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A breeding bird atlas is a special kind of book. For birders, it’s the extremely large book, shelved in a place where it can’t crush the field guides, used to research the history of a bird in their area. So, what exactly does a breeding bird atlas contain? The resulting book, 616 pages in length, 6.4
Let’s say you’re a bird wrapping up your breeding season in the north of Scotland—where do your thoughts turn when winter beckons? The researchers theorize that these birds might not be strays from the Scandinavian Phalarope population, but instead perhaps originally from North America. the Caribbean islands, and Ecuador and Peru.
On this final day of 2012 it is time, just like it was on the final days of 2010 and 2011 , to share your Best Birds of the Year. Here, without further ado, are your Best Birds of 2012, in no particular order. I think my official Best Bird of 2012, though, was (finally, finally seeing) the Burrowing Owl.
The chance that this was a real Turkey are not great, and the chance that Columbus actually brought breeding stock from Honduras to Spain is not great, so maybe, maybe not. The history of the Wild Turkey, the reduction to its original range, and its re-expansion and re-introduction, remains today unclear and in need of further research.
They have been here for several months and are currently changing into their breeding plumage and fattening up. It won’t be long and we will watch them fly off into the sunset as they make their journey north to breed. It changes into its breeding plumage and heads off, but has never been seen back in Hong Kong!
The length of each bird species account varies, depending on whether the bird is native or a “visitor” (the book’s term for migrant) or vagrant, breeding or non breeding. They breed in dense colonies, incubate their single egg on the feet, and take more than a year to fledge a chick.
What I didn’t know was how this relationship actually works: the mechanics of Red Knot migration, the reduced digestive systems necessary for their long flighta, the need to fatten up quickly so they can fly to the Arctic and breed, how they compete with other shorebirds and gulls and, it turns out, humans, for horseshoe crab eggs.
For example, Danny Bystrak (Breeding Bird Survey) and Dave Ziolkowski (Bird Banding Lab) of the USGS indicated that changes would not have a substantial negative impact on their programs, and would be just a “minor annoyance.” Was there confusion that impacted data collection or research or birding? Did the process work?)
2012), and (4) Waterfowl of Eastern North America, 2nd ed. Every species account (well, most every account) includes information on habitat and talk briefly about range and distribution (there are no range maps in this guide); it is usually noted if the species breeds in Ontario, and often noted if it is migratory or residential year-round.
Lovitch changes gears with the chapter “Birding with a Purpose”, in which he addresses the win-win of citizen science (called a buzzword, for some reason), gives resources for birding conservation, Christmas Bird Counts, breeding bird surveys, where to find birding job opportunities, and describes, all too briefly, the use of eBird.
Light blue boxes give brief facts on breeding age, strategy and lifespan. To an intermediate-level birder like me, the material in Better Birding –highly focused, detailed, based on the latest research and years of field experience– is daunting, but also fascinating. Green boxes offer Natural History and Taxonomic Notes.
Matt Young (may6 at cornell.edu) of The Cornell Lab of Ornithology will identify types for you from recordings and this will help his research. Breeding success is higher in areas with budworm outbreaks because the abundant larvae are eaten by adults and fed to young. THREE IRRUPTIVE PASSERINES.
And Sandwich Tern is Sandwich Tern, Howell finding the DNA research for splitting it “weak.” They also occasionally show breeding colonies or isolated populations, possible occurrences, and directions of range expansion. ” These are just some examples. I love the writing here.
The guide covers the all–1194 species in the Species Accounts, including 959 native breeding species, 219 Nearctic migrants, 8 breeding visiting species, and 5 introduced species. Of the native breeding species, 112 are endemic or “very nearly endemic.” (Can Can you guess which of the species cited above are endemic?
The archipelago consists of 17,000 islands stretching out over 2500 miles along the Equator with a varied history of avian research and study, most on the under- or not-studied side. And, there is A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Indonesia: Second Edition by Morten Strange (2012). So, this is no ordinary bird guide.
There is a major difference: the Raptors guides are photographic and the Birds of Prey guides are illustrated with Wheeler’s paintings, over 1,000 images in each guide, organized with logical precision for reference, research, and comparison, with a self-evident side benefit–the portrayal of the beauty of raptors.
