PEEPS

Bahama Mockingbird - South Florida

On 28 May Justin Miller found an ABA Code-4 Bahama Mockingbird (Mimus gundlachii) in Boca Raton, Florida, at the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center where it was frequenting mangrove trees near the Intracoastal Waterway.

This species is larger and more secretive than its congener, Northern Mockingbird, and it is reported to have a similar repetitive song, but it supposedly does not mimic other bird species. Although many reports of Bahama Mockingbird in the past have been sent to the Florida Bird Records Committee, as of 2008 only about 8 records had been accepted (ABA Checklist, Seventh Edition, Pranty et al.). Although this is a range-restricted species, it is said to be expanding its range in the Bahamas. Bahama Mockingbird has been documented to hybridize with Northern Mockingbird (AB 46:414; NAB 60:368, 469).

 

Alaskan Rarities

On 27 May Isaac Helmericks watched an ABA Code-4 Hawfinch (Coccothraustes coccothraustes) at his feeder on Adak Island, Alaska.

Hawfinch is partially migratory and the subspecies recorded from the ABA Area is C. c. japonicus, a subspecies that breeds throughout Japan and on Sakhalin Island, wintering from east central China to Korea, southern Japan, and to Bonin and Iwo Islands (Finches & Sparrows, An Identification Guide, Clement et al.). They are thought to be closely related to the New World Evening Grosbeak and to the Middle American Hooded Grosbeak, both in the genus, Hesperiphona.

In the ABA Area, the first record of Hawfinch was of a specimen from St. Paul, Pribilof Islands 1 November 1911. Currently it is almost an annual visitor to the western Aleutian Islands between mid-May and mid-June. Birders on Attu Island on 17 May 1998 counted 18 birds there (ABA Checklist, Seventh Edition, Pranty et al.).

Elsewhere in Alaska, Paul Lehman reported three Common Ringed Plovers, a Red-throated Pipit, and a Ross’s Gull from 27 May and a White Wagtail on 23 May at Gambell on St. Lawrence Island.

On St. Paul Island, Pribilof Islands, Forrest Rowland reported 5 Wood Sandpipers, 1 Common Sandpiper, 2 Common Snipe, and several Slaty-backed Gulls on 26 May.

On the restricted military installation on Shemya Island in the Outer Aleutians, an ABA Code-4 Great Knot was photographed at South Beach on 24 May.

Fan-tailed Warbler - Southeast Arizona

On 23 May Gary Rosenberg heard an ABA Code-4 Fan-tailed Warbler (Euthlypis lachrymosa) singing (a series of sweet notes ending in an up-slur or a down-slur) in Madera Canyon downhill from the Kubo Lodge.  It has been seen and photographed by many. (Recently the AOU Check-list Committee voted to abolish the Dendroica warbler genus and move them into new and existing genera.  In the same move, the Euthlypis genus was merged into the large, mostly tropical, Basileuterus genus so in late July expect Fan-tailed Warbler to be reassigned as  Basileuterus lachrymosa.  A tear is shed).

Photograph is courtesy of Brian Gibbons.

 
 
The large warbler, Euthylpis (Basileuterus) lacrymosa, has only been reported a few times in the ABA Area, mostly in Arizona, but with one record from Big Bend National Park, TX, in late summer 2007.  This unique warbler is endemic to Mexico and northern Central America (northwestern Mexico, Sonora and southern Tamaulipas, south to western Nicaragua). There is also a record from Baja California (Warblers, Dunn and Garrett). The northern populations are migratory (ABA Checklist, Seventh Edition).  With its distinctive broken white eye ring and white loral spot, the facial pattern to some appears as a bird shedding a tear, thus the name lacrymosa.  The appropriate common name, fan-tailed, comes from this bird often pumping its tail up-and-down and moving it from side-to-side as it walks along the ground. 

 

Black-tailed Godwits - Newfoundland, Canada

On 20 May Tom Cooper found the rarest of the four ABA-area godwits, two ABA Code-3 Black-tailed Godwits (Limosa limosa), feeding on earthworms at the west end of the Catalina causeway in Catalina, Newfoundland (a 3-hour drive from St. John’s).  The birds were still present on the 22^nd of May.

