PEEPS

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

Common Myna

A native to Asia, Common Myna, Acridotheres tristis, is well-established in South Florida.  Recently, it was unanimously accepted by the Florida Ornithological Society Records Committee as an established Florida exotic. Hawaii is included in the A.O.U. Check-list Area, where Common Myna was introduced in 1865, and it is currently well-established and abundant on all of the main Hawaiian Islands from Kauai eastward.  It has recently become established on Midway Island.  The ABA Checklist Committee is currently reviewing this species for possible inclusion on the ABA Checklist.

Common Myna, a member of the Sturnidae or Starling Family, is pictured in the Fifth Edition of National Geographic's Field Guide to the Birds of North America.  It is resident from eastern Iran, Turkestan, and the Himalayas, south to India, Sri Lanka, southeastern Asia, and the Andaman Islands.  It has been introduced successfully to South Africa, the Middle East, Malaya, South China (Hong Kong), Australia, New Zealand, and on many islands in the South Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans, and in many islands in tropical and subtropical oceans worldwide.  In some regions this species is locally called Indian Myna or House Myna.  In its native range, Common Myna  breeds all year, often producing multiple broods.  It builds a rather large untidy structure, often in an existing tree cavity, in a palm crown, or on buildings. 

In South Florida, Common Myna was first reported in Miami in 1983.  Currently, it is reported at least as far north as Clewiston and Cocoa Beach, and west through portions of Everglades National Park, to Fort Myers and Everglades City.  It might best be found in the Greater Miami Area, especially in the parking lots of fast-food establishments. 

Bill Maynard
Editor - Winging It

Loggerhead Kingbird, Fort Jefferson, Dry Tortugas, FL

Loggerhead Kingbird made big news in 2007 with an individual from Fort Zachary Taylor, Key West, Monroe Co., Florida, 8-26 March.  The Key West bird was officially added to the Florida State Bird List later in 2007.  Another Loggerhead Kingbird has been reported at the National Park Service's Fort Jefferson, part of Dry Tortugas National Park, located on Garden Key.  The bird was first found and photographed, but was left unidentified by visiting Canadians, Gordon and Laure Neish on Friday, 14 March.   The bird was located near the north coaling docks near the brick pile.  Laure showed her photographs to Larry Manfredi who identified the bird as a Loggerhead Kingbird.  A phone call alerted the Park Naturalist on Fort Jefferson about their Loggerhead Kingbird.  As a result, the bird, relocated almost a week after it was first found, was seen again on 21 March in the same area.

Loggerhead Kingbird, Tyrannus caudifasciatus, has an interesting history in the ABA Area. A bird photographed at Islamorada, December 1971–January 1972, was accepted by Robertson and Woolfenden in Birds of Florida, as were three other photographs from the 1970s.  James Bond, Birds of the West Indies, considered the first bird to be a Giant Kingbird (in litt., cited from Stevenson and Anderson 1994).  Smith et.al. (2000) reviewed the records of the Loggerhead Kingbird from Florida, and he determined that none of the records were conclusive to species. The Florida State Records Committee removed Loggerhead Kingbird from their official list in 2003 as did the AOU Checklist Committee in 2002 and the ABA's CLC in 2002.

From the files of the Florida Records Committee comes this information on the identity of the 2007 Key West bird.  First found by Carl Goodrich, the photographs clearly show a white-bellied, dark-backed kingbird, with a long relatively narrow bill.  The long bill, big head, and short wings eliminate Eastern Kingbird (T. tyrannus).  The entire head is black, contrasting with the dark brown mantle, unlike the Gray Kingbird (T. dominicensis), which has a much grayer crown.  The rather spike-like bill is less wide and deep, and less arched, than that of Giant Kingbird (T. cubensis) of Cuba.  Vocalizations obtained of the Key West bird were also diagnostic for Loggerhead Kingbird.   The Committee, using J. S. Greenlaw’s analysis of geographic variation in the species (in litt.), determined that the bird probably originated from the Cuban (T. c. caudifasciatus) or Isle of Pines (T. c. flavescens) populations, as the subspecies from the Bahamas (T. c. bahamensis) is more yellow below.  Those from Puerto Rico (T. c. taylori) and Hispaniola (T. c. gabbi) do not have a pale tail tip, the subspecies from the Cayman Islands (T. c. caymanensis) is more olive-backed, and the subspecies from Jamaica (T. c. jamaicensis) has a darker back and more distinct white tail tip .  The subspecies from  Isle of Pines differs from the Cuban subspecies by its subtly more olive back and more yellow underwing linings.

Bill Maynard

Editor - Winging It

White-throated Robin - Pharr, Texas

If I had to name one person's yard where the most mega-rarities have occurred, Allen Williams's backyard is the first location that I would choose.  Owner of a landscaping business, Allen has a created a model backyard of mostly native South Texas species, water features, and benches. When he and his wife bought his 2+ acres property, Allen converted his lawn to a wildlife sanctuary, by first adding composted materials to his soil, and then planting shrubs and flowers to attract birds and butterflies.  On 18 March, Lynn Barber spotted a White-throated Robin in the Williams's yard, where visitors are welcome ($10 donation requested). 

