Crested Caracara in New Jersey

Last Saturday while I was off birding elsewhere, Vincent Nichnadowicz discovered a Crested Caracara in a field at Grover Farm, a historic preservation site in West Windsor, New Jersey. The bird stuck around, and since then numerous birders have gone to see and document it. Yesterday morning I finally had a chance to see it. Getting there took more than twice as long as it should have, as traffic on US 130 was backed up for miles because of a truck accident that shut down the New Jersey Turnpike. By the time we got to the site, the caracara had already left its overnight roost on a utility pole and was foraging on the ground in a depression on the far side of the field. Its head was just barely visible above the alfalfa.

Eventually it did move around a bit more as it foraged. Several times it stopped walking to pick at something on the ground with its bill. Most of its body became visible when it walked up on the small rise in front of the depression, which allowed for more complete views of the bird and (relatively) better photographs. I think the one above is the best of the ones I took. In it, you can see the caracara's distinctive facial features — the orange base of its hooked bill, the black cap and crest, and the white face and neck. The tail banding is also visible. In the hour and a half that I watched it, I never saw it fly. This was the 300th bird species I have seen in New Jersey. Several other birders were present yesterday morning, including two who had driven down from New York City.

Crested Caracara is not a regular visitor to New Jersey. This species is normally found much further south, in southern Florida, the Caribbean, Texas, and south through Mexico, Central America, and northern South America. It prefers arid or semiarid open habitats, such as brushland or agricultural areas. There are two other caracara species from which it was recently split: Southern Crested Caracara and Guadelupe Caracara (the latter now extinct). Caracaras are placed within the family Falconidae. Unlike other falcons, they run after prey on the ground and scavenge instead of pursuing birds in the air. Caracaras will feed on carrion or garbage if those are available; otherwise they prey on a variety of small animals like rodents, amphibians, reptiles, and invertebrates. When they hunt on foot, they use their feet to turn over objects that might conceal prey.

This is not the first time a Crested Caracara has been reported in New Jersey, but it is still a potential first state record. Bill Boyle's Birds of New Jersey (which I reviewed here) mentions two previous records, neither of which was accepted by the New Jersey Bird Records Committee. The first was in Colonia in 1976 and was so tame that birders assumed it had escaped from captivity. The second was seen at Sandy Hook on May 5, 2007. In both cases, the NJBRC rejected the records because they were unsure if the birds were actually wild. Historically, Crested Caracara was considered a sedentary species, unlikely to travel much beyond its normal range. However, as Nate Swick and various commenters discuss on the ABA Blog, there have been enough sightings of the species across the continent in recent years to suggest that caracaras may be more prone to vagrancy than previously thought. Some local birders are speculating that this individual was blown north by the remnants of Hurricane Isaac. That may be true, or it may have flown here under different circumstances. Many birders from the area are seeing and documenting this bird's appearance and behavior so hopefully we will have a clearer idea of this individual's status than the previous two sightings.

A Productive Day of Birding

Yesterday morning my friend Anthony picked me up for a morning of birding. Our first stop was a field in Cranbury that he discovered was one of the few reliable spots in Middlesex County for grasspipers and other denizens of plowed agricultural fields. The site itself is rather nondescript, down a side road next to an office park. When we arrived, a tractor was plowing the opposite side of the field, which initially caused some concern that it might spook the birds away. However, out target species were there. Anthony found about a dozen Horned Larks among the weeds in one of the unplowed furrows. The Horned Larks, in addition to being a county bird, were my 2,000th county tick* in New Jersey. Soon after, three American Golden-Plovers, another county bird for me, turned up further back on the field. In addition to the two target species, some Killdeer and Least Sandpipers were using the field. At one point, the sandpipers flushed, and we could see a larger and chunkier sandpiper among them. Unfortunately, the larger sandpiper flew over the far treeline instead of landing back in the field.

Having seen our target birds in Cranbury, we headed off to Sandy Hook to look for an Elegant Tern that was reported there earlier in the week. Elegant Terns normally reside on the Pacific Coast, particularly around Baja California and the Sea of Cortez. About 90-97% of Elegant Terns nest on a tiny island about a third of the way down the Sea of Cortez. They are frequent vagrants, but infrequent visitors to the Atlantic Coast. This bird was the first Elegant Tern recorded in New Jersey. Other eastern records have come from Texas, Florida, Virginia, and Massachusetts.

