PEEPS

Fork-tailed Flycatcher - Connecticut

On 17 November Tina Green discovered an ABA Code-3 Fork-tailed Flycatcher (Tyrannus savanna) at Cove Island Park in Stamford, Connecticut.

Fork-tailed and Scissor-tailed flycatchers have long been thought to be each other’s closest relative based on their long tail streamers, but their affinity is not supported by molecular-sequence data. Fork-tailed is now thought to be most closely related to Couch’s and White-throated kingbirds.  The yellow coronal patch, typical on kingbirds, is difficult to see except when it becomes prominently displayed during courtship flights.  During winter and in migration, Fork-tailed Flycatchers occur in large harmonious flocks, but they become very aggressive on their breeding grounds where males use their long outer tail feathers in spectacular spiral displays (HBW, Vol. 9). 

Fork-tailed Flycatcher is a tropical species known for it far-ranging migrations.  Some subspecies are sedentary but the nominate, T. s. savanna, is an austral migrant in northern South America wintering north to Central America and the West Indies while T. s. monachus from southern Mexico and Central America is mostly resident, but it has wintered south to northern South America.  Most (all?) ABA records are of birds of the nominate race and they are usually immatures with shorter tails. Fork-tailed Flycatcher could appear in almost any part of North America, although the majority of records occur in the eastern regions.

Crimson-collared Grosbeak - Weslaco, Texas

On 12 November Raul Garza Jr., an employee at Valley Nature Center in Weslaco, Texas, found a female ABA Code-4 Crimson-collared Grosbeak (Rhodothraupis celaeno) while the bird foraged in the trees there. 

This restricted range species, endemic to northeastern Mexico, 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 woodland and edge (Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America, Howell and Webb). Most reports of this species are of single birds and all but one has been reported from 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.).

Taiga Bean-Goose - Salton Sea, CA

On 9 November Al Kalin photographed a bean-goose at Unit One of the Sonny Bono Salton Sea NWR. Paul Lehman reported that it is an ABA Code-4 Taiga Bean-Goose (Anser fabalis). Although many of the California listserve posts refer only to a bean-goose being observed, the AOU split Bean Goose into two species, Taiga and Tundra Bean-Goose in 2007 in their annual supplement.  The committee made the split based on an article in Dutch Birding by Sangster and Oreel (1996).

Photograph is courtesy of Larry Sansone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Taiga Bean-Goose is a causal vagrant to western Alaska with mostly spring records. Many Alaska sightings can only be assigned to bean-goose species because the former Bean Goose sightings were not identified to subspecies at the time. The similar appearing Tundra Bean-Goose (A. serrirostris) is slightly smaller and shorter-necked with a deeper base to the bill with a blunt bill tip, unlike the longer-billed, flattened bill tip in Taiga Bean-Goose (The Stokes Field Guide to the Birds of North America).

Taiga Bean-Goose breeds from northern Scandinavia east to western Anadyrland.  They winter mostly from Great Britain, Europe, the Middle East and southern Asia to eastern China and Japan (ABA Checklist, Seventh Edition, Pranty et al.).

Black-tailed Gull - California

On 8 November Robb Hamilton reported an ABA Code-4 adult Black-tailed Gull (Larus crassirostris) in Los Angeles County along the shore of Alamitos Bay. The first ABA-area record of this species was also from California in November 1954 (ABA Checklist, Seventh Edition, Pranty et al.).

Black-tailed has occurred on both coasts and inland, including singles at Nunavut, Manitoba, Iowa, southern New Mexico, at least two records from Texas and one from Sonora, Mexico. Outside the ABA Area, there is also a report from as far south as Belize.

Black-tailed Gull is a medium-sized gull with mantle color approximately the same gray shade as Franklin’s, Laughing, and occidentalis Western Gulls (Gulls of the Americas, Howell and Dunn). This species breeds in Asia, especially eastern China, northern Korea, southeastern Siberia, Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, and Japan, wintering south to Taiwan. 

Pink-footed Goose - New Brunswick

On 30 October Stu Tingley found an ABA Code-4 Pink-footed Goose (Anser brachyrhynchus) along the Northumberland Straight (east coast) at Cormierville, neat Cocagne, Kent County, New Brunswick. The 
goose is associating loosely with Canada Geese and feeding along the shore, in bays, on lawns, pastures, and in salt marshes. The bird has been seen daily since 30 October (including 8 November) and it moves around in an area about 5 km (3 miles) in length.

Photograph of Pink-footed Goose near Cormierville, New Brunswick, on 1 November 2010 is courtesy of Stu Tingley.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most ABA-area records of Pink-footed Goose have occurred in the past 25 years and occur 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 (HBW, volume 1).

