PEEPS

Brambling - Oregon

On 25 November Lona Pierce reported finding an ABA Code-3 Brambling (Fringilla montifringilla) on the Crown Z trail outside of Scappoose, Oregon, foraging in blackberries with a mixed species flock of sparrows.

Bramblings breed in the Palearctic regions of northern Eurasia and winter primarily in the Mediterranean region and in southern Asia. While breeding, this species is found in birch woods, mixed deciduous woodlands, and at edges of conifer forests.  In the northern parts of its range, it is found in dwarf birch and willow scrub (Finches & Sparrows, An Identification Guide, Clement, et al.).  They are known for eating beech mast and in years when this crop is abundant, as many as 80 million birds have been estimated to congregate. 

In the ABA Area outside of Alaska, Brambling has been recorded from British Columbia, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Ontario, California, Colorado, Indiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming (ABA Checklist, Fourth Edition, DeBenedictis et al.).

Streak-backed Oriole - Fountain, Colorado

On 25 November Mark Peterson was talking on his cell phone with his wife when he abruptly told her he had to hang up.  He had just seen an ABA Code-4 Streak-backed Oriole (Icterus pustulatus) come out of a brush pile at Fountain Creek Regional Park in Fountain, Colorado.  Many Colorado birders, including the president of the American Birding Association, scoured the immediate area, but the bird has not yet been relocated.  Hundreds of birders saw a Streak-backed Oriole from 8 December 2007 to 2 January 2008 in Loveland, Colorado.

A resident along Mexico’s Pacific slope to northwestern Costa Rica, Streak-backed Oriole first bred in the ABA Area near Dudleyville, Arizona, in 1993 and again at this location in 1994, 1998, and in 2002.  It is casual in California but accidental elsewhere including the Colorado record and recent report, two records from New Mexico, and two reports from Texas (a male at Brazos Bend State Park and a female at El Paso). Exceptional was an immature male Streak-backed Oriole near Mercer, Wisconsin, during the first two weeks of January 1998.  The Wisconsin bird was initially rejected by their records committee because of uncertain provenance (ABA Checklist, Seventh Edition, Pranty et al.).

Golden-crowned Warbler - Mission, Texas

On 21 November an ABA Code-4 Golden-crowned Warbler (Basileuterus culicivorus) was seen briefly at the National Butterfly Center in Mission, Texas.  On the 22^nd the warbler was photographed at the same location.

Golden-crowned Warbler is a resident from central Nuevo León and Nayarit, Mexico, south to northern Argentina.  In addition to one record from New Mexico, Roosevelt County, 8-10 May 2004, the majority of the other accepted records come from the Lower Rio Grande Valley in Texas (ABA Checklist, Seventh Edition, Pranty et al.).

Thirteen subspecies are recognized (Handbook of the Birds of the World, Volume 15), B. c. brasierii the subspecies found in the Lower Rio Grande Valley.  The majority of the subspecies are sedentary and most occur in submontane forest and edge along with well developed second growth.  Subspecies B. c. brasierii also occurs in gallery forest.  They forage mainly in the undergrowth making them difficult to observe.  They are fairly common to abundant throughout their range.  They have been found to hybridize in southern Brazil with White-bellied Warbler while forming a superspecies with Three-banded Warbler (Basileuterus trifasciatus).

Crimson-collared Grosbeaks - Rio Grande Valley, Texas

In Texas on 21 November, two female-type, ABA Code-4, Crimson-collared Grosbeaks (Rhodothraupis celaeno) were photographed at the Frontera Audubon Sanctuary by a volunteer.

This northeastern Mexican endemic and range restricted species occurs from sea level to 3800 feet from central Nuevo León south to northern Veracruz states.  In its range, Crimson-collared Grosbeak is found in second growth woodlands and in semiarid brushy woodlands and edge (Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America, Howell and Webb).  Most reports from the ABA Area are of single birds and all but one has been reported from late fall and winter months. In the winter of 2004−2005, 9 birds were reported in South Texas, four of them from Weslaco (ABA Checklist, Seventh Edition, Pranty et al.).

Blue Bunting - South Texas

On 17 November John McClung found an ABA Code- 4 Blue Bunting (Cyanocompsa parellina) at his Casa Santa Ana B&B, located near Santa Ana NWR, Texas.  The bird was photographed. Visitors are welcome, take the first road east of Santa Ana NWR.

Unlike Passerina buntings, which Blue Bunting superficially resembles, Blue Bunting has a deep, stout bill with a strongly curved culmen. It is most closely related to Blue-black, Ultramarine, and Glaucous-blue grosbeaks. Of the three recognized Blue Bunting subspecies, C. p.  is a resident in northeast Mexico, including the Mexican states of Tamaulipas, eastern San Luis Potosi, and southern Nuevo Leon and therefore it is the expected subspecies from South Texas. 

Redwing - Seward, Alaska

On 16 November, brutal winds brought a thrush to Seward, Alaska, first called a Dusky Thrush. The bird, now identified as an ABA Code-4 Redwing (Turdus iliacus), is at Lowell Point Beach. 