These long distant migrants are known to make few stops on their way to breeding grounds in Iceland, Shetland Island, western and central Europe, Russia; a disjunct population breeds in Siberia, eastern Mongolia, and the Russian Far East.  Depending on the subspecies, Black-tailed Godwits can be found wintering in Ireland, western France, Portugal, Spain, the Mediterranean region, sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, India, Indochina, Taiwan, the Philippines, New Guinea, Indonesia, and Australia.

On their breeding grounds they often nest in semi-colonial groups in wet grasslands, in areas with moderately high grasses, in lowlands, and in raised bogs and moorlands. The total population estimate is 140,000–270,000 pairs.  Some authors consider Black-tailed Godwit to be conspecific with Hudsonian Godwit (Handbook of the Birds of the World, Volume 3).

Although the three subspecies can be difficult to separate because of the timing of molt and differnces in plumage by age, both  L. l. islandica (wintering in western Europe) and L. l. limosa (winters in Africa) are the vagrants to the East Coast, whereas L. l. melanuroides is a vagrant to Alaska from Asia.

 

Little Egret - Delaware

On 22 May Ed Sigda and Bruce Peterjohn found an ABA Code-4 Little Egret (Egretta garzetta), the European counterpart to Snowy Egret of the Western Hemisphere, at Fowler's Beach in Delaware.

LIttle Egret is a widespread breeder through much of the Old World and they mostly winter from Africa to India, southeastern Asia, and Australia. In the ABA Area, the majority of reports come from the Atlantic Coast from late-April to late-September.  They are accidental in western Alaska and there are widespread reports from many island nations in the Western Hemisphere (ABA Checklist, 7th Edition, Pranty et al.).

The taxonomy of Little Egret has been controversial and until recently some authors lumped Western Reef-Heron and Intermediate Egret with Little Egret.  In Handbook of the Birds of the World, Volume 1, the authors treat Little Egret as being polymorphic including the dark Western Reef-Heron.  However, both the A.O.U. Check-list Committee and the ABA Checklist Committee list Little Egret and its closest relatives as separate species.  The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World separates Western Reef-Heron as a good species.  The European range of this species is expanding and some authors predict that Little Egrets in North America may begin to expand in a manner similar to what has been occurring with this species in Europe.

Brown-backed Solitaire - Southeast Arizona

On 18 May John Yerger detected an ABA Code-5 Brown-backed Solitaire (Myadestes occidentalis) while he was hiking in Morse Canyon on the west side of the Chiricahua Mountains, Arizona.  The bird was heard only as it moved to the west side of the canyon. A fire currently burning in Rucker Canyon may close this trail and it is speculated the fire may move the bird into West Turkey Creek.

There are only two accepted records of Brown-backed Solitaire in the ABA Area, one male in Miller Canyon, Arizona, found and photographed by participants of the youth birding camp, Camp Chiricahua, on 16 July 2009. Likely the same bird then moved to Ramsey Canyon, AZ, where it was present 18 July – 1 August where it was photographed and audio-recorded (ABA Checklist updates). Another report of this species was of a photographed bird from Arizona 4 October 1996 but the report was rejected by the Arizona Bird Committee because of the species’ uncertain origin and a pattern of vagrancy has/had not been established.  Helen Snyder, a biologist living in the Chiricahua Mountains, reported hearing a Brown-backed Solitaire singing in 1994 in a small canyon on the west side of Cottonwood Canyon, the Chiricahuas. 

Brown-backed Solitaire is a close relative to Townsend’s Solitaire (and other solitaires from Central and South America). It is an endemic to the highlands of Mexico and northern Central America  breeding as close to Arizona as southern Sonora and Chihuahua or about 320 miles from the Arizona/Mexico border (Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America, Howell and Webb).