We arrived at Sandy Hook at the same time as a thunderstorm, so we sat in the car to wait it out. When it stopped raining, we started out along the Fishermen's Trail. At the end of the trail, another downpour started, so we huddled under Anthony's umbrella until it passed, which was not long but long enough to make sure that our legs and feet got soaked. While we were waiting we saw a few Black Terns that braved the storm in among the far more numerous Common Terns. After we had followed the curve of the beach past the tidal cut, another birder signaled that he had the Elegant Tern and gave us a look through his spotting scope. In the photo above, it is the larger tern just beyond the Black Skimmer. The narrow, pointed bill was fairly obvious; the difference between this bird's crest and a Royal Tern's slightly less so. We looked for but did not find the Buff-breasted Sandpipers and Baird's Sandpiper that have also been reported from that area. A brief walk through the Scout Camp area turned up two very early Dark-eyed Juncos and a Palm Warbler.

On the way back from Sandy Hook, we stopped at Morgan Mudflats, but there was not much activity. The tide was high enough to cover the spit, so the only terns we saw were two Royal Terns in flight. At the end of the trail from the cul-de-sac there was a Green Heron in bad condition. An immature Cooper's Hawk was alternately chasing and being chased by a gang of American Crows. At that point we wrapped up a very good day of birding.

* County ticks are the sum of each county list in the state, i.e., a bird species counts once for each county it is recorded in. I would be unlikely to keep that tally myself, but luckily, eBird keeps it for me.

Eurasian Wigeon at Perth Amboy

A few weeks ago I went to see a drake Eurasian Wigeon that was spending time with American Wigeons near the docks for the Cornucopia Princess cruise lines. It was originally found near the NJ Transit train railroad bridge between Perth Amboy and South Amboy during the Raritan Estuary CBC on December 26, and then it moved slightly upstream to the Cornucopia Princess docks. Since then, the bird has stuck around and recently moved again, this time to the Arthur Kill side of the Perth Amboy waterfront promenade.

It is associating with about a dozen American Wigeons in a small cove just south of the yacht club. This area is much favored by waterfowl as it provides a certain degree of protection from the elements. A short breakwater keeps the ducks from having to brave waves coming from the bay, and the houses along Water Street break up westerly winds. Even on a blustery day like yesterday, the area around the cove is relatively calm. I cannot speak to the foraging opportunities, but it seems that the dabbling ducks find plenty to eat at the location.

I liked the wigeon's change of scenery since it meant I could watch and photograph it at much closer range than I was able to back in January. Here are a few more photos of the bird. While I was photographing it, a sudden squall dropped snow flurries, visible in the image above.

Greater White-fronted Goose at Donaldson Park

As I was wrapping up my usual circuit around Donaldson Park yesterday afternoon, I stopped to scan the 300+ Canada Geese in the field next to the tennis courts. On my first scan, I didn't notice anything unusual, but I then heard a high-pitched, three-noted honk that I knew was not made by a Canada Goose. I scanned again and found a Greater White-fronted Goose fairly close to me. Since it showed no signs of flying away, I sat and watched it for a while as it foraged in the soccer field. Though it was slightly smaller than the Canada Geese in the same flock, it mostly held its own against its neighbors and occasionally fought back when they got too aggressive.

Greater White-fronted Geese breed in the Arctic across the northern hemisphere. Three subspecies breed in Alaska and Canada, and one subspecies that breeds in Greenland, flavirostris, is a rare visitor to the U.S. east coast. Members of this subspecies are somewhat larger and darker than the other subspecies and have an orange bill, all of which are consistent with the bird I saw, though I hesitate to call it such without having other birds for comparison. Greater White-fronted Goose is a fairly uncommon bird in eastern North America, though this winter may be an exception to that rule. Most of the flavirostris population migrates eastward to winter in Ireland and Scotland, and most of the continental North American populations migrate west of the Mississippi. That makes it a good county bird in addition to being a really good county bird.

Aside from the unusual goose, I mostly saw the usual birds during my walk yesterday. One exception was a pair of Peregrine Falcons that I saw fly upstream along the river. The falcons were flying in tandem and briefly put all the gulls to flight. The gulls all settled down when the falcons continued on their way.

Cackling Goose at Donaldson Park

On Thursday afternoon, I found a small goose among a flock of over 600 Canada Geese in Donaldson Park near the tennis courts. After watching it for a while I concluded that it was most likely a Cackling Goose based on a combination of features. Its bill was noticeably short compared to nearby Canada Geese, its head was fairly blocky, and its back and undersides were noticeably pale – almost grayish – compared to the nearby geese. This feature stood out more in person than in my photos. It was also small compared to the flock as a whole, though quite of the Canada Geese were smaller than average themselves.

When I returned to the park yesterday afternoon, the Cackling Goose was there again, this time in the field at the foot of Second Avenue.