I did a little research and found plovers and snipe o n menus and in cookbooks of the time, though I still haven’t found recipes for Dunlin or Dowitchers. It is pointedly not an identification guide, though there is a lot of identification information in it, and it is not a coffee table book, though every page is illustrated.
A lovely looking and distinctive sounding bird (so they say, I sadly have not seen one…yet), the Kirtland’s Warbler can only be found during its breeding season in Jack Pine forests 5 to 20 years old in the northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan. Jackson, 2012. photo by Lynn C. Now there are volunteer guides, tours and a local festival.
The story of the cahow, a “Lazurus species” that was thought to be extinct for over 300 years and then discovered to be breeding on a tiny remote island in Bermuda, is part of modern birding legend. In 1951, there were 18 breeding pairs of cahows discovered on three tiny islands.
The authors’ detailed delineation of problems with the accuracy of NYC breeding bird surveys or with the limits of historical writings may test a reader’s patience. Because, as this book demonstrates so well, it is sometimes important to look back in order to move forward. It’s a very mixed chapter.
Prior research has shown that the Loons that return in a given year to a given nest on a lake somewhere in Canada or the norther tier of US states are often the same ones that were there the previous year, though with some never returning because they did not survive the trials of migration. But now there is some research on that.
There were three profound questions my birding group discussed while we birded Trinidad and Tobago, back in December 2012: (1) How many Bananaquits could fit on a banana? (2) And, to make things even more confusing, why did Ian’s 2012 ffrench guide list the motmot under its old name, Blue-crowned Motmot? .
Oil begins to wash up on the beaches throughout May and June of 2010 May 6, 2010 Oil washes ashore on the Chandeleur Islands off the Louisiana coast, an important nesting and breeding area for many bird species. January 27, 2012 Reports leak that BP chose to hide its own internal estimates of the scale of the spill.
Consider that Paulson’s Dragonflies and Damselflies of the East (2012) covers 336 odonate species and think about the difference in geographic size and you get a sense of the concentrated diversity in Costa Rica (though the authors note that the rate of diversity is still less than the increase in diversity for butterflies and orchids).
For my new book, due out in 2012 from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, I’ve been researching sandhill crane hunting. A Great Backyard Bird Count Miracle Best Bird of the Weekend (Last of January 2011) What is the International Bird Rescue Research Center Anyway? Or These Blasts From The Past What’s In A Name?
Several years ago, I read about the enormous colonies of breeding birds in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and I did some research to satisfy my curiosity. ( Google Scholar is an excellent resource and free full-text PDFs can be located for many papers, particularly when research is taxpayer-funded.
I can’t imagine they were expecting anyone to research the line as much as I now regret doing! The brewery also notes that the American Robin is the state bird of Connecticut – not a particularly inspired choice, perhaps, but better than going with a certain skulking warbler named for the state that breeds nowhere near it.
It covers 70 seabird species, explaining specific identification points with over 900 photographs and highly detailed descriptive text, all backed by an expertise based on years of research in the field, examination of museum specimen, and knowledge of ornithological literature. Princeton University Press, 2012, 520 pp.
The guide covers 747 breeding residents or regular migrants, 29 introduced species, and 160 vagrants, a total of 936 species. Only one species of penguin breeds on the Australian mainland; five additional species breed on sub-Antarctic islands. 2009): Field Guide To Australian Birds, rev.
It’s heavily illustrated with both drawings (72 Colour Plates, 920 drawings) and photographs (over 650), and employs extensive references to and from each section, which makes research relatively easy. This section also includes range maps, indicating range by breeding season, wintering season, and residence year-round.
.” And, if you don’t believe them, just take a look at some of the photographic comparisons of species they present: Or, of albatross plumages: Or, read about the taxonomic confusions and scientific lapses in research on petrels, Albatrosses, storm-petrels, and diving-petrels. Which ones? Does it follow fishing boats?
They breed in New Zealand’s South Island and they appear to wander quite some distance. Their breeding grounds were not discovered until the 1960′s. Their breeding grounds were not discovered until the 1960′s. Once again I will add it to my 2012 list , as it is a significant find and have noted it is deceased.
Given the complexity of the research, the result feels like a bit of a letdown – “northern populations start migration earlier than southern populations, especially in autumn” The species name of the Chestnut-eared Bunting is fucata , from the Latin “fucare”, to paint red. No wonder no species are named after me.
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