 The song is heard year-round and is a characteristic sound of highland forests (Birds of Mexico, Howell and Webb).  A link to this songsterand other bird vocalizations can be heard on the excellent xeno-canto site, http://xeno-canto.org/browse.php?query=sp:3014.00

Eurasian Hobby - Massachusetts

On 18 May Ian Davies reported an ABA Code-4 Eurasian Hobby (Falco subbuteo) in the vicinity of Bartlett Pond in the Manomet section of Plymouth, Massachusetts.  The bird was photographed while perched and flying.

The majority of the reports of Eurasian Hobby in the ABA Area come from western Alaska, all from late May to early October.  One was in Seattle, Washington, in October 2001 and one record comes from Cape Spear, Newfoundland, Canada, from 21 May 2001 (ABA Checklist, Seventh Edition, Pranty et al.). 

Eurasian Hobby (Eurasian breeder) feeds primarily on insects, mainly flying insects it catches on the wing, and during the breeding season they prey upon birds including swallows and swifts. Most subspecies are migratory wintering in southern Africa and the Indian subcontinent (Handbook of the Birds of the World, Volume 2).

Black-tailed Gull - Washington

On 13 May Steve Caldwell, Bob Forgie, and Gary Nafis saw and adult, ABA Code-4 Black-tailed Gull (Larus crassirostris) as it flew past the end of the boardwalk at Bowerman Basin, near Hoquiam, Washington. 

Black-tailed Gull is a partially migratory, four-cycle, medium sized gull from northeast Asia breeding in eastern China, North Korea, southeastern Siberia, the Kuril Islands, and Japan.  It winters on the coast in its breeding range south to Taiwan (ABA Checklist, Seventh Edition, Pranty et al.).  The first accepted North American record seems to be one from San Diego Bay, California, 16–18 November 1954 (Auk 72:208). 

In the ABA Area Black-tailed Gull has been recorded on both coasts and there are inland records from Nunavut (the largest and newest federal Canadian territory), southern Manitoba, the Great Lakes Region, Iowa, Texas, and New Mexico.  There is a report of a bird from Sonora, Mexico, from June and also one from Belize.  The increased number of yearly reports may result in an ABA code change to a Code-3 species.

Rufous-collared Sparrow - Colorado

On May 8 Andrew and Tim Davis found and photographed a singing bird not on the ABA Checklist, a Rufous-collared Sparrow (Zonotrichia capensis) near Georgetown, Colorado, in the mountains west of Denver.

Rufous-collared Sparrow is the only tropical member of the Zonotrichia genus and a popular cage bird in parts of its range.  It is common to abundant in its extensive range including many higher elevation cities in South America and it occurs, depending on the country, from sea level to over 11,000 feet. The range of Rufous-collared Sparrow extends south from the highlands of the Mexican state of Chiapas to southern Chile and southern Argentina.  It also occurs in the Cordillera Central of the Dominican Republic.  Almost all of the 28 subspecies recognized by Clements are sedentary.  During the austral winter, Z. c. australis from southern Chile and southern Argentina migrate north, but only as far as Bolivia and northern Argentina (SPARROWS AND BUNTINGS, A Guide to the Sparrows and Buntings of North America and the World.

Many Coloradans have gone to see this bird and COBirds listserve posts asking “why can’t it be a wild bird” have begun. 

Common Crane - California

On 5 May Alan Barron found and photographed a Common Crane (Grus grus) near the southeastern end of Lake Earl in Del Norte County, California. Although Common Crane is an ABA Code-4 species on the ABA Checklist, it does not currently appear on the California state checklist of birds, however Demoiselle Crane (Anthropoides virgo) appears on the California Supplemental List, species for which the California Bird Records Committee (CBRC) has determined that all of the correctly identified records are of uncertain natural occurrence.  Species thought by the CBRC to be probable escapees are not on their Supplemental List.  

States and provinces currently with at least one accepted record of Common Crane include, Alberta, Alaska, Indiana, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Québec, and Saskatchewan.  Both Indiana and Nebraska have had Common Cranes that are known to pair with a Sandhill Crane, producing offspring. A Common Crane from upstate New York is known to have escaped from a farm, traveling to Vermont and New Jersey where it paired with a Sandhill Crane (ABA Checklist, Seventh Edition, Pranty et al.).