Innholdsfortegnelse for May/June 2017 i BirdWatching

Here at BirdWatching, we get a lot of books — nonfiction, memoirs, photography, guides. And, like many of our readers, our bookshelves are overflowing to the point where we’re beyond alphabetizing or using the Dewey Decimal system. We just hope to keep the books off the floor. So it’s not big news when we receive a review copy of a birding book. However, one title that caught our eye was the new anthology Good Birders Still Don’t Wear White, a follow-up to the 2007 Good Birders Don’t Wear White, in which noted birders and authors wrote about their lifelong love of birds. Priced low and in small paperback format, the original was a big hit among birders and was reprinted several times. The sequel features 37 new essays from acclaimed…

YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED BY BIRD BANDER JULIE CRAVES Q Why don’t birds build better nests? It seems like some always fall out of trees in storms, and it is not unusual for me to see baby birds that must have fallen out of nests. — Adam Cox, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania A First, the baby birds you are seeing likely aren’t accidentally falling out of nests. It is perfectly normal for most songbirds to be unable to fly when they leave the nest. A nest full of young birds being visited continually by parents filling hungry mouths is at high risk of being found by predators. It is much safer for birds to leave the nest as soon as they are feathered and able to cling to branches and move around. Parents…

In February, Wildlife Acoustics, a bioacoustics technology company, released Song Sleuth, an app that enables iPhone or iPad users to record, recognize, and positively identify the songs of nearly 200 North American bird species. Developed in collaboration with author, illustrator, and BirdWatching columnist David Sibley, Song Sleuth uses sophisticated algorithms and audio analysis technology specifically tailored to the unique acoustical characteristics of bird songs To identify a nearby bird’s song, users simply tap to record The app immediately reveals the three most probable birds on its “Likely Matches” screen. Final identification of the bird can be accomplished by listening to recordings of the likely matches, comparing spectrograms of the song versus reference recordings, or via the app’s “David Sibley Bird Reference,” which includes Sibley’s illustrations, descriptions, and range maps and…

Whatever happened to “birdwatching?” Back in my youth, before we started calling ourselves “birders,” I used to do a lot of it. A typical morning might be spent searching for bird nests. Once I found one, I’d go back on successive days to see whether the eggs had hatched and if so, what kind of food adults were bringing to young. It was fun watching an adobe nest bloom with open orange mouths whenever an adult robin perched on the rim. One top British birder of my acquaintance confided to me that all he knew about bird biology he learned as a youth when he sought out bird eggs to add to his collection. This outlawed practice was popular among young Brits but seems not to have been much practiced…

On January 20, 2017, when I was staying at my daughter’s place in Brooklyn, New York, I took a train to Valley Stream, walked a short way to a concrete-edged pond at Arthur J. Hendrickson Park, scanned carefully through 360 Canada Geese, 120 Mallards, and a sprinkling of other ducks, and found what I was looking for: my lifer Pink-footed Goose! Arthur J. Hendrickson Park’s name is bigger than the park itself — it’s not even mentioned in Kellye Rosenheim’s Birdwatching in New York City and on Long Island. I learned about the goose and found my way to it thanks to eBird. But how did that one lone goose from Iceland find its way to that tiny park? Vagrants — birds that wander beyond the limits of what we…

PLANNED TURBINES NEAR ISLAND THREATEN BIRDS I have lived on Monhegan island in Maine for 30 years. It is a small island that is located 13 miles off of the coast and is a stop-off for many species of birds traveling the Atlantic Flyway north in the spring and south in the fall. In many cases the island is the first piece of land that birds see after flying north over large expanses of water in the spring; they arrive on the island in huge numbers in late May to rest and eat for several days before continuing their migration north to breed. They come back to the island in the fall to eat as much as they can before heading south back over the water. Hundreds of thousands of…

This year, the American Ornithological Society’s North and Middle America Classification Committee is considering many changes to its official bird checklist, including the following eight. Split Northern and Hen Harriers. A year ago, the committee rejected the idea of splitting Northern Harrier from the Old World’s Hen Harrier, but now it has received new information on morphological and genetic differences between the birds and is re-evaluating a split. Split Willet. As we noted in our February 2017 issue, genetic data suggest the Willets of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts are distinct from their cousins that nest in prairies and grasslands of the western interior. If the committee agrees, it may name the new species Eastern Willet and Western Willet. Split Magnificent Hummingbird. The northern subspecies of this large hummingbird breeds…