A few other notable birds were also present in Donaldson Park on Friday afternoon. One was the American Pipit shown above, which flushed from the field at the foot of Second Avenue and landed in the nearby brush. Another was an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull that was among a huge gull flock (mostly Herring Gulls) between the park and Rutgers Boathouse. To cap things off, a Merlin flew by while I was walking at the other end of the park.

Eurasian Wigeon in Perth Amboy

Last week, during the Raritan Estuary CBC, one of the parties found a drake Eurasian Wigeon along the Perth Amboy waterfront. The bird was later refound by other birders, including my friend Patrick, at the Cornucopia Cruise Lines docks a little further upstream from Perth Amboy. Yesterday I finally had a chance to go see the bird. It was not immediately visible from the Cornucopia parking lot, but I was able to find it by following a paved pathway from the parking lot upstream towards the Rt. 35 bridge. There were quite a few ducks tucked close to shore. In addition to the unusual interloper, there were American Wigeons, Gadwall, American Black Ducks, and Red-breasted Mergansers.

Eurasian Wigeon is an unusual bird for New Jersey and is even rarer in Middlesex County. Most records in the state come from coastal hotspots like Cape May, such as the ones I saw there in January 2010 and again in November 2010. Given its rarity, it should not be a surprise that this was a new county bird for me, #199.

Snowy Owl at Merrill Creek Reservoir

A few weeks ago, a Snowy Owl was reported at Merrill Creek Reservoir in Warren County, New Jersey. If current trends continue, it may turn out to be part of the vanguard in a Snowy Owl irruption year. That aside, it has stuck around for a few weeks and has been seen by numerous observers. Yesterday, I finally got a chance to visit the reservoir and see it. Normally, when I visit Merrill Creek, I prefer to stay in the wooded wildlife sanctuary on the north end of the reservoir, but yesterday I decided to walk all the way around to see the owl and look for any waterfowl that might be hanging around the edges of the reservoir.

As you can see from the photo, I was successful in finding the Snowy Owl. Thanks to some directions posted on Friday on Jerseybirds, the owl was fairly easy to find. The owl is visible from the top of the main dam, on the south side of the reservoir. The dam is very high, so a scope will give better views, but I was able to see the owl and watch it turn its head back and forth just with binoculars.

The rest of my walk was fairly quiet, with only a few bird flocks here and there. I saw a lot fewer waterbirds than I expected: only about two dozen Buffleheads and a half dozen Horned Grebes. It felt a little strange to be walking around a body of water with no Canada Geese or Mallards visible. Land birds were also a little sparse. The highlights were a couple of calling Hairy Woodpeckers and a pair of Eastern Bluebirds. Somehow, though, I managed to add 13 species to my bird list for Warren County.

Finally a Greater White-fronted Goose

On Thursday, I had a chance to see a bird that has been on my wishlist for a while: a Greater White-fronted Goose. This was one of the last waterfowl missing from my lifelist that I could see in the eastern United States. I had attempted to see it on a few other occasions in a few other places but missed each time, often getting there a day or two after the last known sighting. Early this week, I found out about one that had been observed at Duke Island Park, a small park near the confluence of the North Branch and South Branch of the Raritan River. So on Thursday I went out to see it.

As it turned out, this turned out to be one of the easiest life birds I have ever looked for. The Greater White-fronted Goose was associating with a large flock of Canada Geese, and on Thursday morning, the flock was in the park's small pond. The Greater White-fronted Goose was on the side of the pond closest to the parking lot, so I had spotted the bird within five minutes of arriving. It stayed on that side of the pond for the entire time I was there, so I had plenty of opportunity to watch and photograph the goose.

Greater White-fronted Geese breed in the Arctic. Most winter in western North America and eastern Canada, but a few show up in the eastern United States each winter. These geese are slightly smaller than Canada Geese and resemble Greylag Geese, which provided the ancestral stock for most domesticated barnyard geese. They are recognized by their distinctive bright orange bill with a white vertical stripe at the base of the bill. They also have black barring on their breasts, but that field mark was mostly not visible on this bird since it was sitting in the water. In the photo above, you can see one of the black bars poking just above the waterline.

The rest of the park was pretty quiet. On the road leading from the park commission building to the dam, I saw a half dozen Eastern Bluebirds, two Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, and three Yellow-rumped Warblers. Other characteristic winter birds were present, like White-throated Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos. One Blue Jay was making some odd noises that sounded more like chirps than like the typical Blue Jay calls. (Now that I think of it, I probably should have tried recording its vocalizations.) I was surprised to see two Orange Sulphurs, one of which is in the photo above. I had not seen any butterflies in a while and figured that they had been killed off by recent cold weather.