Eurasian Hobby - Shemya Island, Alaska

On 23−25 September Mike Schwitters watched an ABA Code-4 Eurasian Hobby (Falco subbuteo) on Shemya Island in the outer Aleutians. Eurasian Hobby breeds from northwest Africa, Eurasia, and east to Kamchatka and south to Japan.

Photo courtesy of Mike Schwitters.

The majority winter in tropical Africa and on the Indian subcontinent (HBW, Volume 2). Primarily reported from Alaska from late May to early October, there is one record from Washington, and one from Newfoundland (ABA Checklist, Seventh Edition, Pranty et al.). Eurasian Hobby primarily feeds on insects, especially flying insects which are eaten on the wing. During the breeding season it feeds on young songbirds. It is able to catch birds in flight due to its highly acrobatic flight (HBW, Volume 2).

Green Violetear - Texas

On 18 September Becky Baker photographed an ABA Code-3 Green Violetear (Colibri thalassinus) at her feeders in the Davy Crockett National Forest near Ratcliff, Texas. Most Texas records come from the Edwards Plateau (TOS Handbook of Texas Birds, Lockwood and Freeman) but this one is from north Texas.

The ABA Code-3 species is common in the Mexican Highlands and can be found south to the Andes of Peru, Bolivia, and extreme northwest Argentina (Clements Checklist of the Birds of the World, Sixth Edition). South of Texas, in its highland range, Green Violetear is fond of the common Inga and Erythrina trees, ones that are used in the overstory of shade coffee plantations where this species can often be seen singing their monotonous song on exposed twigs, the males often with their violet “ears” flared (Birds of Northern South America, Vol. 1, Restall et. al.). The A.O.U. Check-list Committee recently voted to remove the hyphen that separated “violet” from “ear.”

Lesser Sand-Plover - Coastal Oregon

On 19 September Russ Namitz discovered an ABA Code-3 Lesser Sand-Plover (Charadrius mongolus) formerly called Mongolian Plover, at Bandon Marsh National Wildlife Refuge near Bandon, Oregon.

Lesser Sand-Plover is an intermediate to long-distant migrant. It is accidental outside of Alaska where it is rare but regular on the western islands and casual on the mainland (has bred). Lesser Sand-Plover is an Asian species with several disjunct populations. It breeds on both arctic tundra and mountain steppe and basins up to 18,000 feet (The Shorebird Guide, O’Brien et al.). There are currently five subspecies recognized, placed into two groups, which some authors consider to be separate species. To date, all North American records have been identified as being in members of the stegmanni subspecies, part of the mongolus or northern group.

Probable Great-winged Petrel

Todd Easterla, on a 18 September pelagic trip out of Monterey, CA, spotted a bird thought to be an ABA Code-5, Great-winged Petrel (Pterodroma macroptera). The previous two ABA records of Great-winged are both from California waters and the 18 October 1998 sighting was from Monterey Bay (NAB: 53, cover photo). Both ABA-area records are of subspecies P. m. gouldi (ABA Checklist, Seventh Edition, Pranty et al.), elevated to species by some authors and then called Gray-faced Petrel. Excellent photographs by Dan Brown can be viewed at: http://naturestoc.smugmug.com/Birds/birdrarities/11954342_ungKr#1013076042_67dmM

The Great-winged Petrel subspecies, P. m. gouldi, is endemic to New Zealand, breeding mainly off the northeast coast of North Island. At sea, it is usually solitary, sometimes making fly-bys of pelagic boats. Compared to P. m. macroptera, P. m. gouldi has a stouter bill, longer wings, and a paler face (Albatrosses, Petrels & Shearwaters of the World, Onley and Scofield).

Streaked Shearwater - Monterey Pelagic

On a pelagic trip out of Monterey, CA, on 9 September a few people were able to see, but were unable to photograph, an ABA Code-4 Streaked Shearwater (Calonectris leucomelas).

Most records of Streaked Shearwater from the ABA Area come from the vicinity of Monterey Bay. Totally unexpected inland, two records include a photographed bird from Red Bluff, CA, and one specimen of a salvaged bird from near Medicine Bow, WY. An additional record is from Oregon’s Heceta Bank (ABA Checklist, Seventh Edition, Pranty et al.). Streaked Shearwater is a bird from the northwest Pacific, breeding on islands off Japan, eastern China, Korea, and southeastern Russia. After breeding they migrate to tropical southeastern China, the Philippines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, the Coral Sea, and the Indian Ocean (Albatrosses, Petrels & Shearwaters of the World, Onley and Scofield).