Redwing is a migratory species with a resident population along the Iceland and Norwegian coasts, Scotland, and the southern Baltic region.  The nominate subspecies, however, breeds from northern and eastern Europe, east across Siberia.  This population winters south in west and southern Europe, northern Africa, the Black and Caspian Sea basins, and southwest Asia (Handbook of the Birds of the World, Volume 10).  In winter it feeds primarily on fruits and seeds. 

Redwing is a common bird in its range with a population estimate at between 5 million and 6.5 million pairs.

Black-tailed Gull - Ohio

On 16 November Craig Holt found an adult ABA Code-4 Black-tailed Gull (Larus crassirostris) at Lakeshore Park on the east side of Ashtabula power plant, Ohio. If it is accepted by the Ohio records committee it would become a first state record. The bird was reported frequently changing locations inside Ashtabula Harbor.

Black-tailed Gull is a northeast Asian species breeding in eastern China, North Korea, southeastern Siberia, the Kuril Islands, and Japan.  It winters along the coast in its breeding range and south to Taiwan (ABA Checklist, Seventh Edition, Pranty et al.).

In the ABA Area, Black-tailed Gull has been recorded on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. There are inland records from Nunavut, southern Manitoba, Great Lakes Region, Iowa, Texas, and New Mexico.  There is also a report of a bird from Sonora, Mexico, from June and also one from Belize.  The first report of Black-tailed Gull from the ABA Area was a bird in San Diego, California, 26-28 November 1954.  A good reference with many photographs written by Nick Lethaby and J. Bangma, “Identifying Black-tailed Gull in North America”, can be viewed in the 1998 issue of Birding, Birding 30: 470-483.

Graylag Goose - Quebec

On 14 November Raymond Belhumeur and Gilles Éthier discovered an ABA Code-5 Graylag Goose (Anser anser) of unknown provenance, but currently thought to be a wild type, frequenting with a large flock of Canada Geese at Saint-Mathias-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, Canada.  The bird was in Chambly Basin at a small urban park, Parc des Voiles. On 3 November 2010 a Graylag Goose of unknown provenance was frequenting with a large flock of Canada Geese in Masstown, Nova Scotia.

The only currently accepted record of Graylag Goose in the ABA Area is of one photographed on a ship about 200 km southeast of St. John’s, Newfoundland, from 24 April−2 May 2005 (NAB 59:396).  “Origin unknown” is often the tag given to out-of-range waterfowl.

The Graylag Goose is a polytypic species that breeds from Iceland to the Russian Far East. Northern populations are extensively migratory, wintering south to the Mediterranean and northern Africa, as well as from India, Asia Minor, and Indochina (ABA Checklist, Seventh Edition, Pranty et al.).  Non-breeding Graylag Geese perform a molt migration to well defined molting areas where they molt their primaries simultaneously and are flightless for about 28 days. The freshwater marsh, Oostvaardersplassen, is currently the most important molting site for this species in Europe.

To read more about the Quebec Graylag Goose in French, please visit:

www.birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/ORNQ.html#1321414956

Pink-footed Goose - New York

On 15 November Deborah Powell reported an ABA Code-4 Pink-footed Goose (Anser brachyrhynchus) from a grassy strip by the Provident Bank in Orange, New York, and most recently from a commercial plaza off Dunning Road NW and its intersection with Schutt Road in Mechanicsville, New York.

Most ABA-area records of Pink-footed Goose have occurred in the past 25 years, occurring in both spring and fall.  As mentioned before in PEEPS, the breeding population in Greenland and Iceland was estimated at 10,000 pairs in 1989, and had increased to approximately 270,000 by 2005 as reported in Wetlands International’s Waterfowl Population Estimates, 4^th edition.

Pink-footed Goose has a small range.  Besides breeding in Iceland and southeastern Greenland, there is a population on Svalbard (Spitzbergen).  Birds breeding in Greenland and Iceland winter mostly in Scotland and in northern and eastern England (Handbook of the Birds of the World, Volume 1).

Rose-throated Becard - South Texas

On 10 November Matt Stenger found a female type, ABA Code-3, Rose-throated Becard (Pachyramphus aglaiae) in South Texas at Estero Llano Grande.

Rose-throated Becards found in the ABA Area come from geographically isolated populations.  Short-billed Arizona birds are representatives of the subspecies, P. a. albiventris, from western Mexico.  These females are buffy-white ventrally and the males have a pale rose throat patch whereas south Texas birds, P. a. gravis, have longer bills.  The coastal Mexican population females are richer buff ventrally and the males have a deep rose throat patch. Members of the genus Pachyramphus (becards) have long been controversial. In 1990, Sibley and Ahlquist considered the genera Tityra, Schiffornis and Pachyramphus to form a distinct group and they placed them all in the Tyrannidae, tyrant flycatchers.  In the late 1990s, following the work by Prum et al., this group was removed from the Tyrannidae and placed in the Cotingidae, the cotingas.  In 2004, Chesser found them to be more closely related to manakins so in 2005 the South American Checklist Committee (SACC) removed Pachyramphusfrom the Cotingidae and temporarily placed them into Incertae Sedis (uncertain position).  In 2006 Ericson et al. established that the group should be placed in anew family, Tityridae, where hopefully they will remain.