Vagrant Birds from Hurricane Irene

Hurricane Irene Reaches New York City / Credit: NASA/NOAA GOES Project

Tropical cyclones like Hurricane Irene are well-known among birders for carrying numerous birds far from their normal ranges. Aerial waterbirds – those that earn their living on the wing over open ocean – are particularly prone to displacement. The prospect of seeing storm-blown birds, especially ones that one would normally need to travel or take a pelagic trip to see, lures birders to coastal areas or inland spots with open water even before a storm has completely subsided. I made some mostly unsuccessful attempts to find unusual birds at my usual spots. Other birders had much better luck, and it turns out that Irene's track was particularly conducive to sighting entrained birds from land in this area.

Here are a few of the sightings that have been reported so far:

• Cape May was under a mandatory evacuation order, but that did not stop some birders from staying behind and birding Cape May Point the next day, with impressive results. Normally, a sighting of two White-tailed Tropicbirds from land at this latitude would be the highlight of a day's birding, but the birders at the Point also saw a probable White-collared Swift, which would be a state record and a first for the Northeast.
• Birders at Finderne Wetlands in Somerset County found a nice collection of terns for an inland site.
• In New Jersey, there were also some good birds seen along the Delaware River, Hudson River, and New York Bay.
• Corey and other NYC birders watched from several vantage points on Long Island's southern coast and found three storm-petrel species and a Bridled Tern.
• Nick Bonomo has posted several updates on Irene; his sightings on Sunday in coastal Connecticut included several storm-petrel species.
• Lake Nockamixon featured four species of terns, including Sooty Tern.
• The Nemesis Bird reports Sanderlings in Centre County, Pennsylvania.
• Nate chased some reports of coastal species at inland sites, finding some but not others.

Finally, the Hurricane Irene 2011 blog has been collecting sightings from throughout the areas affected by the storm. The Philadelphia Inquirer has an article on hurricane birding in the Philadelphia area. If you live in or near the storm's path, did you see any unusual birds this weekend?

Eurasian Collared-Dove at Cape May Point

While I was down at the shore last week, I managed to see a Eurasian Collared-Dove that has been hanging around in Cape May Point for the last several weeks. Apparently there is also a second bird, which I did not see. This was a life bird for me, and it brought my life list up to 350 species. It was larger than I expected, built more like a Rock Pigeon than a Mourning Dove.

Eurasian Collared-Doves originated in southern Asia and gradually spread west and north into Europe. In the 1970s, some were released on Bermuda, and their population quickly grew and spread into North America from there. Their current range covers the Deep South, with pockets of breeding birds in the southern Great Plains and southern California. It would not surprise me to see their population spread further north, especially as the climate warms and becomes more hospitable to them. Their rapid spread has led to concerns about their invasive potential, though what effect they may have on native species like the Mourning Dove remains unknown.

Gray-hooded Gull at Coney Island

Over the past week, I have been watching reports of a vagrant Gray-hooded Gull, from happy birders who saw it and frustrated birders who missed it. The gull has been present at Coney Island since at least July 24; whether it arrived earlier than that is unknown. However, its presence was only reported publicly several days later, after an eBird reviewer figured out that the Black-headed Gull reported to eBird was really a Gray-hooded Gull. That set birders in motion, both New York birders who wanted to see the gull for their state and county lists and birders from other states who wanted the potential life bird. Andrew, Corey, and Rob have all seen it, and even The New York Times and New York took notice.

The reason for all this fuss is that the Gray-hooded Gull (Chroicocephalus cirrocephalus) is very rare in North America. The species is called Gray-hooded Gull by the A.O.U., but elsewhere it is known as Gray-headed Gull. Only one other individual has been documented in the United States, in Florida in 1998 (pdf). Peter Harrison's Seabirds: An Identification Guide shows two populations: one in central South America, ranging from the southeastern coast of Brazil to the Pacific coast, and the other in Africa south of the Sahara. According to Howell and Dunn's Gulls of the Americas, the South American population is slightly larger and has paler uppersides and head markings. There has been some discussion over which population this bird came from. To me, South America makes the most sense since a lot of birds migrate between North and South America anyway; it could have joined a northbound flock this spring and wandered around. Then again, we get an occasional bird from Africa on the East Coast, so that may not be ruled out completely.

