PEEPS

Garganey, Oregon

On 24 April, Sheila Ralston reported a male Garganey Anas querquedula from Oregon's Malheur NWR.  This species is now an ABA Code 4 bird, formerly listed as ABA Code 3.

Over the past few years this species has declined drastically in numbers.  The decrease in Garganey is thought to be correlated to the decline from eastern Asia.  Between the 1970s and 2003, the total estimated population for Garganey in eastern Asia fell from 90,000 to 22,000 birds (ABA Checklist, Seventh Edition) although the older Handbook of the Birds of the World, Vol. 1 lists this species as being common to abundant throughout its range.

Garganey is a highly migratory species breeding from Western Europe to eastern Asia.  It winters in large numbers in sub-Saharan Africa, the Indian Subcontinent, and Southeast Asia (HBW, Vol. 1).

European Golden-Plover - Newfoundland

An ABA code 4 European Golden-Plover was seen and photographed on 22 April in Bonavista, Newfoundland, by Tony Seaward.  Hopefully Tony won't mind my saying he has a great surname, being from a small coastal fishing village near Cape Bonavista.

European Golden-Plover Pluvialis apricaria is an interesting species in that it occasionally shows in the ABA Area in large numbers, 350 during spring 1988 (AB 42:408) and 205 birds during spring 1994 (Field Notes 48:270).  Most records are from Newfoundland from mid-April to mid-May following storms producing strong northeasterly winds (ABA Checklist, Seventh Edition).  Although the majority of records come from Newfoundland, there is an Alaska record from Ketchican in January 2001 (NAB 55:213) and a record from Nova Scotia, plus the species is reported annually in Greenland, the largest island in the world and the most northeastern part of North America, but somehow not included in the ABA Area (National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, Fifth Edition).

Often debated taxonomically, two subspecies of European Golden-Plover are currently recognized.  Atifrons breeds in humid moss, hummock tundra, open bogs in forest tundra, and alpine tundra, whereas the nominate apricaria breeds on highland heath and peatlands.  Up until the 1950s, 80,000 of these plovers were harvested annually in the Netherlands, and they may still be harvested on French wintering ground (HBW), Vol. 3).

Yellow-faced Grassquit - Florida

A Yellow-faced Grassquit Tiaris olivaceus was discovered at Fort Zachary Taylor State Park in Key West, Florida, on 20 April by Larry Manfredi.  To date, all records of this ABA Code 4 bird from South Florida are of the West Indian subspecies, olivaceus.  Records from Texas are birds belonging to the pusillus subspecies (ABA Checklist, Seventh Edition).  The Key West bird is reported to be a male.  Males of the olivaceus subspecies are separable and show less black (National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, Fifth Edition).

The Tiaris grassquits are an interesting group in that the type species, olivaceus, appears to be genetically distant from the other members of the genus (Birds of Northern South America, Vol. 1, Restall, et. al.).  The South American Checklist Committee (SACC), a branch of the A.O.U., has removed Tiaris grassquits from the Emberizidae (Buntings, Sparrows, Seedeaters and Allies) placing them temporarily in Incertae Sedis (unknown placement). They may end up being placed in the Thraupidae (Tanager Family) as a distinct group of tanager-finches (Birds of Northern South America, Vol. 1.).

Cuban Black-Hawk - Georgia

On 10 April, Tim Banks, the gardens operation manager of Ida Cason Callaway's Fondation's Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain, Georgia, e-mailed Peeps saying he photographed a dark raptor perched for two hours on a bird feeder post in the Gardens' backyard habitat exhibit. Raptors are kept and trained near the facility.  Not a birder himself, Tim inquired with the Callaway raptor staff who reported the bird as being a possible Great Black-Hawk.  Analysis of photographs suggests the bird is a Cuban Black-Hawk Buteogallus gundlachii. The remaining question is the bird's provenance. Any comments about the identification of this bird are welcome.  Photos courtesy Tim Banks.

 

In the Forty-Eighth Supplement to the American Ornithologists' Union Check-list of North American Birds, in The Auk, 124(3):1109-1115, 2007, Cuban Black-Hawk, formerly a subspecies of Common Black-Hawk, was split as a separate species based on difference in size, voice, plumage coloration and pattern. Cuban Black-Hawk is a mangrove specialist and endemic to coastal Cuba, the Isle of Pines, and several of the larger cays in the Cuban Archipelago (Field Guide to the Birds of Cuba, Garrido and Kirkconnell). While Common Black-Hawk is a slate-gray to blackish bird, Cuban Black-Hawk is chocolate brown. The most distinctive character differentiation is undersides of primaries and some secondaries forming a white patch, as compared to a patch grayish-brown in Common Black-Hawk. The most common alarm call in Cuban Black-Hawk consists of 3-4 notes which differs from Common Black-Hawk's 9-24 note call (Taxonomic status and biology of the Cuban Black-Hawk Buteogallus anthracinus gundlachii, Wiley and Garrido in J. Raptor Res. 39(4):351-364.

The question still remaining is the origin of this bird and will it be added to the ABA Checklist.  Since Cuba is part of the A.O.U. area, Cuban Black-Hawk is already on the A.O.U. Check-list.