White-throated Robin is an ABA Code 4  bird, and is casual in the U.S., all records occurring from South Texas.  The first record of White-throated Robin (Turdus assimilis) occurred at Laguna Vista, Cameron County,TX, 18-25 February 1990.  White-throated Robin is a frugivore, occurring from southern Tamaulipas, Mexico (uncommon) south to Colombia and Ecuador (sometimes considered different species, Dagua Thrush), where it is mostly a forest-skulker from the understory up to the canopy. Howell and Webb, in their Mexican field guide, report that White-throated Robin wanders during winter in Northeast Mexico.

Bill Maynard

Editor - Winging  It

Redwing - Newfoundland

The Redwing, Turdus iliacus, is a migratory Eurasian thrush first documented with a photograph in North America (outside of Greenland) in St. Anthony, NL, where it was seen from 26 June - 1 July 1980.  Since then, a few other records of this species have been documented in the ABA Area, the latest reported from the south side of Quidi Vidi Lake in St. John's, Newfoundland on 8 March 2008.  The bird is being seen with a small flock of American Robins and has been feeding on dogberries (mountain-ash), recently uncovered by recent thaws.

Redwing is an ABA Code 4 bird, meaning that it is of casual occurence here (not annual).  It has been reported in the ABA Area mostly during the winter months. Although most records are from Newfoundland, one individual made it to Long Island, NY, and there is one record of a bird from coastal Washington.  Redwing breeds in the northeastern-most part of North America on the largest island in the world, Greenland, a place that has a mix of both Nearctic and Palearctic species.

Bill Maynard

Editor - Winging It

Common Crane - Nebraska

Since the first North American sighting and photographic record of Common Crane, Grus grus, at Cavendish, Alberta, 11-20 December 1957, the species has been casual on the Great Plains.  Nebraska has the most records of this Eurasian species, with the latest coming from near Rowe Sanctuary, on Thursday, 6 March, found by Sharon Stiteler and Stan Tekiela and 8 others with a birding group from Minnesota.

The origin of Common Cranes in North America is unclear but Lesser Sandhill Crane, G. c. canadensis, has a Siberian breeding population that winters in North America.  In Russia, Common Crane is an uncommon species that breeds in Western Siberia and southern East Siberia and may join up with Lesser Sandhills on their way to North American wintering grounds.  In North America there is documentation of a Common Crane x Sandhill Crane with hybrid offspring.

As of Sunday, 9 March, the Common Crane, ABA Code 4,  was located in Kearney County, south of Rowe Sanctuary. The bird was in a flock of Sandhill Cranes in a cornfield on the north side of W Road about half-a-mile west of Lowell Road.

Bill Maynard

Editor - Winging It

Northern Jacana - Arizona

A cooperative Northern Jacana (Jacana spinosa) has been seen by birders since 1 November '07 at Dave White Golf Course in Casa Grande, Arizona.  This bird has reportedly been observed by golf course personnel for as many as the past three years.  There is precedence for this species to remain north of its usual range for long periods of time.  Northern Jacana became established in Brazoria County, Texas in 1967–1978.  That population, although no longer present, had as many as 40 individuals.  There are three previously accepted Arizona records of Northern Jacana, ABA Code 4.

There are eight jacana species recognized worldwide, two in the New World, and with fossil evidence of an extinct jacana from Florida.  One remarkable feature of all jacanas is their extraordinarily long toes and toenails, allowing them to evenly distribute their weight as they seem to magically walk on floating aquatic vegetation.  They also have a sharp metacarpal spur on their wings that is used in confrontations with other jacanas.  What is not universally recognized is the correct pronunciation of jacana.  In India, the bird is pronounced "jakana".  However, the first jacana species to be described to science, Wattled Jacana, was probably named from Portuguese as Jaçanã, an interpretation from Portuguese of a Tupi-Guarani word for the bird.  Tupi and Guarani are the two official languages of Paraguay’s Guarana region where the first specimen of a jacana, Jacana jacana was collected.  In that South American region, it is locally called JAH-sah-NAH where the "j" is pronounced "Zh" and the "c" is soft.  However, the family name Jacanidae, is pronounced ja-CAN-i-dae.

Another thought on the origin of the word jacana follows. Two Jesuit priests founded the city of São Paulo, Brazil and in 1554 transcribed Tupi words into the Portuguese alphabet (which includes ç) and wrote a dictionary and a grammar.  These formed the basis for proper names of Tupi origin in Portuguese. Jaçanã most likely is a word used by the Tupi groups that lived along the Southeast Brazilian coast, although the word would probably be recognized by many of the Amazonian indigenous groups.  In fact, in the 19th century, a simplified form of Tupi was used as lingua geral (a language of general use) in most of the Brazilian hinterland. (Wikipedia)

In current Brazilian Portuguese, Jaçanã is pronounced ja-sa-nan with "ja" as "sa" and "nan" as most would pronounce it in English.

Most recently, a body of the America Ornithological Union, the South American Checklist Committee (SACC), posted on their website "We do not use a cedilla in "jacana" (or "aracari") because the Oxford English Dictionary treats these as English words without a cedilla."  While this doesn't entirely answer the question, how to pronounce jacana, it hopefully shows why there are so many interpretations.

Bill Maynard
Editor – Winging It