Anyway, yesterday I went to Coney Island to try to see the bird myself. As I rode the trains, first NJ Transit and then a series of subway lines, I hoped that the Gray-hooded Gull would make an appearance that afternoon. When I arrived, I found a cluster of birders on the boardwalk. They had not seen it yet, but soon enough another birder walked past and indicated that the gull was a little way down the beach. Sure enough, it was sitting on top of a yellow metal pole, with a group of birders clustered around it. The poles were out on the beach, somewhere between 10th and 12th Streets. If you click through the photo and click on the map in the right column, you can see the approximate location.

The gull seemed fairly tolerant of people; I imagine that a bird would have to be pretty tolerant in order to take up residence at a place as busy as Coney Island. (Even on a weekday, the beach was crowded with sunbathers and swimmers.) The gull stood still as several people walked by, but then a woman with a clipboard walked right up to the pole, and the gull flushed. It flushed a few times as I stood on the beach watching it. Each time it picked a pole that had a Laughing Gull on it and made the Laughing Gull vacate the pole so that it could take its perch.

When I was satisfied with my looks at the Gray-hooded Gull, I walked a bit down the boardwalk to see what other birds might be around. I walked out the long fishing pier and found some Common Terns, Barn Swallows, and a mix of gulls on the water. Including the Gray-headed Gull, I added six species to my Brooklyn list.

If you have not seen the Gray-hooded Gull yet, and have the time this week to do it, I recommend going to see it. The location is easy to reach both by car and by public transportation, and it is easy to find the bird once you get there. The gull has been appearing pretty reliably in the area around the 12th Street entrance, especially in the afternoons. This is a great find and one that may not be repeated for a long time.

Penguin Gets Lost and Visits New Zealand

New York area birders are excited about the presence of a Hooded Crow in a park in Staten Island, New York. This would be an extraordinary record if the crow got here on its own, without the assistance of a bird collector or ship. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, New Zealand has just as unusual of a visitor. A young Emperor Penguin arrived on New Zealand's Kapiti coast.

Experts had checked the bird, nicknamed Happy Feet, and confirmed it was healthy and in good condition, biodiversity programme manager Peter Simpson said.

It was venturing into the sea at night to feed and moving between locations on the beach.

"We keep our interference with wild animals to an absolute minimum, and this emperor penguin is no exception."

The juvenile penguin, was named by Peka Peka Beach resident Chris Wilton, who first saw it on Monday afternoon, standing on the beach flapping its flippers. It weighs about 10 kilograms and stands about a metre tall.

It is only the second time an emperor penguin has been recorded on New Zealand shores and DOC put up a sign near it yesterday, urging people to keep their distance and to ensure dogs were kept on leads.

Mr Simpson said people had flocked to the beach to see the penguin and a lot of admirers had asked why it was not being taken back to Antarctica.

"It is midwinter and completely dark down there, there is nothing going there.

"More importantly, during its long trip here, it would have come across other penguins and penguin diseases and we do not want to take it back and introduce those diseases to Antarctica."

This is the first record of that species in New Zealand in 44 years.

Return to the Rogers Refuge

Since my last visit to Rogers Refuge was not successful, at least in terms of turning up rails or a bittern, I was back there again yesterday evening to try again. Instead of walking around, I stood on the observation deck the entire time to make sure I would not miss any of the secretive marsh birds if they did make an appearance. As it turned out, I was waiting a long time. While I was waiting, there were plenty of other birds to watch, so the time did not seem to drag. Red-winged Blackbirds were the most prominent, and their antics kept grabbing my attention. Several times I saw a male glide towards the platform with its red epaulettes fully flared. The males kept chasing each other around and called repeatedly from the reeds in front of the platform, like the bird above.

Plenty of other birds were active in the marsh, too. A pair of Wood Ducks was feeding among the lilypads, and occasionally I would see one or two Wood Ducks fly past. Baltimore Orioles were singing in the woods across the marsh, and an Orchard Oriole occasionally sang in the trees behind me. At one point, a feather drifted down in front of me; the lower part was white and the tip was bright orange, about the right size and color for a Baltimore Oriole. Wood Thrushes were singing in the woods; I could not hear their song clearly over the din made by the Red-winged Blackbirds, but the pattern of flute-like sounds was still distinctive. My first Solitary Sandpiper of the season flew in and started walking around the far edge of the water.

Finally, around 7 pm, the Sora finally made an appearance. My mother spotted it first when it appeared about ten feet from the left side of the platform, near where a Swamp Sparrow had just landed. It walked around there first and then disappeared into the reeds. Shortly after that it appeared at the water's edge, again within about ten feet of the platform. It was hard to get a clear view, but it was possible to watch it as it moved slowly in and out of the reeds. The reeds and the Sora's movements made it difficult to focus the camera on it, but I did get the image above after a few tries.