Bahama Mockingbird, Florida

On 17 April a Bahama Mockingbird Mimus gundlachii was reported by Carl Goodrich at the botanical gardens on Stock Island, FL.  This is an ABA Code 4 bird that gets reported mostly from early April through mid- June.  There was one bird that spent four summers at Key West, 1991-1994, built a nest and was reported to hybridize with Northern Mockingbird (AB 46:414, 47:407, 48:103 in ABA Checklist, Seventh Edition).

Bahama Mockingbird is a resident of the Cuban cays, Jamaica, and the Bahamas.  It is larger (11 inches) and browner than a Northern Mockingbird, with streaks on its flanks and neck.  In flight, it lacks the white wing patches that are prominent in Northern Mockingbird (National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America).

Sinaloa Wren - Huachuca Canyon, Arizona

On 14 April the second Sinaloa Wren in the ABA Area was discovered and identified by Diane Touret in Huachuca Canyon, Arizona.  The bird was first heard giving its distinctive song, although it never called. Today, 15 April, the bird was relocated, video-taped and confirmed to be Thryothorus sinaloa, Sinaloa Wren.

Sinaloa Wren, formerly called Bar-vented Wren, is a West Mexico endemic and could be confused with a similar appearing, but buff-breasted Happy Wren, however the two songs are distinct (Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America, Howell and Webb).  A bird having a song similar to Sinaloa Wren, but with flanks and sides boldly barred is a congener, Banded Wren, found farther south in Mexico (Howell and Webb).

Along with the video recording of this second Arizona Sinaloa Wren, its song was also recorded.  Diane posted on www.birdingonthe.net/AZNM "The song sounded much richer and more complex than the bits of song I've heard from the Sinaloa Wren in Patagonia." Watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pn-NyQNQDaI for a video with sound by Rick and Ricki Thompson, first hearing the Sinaloa Wren, searching for it, and then finally watching the bird forage.

Loggerhead Kingbird, Florida

For the third year in a row, the ABA Code 5 Loggerhead Kingbird Tyrannus caudifasciatus has been found in South Florida.  The place to be for this bird is again in Monroe County's Fort Zachary Taylor State Park in Key West.  The bird was discovered by Carl Goodrich.

Ft. Zachary Taylor State Park is the location of the first confirmed Loggerhead Kingbird in the ABA Area, a bird well-photograped in March 2007.  The photograph of the 2007 Loggerhead Kingbird below is courtesy of Jeff Bouton.

Loggerhead Kingbird was deleted from the ABA Checklist prior to 2007 when two photographs of previous "Loggerhead Kingbirds" from Florida proved to be a look-alike species, Eastern Kingbird, and the other, possibly a Giant Kingbird, a species not yet confirmed for the ABA Area (ABA Chekclist, Seventh Edition).

White-cheeked Pintail - Texas

Carrie and David Dortch found a White-cheeked Pintail Anas bahamensis on the Bolivar Peninsula, TX, on 11 April. This species in the ABA Area is an enigma.  It is a species commonly raised in captivity and is found in many waterfowl collections.  The ABA Checklist Committee states many U.S. reports are of birds of uncertain provenance. 

There is currently only one accepted White-cheeked Pintail record for Texas, a bird from Laguna Atascosa NWR from 20 November 1978 - 15 April 1979 (Handbook of Texas Birds, Lockwood and Freeman). This individual represents the westernmost accepted record of this Caribbean species. White-cheeked Pintail has been reported from many U.S. states and has been rejected, based on unknown provenance, by many recent records committees. 

White-cheeked Pintail is resident in the Caribbean and in north and western South America and the Galapagos Islands.  Caribbean birds are mostly non-migratory (HBW, Vol. 1) although they are said to have seasonal movements in the Handbook of Texas Birds.

Crowned Slaty-Flycatcher - Louisiana

The first ABA Area record of Crowned Slaty-Flycatcher Empidonomus aurantioatrocristatus was photographed and collected in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, on 3 June 2008 by Paul Conover and Buford Myers.  The specimen now resides in the collection of the Louisiana State Museum of Natural Science.  An account of the sighting, collection, and identification can be found in North American Birds, Vol. 62, No. 4.

Crowned Slay-Flycatcher breeds in southern South American and is a common austral migrant to Ecuador, and seen less commonly in Venezuela, and recorded as rare in the Guianas and Venezuela (Birds of Northern South America, Vol. 1,Restall et. al.).  As a migrant, Crowned Slaty-Flycatcher is found in the eastern Amazonian lowlands , particularly in open areas below 2,500 m. The most frequently recorded South American austral migrant is Fork-tailed Flycatcher and last year's White-crested Elaenia is another southern South American species making it into the U.S.

Not only is Crowned Slaty-Flycatcher a new record for the U.S., there is only one record of this austral migrant from Central America, one from central Panama in December 2007 (NAB, Vol. 62, No. 4.). Drawings of this species can be found on Plate 39 in Birds of Columbia, Hilty and Brown, very well illustrated on Plate 206 of Birds of Northern South America, Vol. 2., Restall et. al, and in Birds of Ecuador, Vol. 2, Ridgely and Greenfield, among other South American field guides.