footed Booby, Sula sula, was reported from Dry Tortugas National Park, a cluster of seven islands almost 70 miles west of Key West, Florida. The bird has been most recently reported by Murray Gardler and many observers on Garden Key (also reported on nearby Long Key) on the 27th.   

Although the exact age of the Red-footed Booby has not been discussed, it was reported as a dark morph bird.  This species is truly polymorphic with a white morph, black-tailed white morph, "golden" white morph, brown morph, white-tailed brown morph, white-headed brown morph, and white-tailed brown morph.  It is the only booby with a white tail, although in some morphs the tail is brown.  It is one of two booby species that nest in trees, where it will also roost.

Red-footed Booby is pantropical in distribution with long foraging flights that make plotting its movements difficult.  Juveniles are notorious for long flights, some recorded over 200 miles from the nearest land.  They are reported to leave on foraging journeys at first light, often returning after dark.

This booby is one of the most abundant and widespread, yet is an ABA Area Code 4 species.  Its food preferences, flying-fish and squid, are both caught by plunge-diving, although flying-fish are also caught in flight.  Red-footed Booby have large eyes which help explain how this species can hunt during moonlit nights, when squid come to the surface.  It is a species that often perches on ships. 

Bill Maynard

Editor - Winging It

Flame-colored Tanager - Arizona

Flame-colored Tanager - Miller Canyon, Arizona

Although a Flame-colored Tanager, Piranga bidentata, has been reported yearly for the past few years at the Kubo in Madera Canyon, Santa Rita Mountains, Arizona, it is rarely reported in the Huachucas.  On Saturday, 19 April, a male Flame-colored was reported by Joe Woodley above the Beatty's Guest Ranch and orchard, near the intersection of Miller Canyon Trail and Hunter Canyon Trail.

In the ABA Area, Flame-colored Tanager, was first discovered in Arizona in the Chiricahua Mountains in the South Fork of Cave Creek Canyon, where it remained mid-April to Mid-July 1985.  Since then, both pure and hybrid Flame-colored x Western Tanagers have appeared in the Santa Rita, Huachuca, and Chiricahua Mountains.  Since the first 1996 Flame-colored Tanager report from Big Bend National Park, Texas, there are at least four records from the Trans Pecos, and one from South Padre Island.

Until new editions of filed guides correctly pictured the flaming orange bidentata group of Flame-colored Tanager, the group from West Mexico and the one expected in Southeast Arizona, confusion of this tanager's identity occurred.  The East Mexico and Central American group, sanguinolenta, has males with heads and underparts red to orange-red, and with wingbars often with a reddish wash. 

Keys for separation of young males and females from Western Tanagers and hybrids is discussed in the ABA's A Birder's Guide to Southeastern Arizona by Richard Cachor Taylor.

Bill Maynard
Editor - Winging It

Barnacle Goose - Virginia

The short-billed Barnacle Goose, Branta leucopsis, has one population of about 8,000 birds which breeds in northeastern Greenland.  They begin migration in late August-early September, and most birds stage in southeast Iceland.   Having left Iceland in late September, by November most have reached their British and Irish wintering grounds.  Studies have shown that these birds are faithful to their wintering grounds, with over 70% of banded birds returning to the same location the following winter.

Historically, coastal pastures and saltmarshes are favored feeding areas, where rhizomes, grasses, herbs, crop stubble, and undersown grasses, have been the winter food.  Although the ABA Checklist gives a Code 5 status to Barnacle Goose, the number of individuals present in New England states this winter is greater than their current status would indicate. Winter site fidelity might explain why this species has been present in the same areas the previous few winters.

Recently, a Barnacle Goose was reported on 13 April by William Leigh in Rockbridge, Virginia.  Sightings of this species west of the Atlantic seaboard have been dismissed by most records' committees as escapees from captivity, as this species is one of a number of non-native waterfowl species raised by waterfowl fanciers.

A group of geese, in addition to being called "a gaggle of geese" has also been called "plump of geese", "string of geese" "chevron of geese", "knot of geese", and "blizzard of geese."  The common name, Barnacle Goose, comes from the imagined similarity of this species' head and neck pattern, to a goose-necked barnacle.  In folklore and before their breeding grounds were discovered, Barnacle Geese were thought to develop from these barnacles, which attach themselves to flotsam, drifting about in ocean currents. While the biology of Barnacle Goose has been sorted out, evidence of the provenance of many individuals that appear each winter in the ABA Area, has not.

Bill Maynard
Editor - Winging It

Black-hooded Parakeet - Florida

As summarized in “Flight Path” in Birding, November/December 2006, Black-hooded Parakeet ("Nanday Conure"), Nandayus menday, is an established species in the central Florida Gulf Coast region, occurring at least in the area from Bayonet Point in Pasco County, to Sarasota, Sarasota County, with another isolated population found at St. Augustine, St. Johns County, and scattered along the South Atlantic Coast from Boynton Beach, Palm Beach County, to Kendall, Miami-Dade County.  This exotic was unanimously accepted to the Florida State Bird Checklist by the Florida Ornithological Society Records Committee in 2004, and  failed being on the ABA Checklist by one vote (6 out of 8 voted in favor; 7 yes votes needed for acceptance), in 2006.

The parakeet might be best looked for in Pinellas County, where it is widely established. Since many birders head to seek South Florida specialties in April, it might be prudent to look for these psittacids, native to Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina, and first discovered in Florida in 1969.  This approximately 14-inch long bird is pictured on page 249 of the National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, Fifth Edition.

Bill Maynard
Editor - Winging It

Common Crane - Kansas

Michael Andersen, Peter Hosner, and Hannah Owens observed a Common Crane in flight, and then on the ground, for 25 minutes in the late afternoon of 23 March at the Big Salt Marsh in Quivira National Wildlife Refuge, Stafford County, Kansas.  The bird was with a flock of about 200 Sandhill Cranes and was first observed from the western section of the wildlife drive.  Quivira NWR is near Great Bend, Kansas.

The crane flock, including the Common, moved 1-1.5 miles southwest of the wildlife drive at the end of the day.  For more information on this sighting try: www.birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/KANS.html#1206336078.

Historic information on Common Crane records for North America can be found in the Common Crane - Nebraska, March 10th, posting on these pages.

Bill Maynard
Editor - Winging It