Longtime readers of this blog might remember that this is not the first Sora I have seen. My first Sora sighting was a roadkilled bird that I found one morning on Sunset Boulevard in Cape May Point. That encounter gave me a much clearer view of the Sora's plumage, but it was far more exciting to see a living Sora!

Crossbills!

As I said yesterday, I will have some posts up soon about the Superbowl of Birding and the rest of my weekend with the Bloggerhead Kingbirds. But first, I want to write about some follow-up birding. Yesterday, I went down to Long Branch with my mother and sister to look for crossbills at Seven Presidents Park. Both crossbill species have been reported there almost daily since shortly after New Year's. When we arrived, we found a few other birders present already, some walking around and others driving back and forth across the park. As we walked around looking for the crossbills, we saw some other birds, including three Horned Larks that were running around the parking lot.

A few others located two Red Crossbills in a pine tree on the northwest corner of the largest parking lot. The crossbills were feeding on the tree's abundant cone crop. One appeared to be an adult male and the other an immature male. They moved slowly around the tree and tended to stay in one spot to pick seeds out of a single cone or group of cones. This made it easy to find them with the camera, though proper focus was still tricky. I heard one give its flight call, but I am not sure I could match it to a known call type.

The White-winged Crossbills were harder to find, even though there were more of them present in the park. It took a few walks back and forth across the park, plus a snack break, for us to find them near the maintenance garage. A flock of about a dozen were foraging actively, flitting around from branch to branch and even chasing each other. Even though they were moving faster than the Red Crossbills did, photographing them was still easy because it took them some effort to open a cone and pry out a seed. The trees where the White-winged Crossbills foraged were full of other birds as well. They included some Red-breasted Nuthatches, Dark-eyed Juncos, Song Sparrows, and at least one Red Crossbill.

The Red Crossbill was a life bird for me, and both crossbills were life birds for my sister and mother.

If you can get to Long Branch, it is definitely worth a trip to Seven Presidents Park to see these crossbills. The birds are pretty easy to find, and they are very cooperative for watching and photography.

A Varied Thrush in Central Park

Since late November a Varied Thrush has been wintering in Central Park's Ramble. As other urban rarities seem to do, it picked a rather odd location. The most reliable place to see the vagrant thrush is a small brushy area wedged in between a bustling transverse road and the men's bathroom in a maintenance building. The choice seems all the stranger if you consider its native habitat. Varied Thrushes are rare in the eastern United States. Their breeding range extends from the Pacific Northwest north to Alaska; they winter south to California. These are somewhat secretive birds, preferring to dwell in dense, wet forests.

By this point, most birders in the New York metro area have probably already seen it if they wanted to, but I just saw it for the first time yesterday. As I arrived at its regular location, I met another birder who had seen it briefly before a Blue Jay's alarm call sent the thrush and other birds flying. After I had waited about 10-15 minutes, the Varied Thrush reappeared, staying long enough for me to get a good look but not long enough for me to take photos of it. So I waited another 15 minutes or so, as a snowplow passed by going one direction along the path, and then a garbage truck and two snowplows drove in the other direction, and finally a police golf cart drove past and parked in front of the maintenance building. After all that, the thrush reappeared, and I took the photos you see above.

As the thrush disappeared away for the second time, I became aware of someone approaching along the path. It turned out to be a familiar figure – Corey of 10,000 Birds pushing his son, Desi, in a stroller. I stood with him for a while and waited for the Varied Thrush to come back. When it did not appear for a while, I decided to move on and look for another unusual bird for the park, an immature Red-headed Woodpecker that has been using the trees on the south end of the Sheep Meadow. The woodpecker was easier to find than I expected; I was only waiting about five minutes when it flew into view, and I had a good look at it. Unlike the Varied Thrush, the woodpecker was not a life bird, just an interesting one.

I stopped briefly at the Ramble feeders while walking to and from the Varied Thrush's location. There were not unusual finches like Pine Siskins or Common Redpolls, but there were plenty of other birds around. Here are a few images of the those birds.

Documenting Rare Birds

 A rare bird

Nate wrote an interesting post yesterday about rare bird reports.

Birding, like many activities that require developing specific skills, has an obvious hierarchy.  This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it can be disconcerting and intimidating for those who are new to the hobby.  Because if you’re in the field enough you’re probably going to find something fairly unusual eventually, and if you’re interested in contributing to the greater birding community as well as to scientific study of vagrants (and you should be) you’re going to come up against a rare bird committee or an eBird reviewer at some point.  While it’s easy to get the impression that there’s some sort of secretive birding cabal standing between you and your rare bird sighting, that’s not true.  What these individuals are looking for is fairly straight-forward.  They want to know how well you saw the bird in question and how you made the identification.