Southeast Arizona Birding Festival Attendees at this Tucson-based festival will look for Elegant Trogon, Montezuma Quail, and more. Full- and half-day expert-led field trips explore canyon, mountain, and wetland habitats, and even a ghost town. Photographer and conservationist Paul Bannick will deliver the keynote. August 10-13 Plumas Audubon Society Grebe Festival At this three-day event in Chester, California, participants can witness the “rushing” displays of Western and Clark’s Grebes and get close views of adults and hatchlings during nesting season through field trips on Lake Almanor. August 18-20 Davis Mountains Hummingbird Celebration Held in the Davis Mountains of western Texas, this threeday event includes field trips, banding programs, and other programs featuring hummingbirds and other Southwestern species. Participants have recorded a total of 16 hummingbird species. August 24-26 Hawaii Island…

The Dorinha meanders along a narrowing stretch of black water in the wilderness of Jaú National Park, in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon. A hint of light, from moon or sun, greens and softens the boundless mass of plant life on shore. Birds sing, a rehearsal punctuated by the whip crack of a Screaming Piha, the emblematic call of the Amazon Basin. I’ve yet to see a piha dance, but I know they dance. In Brazil all the birds dance. Wire-tailed Manakins moonwalk with flank feathers fanned. Black-capped Donacobius couples twist and sway with the tight synchronization of champion rhumba partners. Rowdy Guianan Cocks-of-the-Rock strike poses, bob heads, and show off their triple axels before chasing the females through the trees. My favorite, the Capuchinbird, stands bolt upright on…

Hummingbirds: Volume 1, by John C. Arvin, plates by Raul Andrade, Sangeetha Kadur, and Vydhehi Kadur, Gorgas Science Foundation, 2016, hardcover, 216 pages, $60, available at gsfinc.org/hummingbirds/. This is the first of two monumental publications showcasing every hummingbird species in the world. It measures 12x16 inches and weighs about six pounds. The 100 plates of Volume 1 feature 127 species found in North America, Central America, and the Caribbean islands. In the paintings, each species is shown in a scene reflective of its range and environment along with the preferred flowering plant that it’s most associated with or that it serves as exclusive pollinator for. Accompanying text by avian biologist John C. Arvin describes each bird’s life history, distribution, adaptations, morphology, and conservation status. The nonprofit Gorgas Science Foundation, based…

This year, International Migratory Bird Day — May 13 in the United States and Canada — celebrates stopover sites, the places and habitats where birds rest and refuel. The 2017 poster highlights 11 migratory species (from top to bottom): Western Sandpiper, Green-winged Teal, Wilson’s Warbler, Merlin, Wood Thrush, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Painted Bunting, Tree Swallow, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Lesser Yellowlegs, and Bobolink. Argentinian artist Rocío Landívar illustrated the poster. To find Bird Day events, resources for hosting a program, and more, visit www.migratorybirdday.org.…

Appledore Island, Maine, June 2007. I weave through the crowded nesting grounds, wearing a customized helmet with three plastic pipes glued to the top to ward off harassment from above. An eruption of shrill squawks announces my arrival at the heart of the gull colony. An agitated Great Black-backed Gull launches an attack. I duck, the bird’s efforts to land a swift kick to my skull thwarted only by my protective headgear. A short distance away is my refuge, a makeshift blind overlooking a rocky ravine. I sprint the last few yards and climb inside. I turn my telescope to a far ledge covered with gulls, focusing on one gull in particular. The one with yellow legs. This story begins in May 2007, when Appledore Island welcomed two new visitors…

Humans have been fascinated by flight since their earliest writings, and accounts of attempts to master the airways are scattered throughout history. Using kites and gliders, early pilots (sort of) conquered the air. Budding engineers watched birds and tried to emulate them, all the while missing two critical elements — a powerful engine and an extremely lightweight design. In birds, power is developed by massive breast muscles that seem to spill out of the chest and require a large keel on the sternum to provide enough surface area for attachment. To support this power plant, birds have high metabolic rates, as well as high temperatures and a rapid heartbeat, all fueled by high-energy foods — resulting in a high-compression engine. Adaptations for lightness are varied. Feathers, for example, are incredibly…