Nate reviews unusual bird reports in the Carolinas for eBird, so he has had plenty of interaction with birders who submit unusual sightings. His post at the link provides some advice for writing a persuasive report and communicating with eBird's reviewers. A good report should include a clear and detailed description of the bird and discuss what details eliminate other similar species. Not all reports will require the same level of detail. A sighting out of season will not need the same level of documentation as a first state or county record.

I doubt that I have reviewed as many sightings as Nate has, but I have reviewed some, for both the Great Backyard Bird Count and the C&O Canal Midwinter Bird Survey. In my experience, as both a reviewer and as a contributor of sightings, being prepared to document a sighting is key to submitting a persuasive report. I think that contributors would feel less frustrated by the review process if they knew what to do ahead of time. This is especially a problem for the Great Backyard Bird Count, when many birders are participating for the first time.

Good preparation starts with a basic familiarity with what species are expected in a given area at a given time of year. If a bird seems out of place or out of season, there is a good chance that it is unusual enough to be reviewed. I find that it is difficult to remember details of a sighting hours or days later, when my memory has been diluted by subsequent sightings. The best thing is to take notes right away, while the bird is still visible, and to record as many details of the bird's shape, appearance, and behavior as possible. Photographs may help but are not always necessary, and even with a photo it helps to have a good description of the bird and what it was doing. Those notes will provide a basis for communicating with eBird reviewers or anyone else who wants details on the sighting. Even if it turns out to be unnecessary, note-taking is a good exercise for looking at birds more closely, so the effort will not be wasted.

Rare Crow Rediscovered

Researchers in Indonesia have refound a rare crow species, Banggai Crow (Corvus unicolor), that had been considered extinct.

The Banggai Crow was believed by many to be extinct until Indonesian biologists finally secured two new specimens on Peleng Island in 2007. Pamela Rasmussen, an MSU assistant professor of zoology and renowned species sleuth, provided conclusive verification.

An ornithologist who specializes on the birds of southern Asia, Rasmussen studied the two century-old specimens known as Corvus unicolor in New York's American Museum of Natural History. She compared them to the new crow specimens in Indonesia's national museum, to lay to rest speculation that they were merely a subspecies of a different crow. The more common Slender-billed Crow, or Corvus enca, also is found in the Banggai Islands, and likewise is all black.

Apparently eye color is a significant characteristic for differentiating the two species, in addition to the morphometric analysis that Rasmussen performed on the specimens.

So instead of being extinct, the Banggai Crow is simply critically endangered. Like other rare species, it faces a multitude of threats (and potential threats), primarily habitat loss and hunting. With a bird species rare enough to be thought extinct, the collection of new specimens will always raise some eyebrows. At least in this case we know that there are still living Banggai Crows since some birders have since found more in the same area. As long as some members of the species are alive, there is still hope for keeping them that way.

Hawaiian Honeycreepers Losing Ground to Climate Change

The Hawaiian Islands are a fairly typical example of island biodiversity. Isolated from contact with mainland species, the islands' organisms evolved into unusual forms found nowhere else, and many species found elsewhere were not present. The rare organisms thrived, at least until humans arrived, making changes in the landscape and bringing invasive species. Many of Hawaii's endemic species are now endangered as a result.

For some of Hawaii's most iconic birds, the honeycreepers, there is a more insidious threat. Mosquitos – and mosquito-borne illnesses – are expanding their range on the islands thanks to climate change.

At one time, the Hawaiian Islands had no mosquitoes – and no mosquito-borne diseases. But, by the late 1800s, mosquitoes had set up permanent housekeeping, setting the stage for epidemic transmission of avian malaria and pox. Honeycreepers – just like people faced with novel viruses such as swine flu – had no natural resistance against these diseases.

Before long, Hawaii’s native honeycreepers significantly declined in numbers and geographic range. It was likely that malaria swept rapidly across all of the lower Hawaiian Islands after the disease was introduced, leaving few survivors. Today, native Hawaiian birds face one of the highest rates of extinction in the world. Of 41 honeycreeper species and subspecies known since historic times, 17 are probably extinct, 14 are endangered, and only 3 are in decent shape.

Since malaria transmission depends on a warmer climate, honeycreepers so far have been able to find refuge in high altitude regions. These offer suitable habitat for the birds but are inhospitably cool for mosquitos. But that may change:

Although most disease transmission now occurs in these mid-elevation forests, this will change if the projected 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Centigrade) raise in temperature occurs.

“With this kind of temperature change, about 60 to 96 percent of the high-elevation disease refuges would disappear,” said Atkinson. For example, available high-elevation forest habitat in the low-risk disease zone would likely decline by nearly 60 percent at Hanawi Natural Area Reserve on Maui to as much as 96 percent at Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge on Hawaii Island. On other islands, such as Kauai, with lower elevations and no low-risk zones even now, predicted temperature changes would likely be catastrophic for remaining honeycreeper species.

The extinction (or even decimation) or more honeycreepers would be a tremendous biodiversity loss for the world and perhaps an economic loss for Hawaii. Endemic species are a major draw, and for me at least, honeycreepers would be near the top of the list of species to see if I ever visit the state. I imagine other birders would feel likewise. So it is likely in the state's interest to manage habitats in such a way as to give these unique birds the best shot possible at survival. In the long run, however, only slowing or stopping climate change will put these and other rare species back into safe territory.

Habitat, Owl Ethics, and a Hybrid Tit

Blue Tit / Photo uploaded to Flickr by Ben Fredericson

Normally I try to confine lists of links to my Friday Loose Feathers series, but yesterday other bird bloggers published some good material that I would like to highlight.

First off, Nate of The Drinking Bird discussed the recently-released federal State of the Birds report. That report has been on my blogging to-do list for a while, but has not quite made it onto the blog until now. In his post yesterday, Nate focused on the need for birders to find a way to fund habitat conservation that distinguishes birder contributions from hunting contributions. Lately there has been a movement to encourage birders to purchase Duck Stamps, since almost all of their price goes towards habitat conservation. The trouble, as Nate writes, is that Duck Stamp funds primarily support habitat for game animals, since hunters are assumed to be the primary constituency for conservation. While it is important, game bird habitat is not necessarily helpful for other birds, such as interior forest specialists.

There are various ways that birders could support non-game species. One would be the imposition of a tax on optics, field guides, and the like that would be dedicated for habitat conservation. This would parallel similar hunting fees. Large birding organizations like ABA or NAS could also manage such a fund as part of their normal membership renewals. Or, birders could simply look for organizations that directly protect non-game habitat in their area and support those, either instead of or in addition to the major birding organizations. (I have not quite figured out the best of these in my area, but Nature Conservancy seems like a strong contender.) In any case, read and comment on Nate's post.

Second, Bruce at the excellent Urban Hawks blog has proposed ethical standards for use of audio playback to attract birds, particularly owls. His post comes in response to an incident involving a locally well-known tour leader in Central Park, who used recordings to call out a screech owl before its normal rising time, to provide his tour group a chance to view the owl. I do not have a strong opinion about the particulars of his argument, but I do think that birders, and especially group leaders, ought to err on the side of caution during breeding season, especially in heavily-birded areas.

Third, Birdchick highlighted a discussion on the ID-Frontiers list about a hybrid Blue Tit found in New Hampshire. This is a highly unusual sighting since birds of that genus are not normally found on this continent. As you can see from the photos, this is clearly not a "pure bred" Blue Tit (see the photo above). Figuring out the rest of its ancestry, though, depends on where one thinks the hybridization occurred. If it happened in Europe, the obvious candidate, in my opinion, would be a Willow Tit, since that has the combination of buffy flanks, white-edged secondaries, and overall plainness that Blue Tits lack. If the hybrid is American in origin, then chickadees would appear more likely candidates. Based on range, Black-capped Chickadee would be most probable. I am sure more experienced birders come produce other possibilities, or even settle on one candidate above others. However, there really is only one way to settle this: catch the bird, band it, and test its DNA.

DC Snowy Owl Update

A Snowy Owl is still being seen in Washington, D.C., according to an Americablog contributor:

I saw what appeared to be a white owl on the building across the street from me late this afternoon. My upstairs neighbor, Rick Bloom, is a professional photographer and he got a great picture of the bird for me. I'm pretty sure it is a snowy owl, which I had seen once in awhile when I lived in Maine, but never expected to see here in D.C.

According to a post on MDOsprey, the location is in the Kalorama neighborhood. Watch that listserv for further updates.

There is a photo of the owl at the Americablog link. In my opinion, the owls pictured at Americablog and in last week's Post article look different enough that there may be two birds involved. Note that the Post owl has a clean white breast and light barring on the flanks and belly, while the Americablog owl has brown streaking on its breast and a heavily barred belly. Some of the difference could be due to the angle, quality of light, or other photographic conditions, but I do not think those would make that much of a difference. In any case, it is something for DC birders to consider.