RARITY FOCUS
To pick up on a theme during this pandemic – the proliferation of rarities found in backyards and feeding stations – we focus on a Rufous-backed Robin found in the morning of 25 September, in Portal, Arizona.
Rufous-backed Robin, a bird of western Mexico, was first recorded in the U.S. in 1960 near Nogales, Arizona. Since 1965, at least one Rufous-backed Robin has been found almost annually somewhere in the U.S., mostly in fall or winter. Most of these have been in Arizona, but they have also appeared in California, New Mexico, Texas, and even in Nevada and Utah.
The Arizona sightings have mostly occurred from late October to April, so this bird was a bit early. Their arrival in Arizona seems to correspond to their status in northwest Mexico where they regularly engage in winter wanderings. Regardless of the season, the species seems to prefer dense riparian vegetation and, less frequently, ornamental plantings in towns.
The robin in question was found by Art Herman and Ronna Laager at the Rodrigues feeders, popularly known as the Jasper Feeders, coming to a ground water-feature that is behind a distant fence. It was seen for a few days and then disappeared before the end of the month.
It still could reappear locally however! In fact, this could be a reminder to all of us to watch our feeders and backyards carefully, a recurring subject we present in this E-bulletin.
For more information on this unique and wonderful feeder-complex in Portal, see here:
GONE: OUR EXTINCT BIRDS
It was inevitable, and we figured it would be announced sooner or later, but to hear it made “official” is certainly a final reality-check. Late last month, the USFWS announced the removal of 23 species from the Endangered Species List, not because they were saved or clearly on the road to recovery, but because they were deemed officially extinct. Among these 23 species were Ivory-billed Woodpecker, Bachman’s Warbler, and eight unique Hawaiian bird species.
Extinction is forever, but a few of these species were last observed wild in living memory (e.g., Po`ouli in Hawaii in 2004), making the announcement particularly painful.
You can find the details here:
IBA NEWS: IMPORTANT CHILEAN SITE
Last month, the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network Executive Office announced that the Humedal Marino de Chamiza, in Chile, would rank as a WHSRN site of International Importance. This is the sixth WHSRN site in Chile.
The site is located at the mouth of the river of the same name, in the Puerto Montt commune, Los Lagos Region, Chile. The site covers an area of 4,361 acres. It is at a highly dynamic intersection, as a result of tidal currents and nutrient cycling which are a boon to both migrant and resident shorebirds.
It is an especially important site for some of “our” long-range shorebird migrants. It hosts more than 13% of the biogeographic population of Hudsonian Godwits that breed in Alaska (total estimated at 21,000 individuals currently). It’s also an important site for Whimbrel with counts of more than 2,700 individuals, representing nearly 7% of the estimated biogeographic/subspecies population.
The area is currently administered by the Chilean Navy. However, it is proposed as a “Protected Coastal Marine Area of Indigenous People (ECMPO)” by the Association of Communities of the Rilon Kawin (original Mapuche people) and when designated, these people will become the administrators of the site.
There are still multiple threats to the area - from tourism, to grazing, to solid waste disposal– and one of the challenges will be the participatory development of an effective management plan for the area.
See here for details:
For additional information about worldwide IBA programs, including those in the U.S., check the National Audubon Society's Important Bird Area program web site at:
BOOK NOTES: WHACK!
That’s the sound of a bird hitting your window, and it’s been going on for far too long. At the same time, Daniel Klem, Professor of Ornithology and Conservation Biology at Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania, has been following and researching the “glass-and-bird scene” for nearly a half century, and the response to his work over the years has evolved, from openly dismissive to currently valued and sought. Now, Dr. Klem has provided us with a narrative of the cause combined with tested solutions in Solid Air – Invisible Killer: Saving Billions of Birds from Windows (2021, Hancock House).
The book’s contents progresses from how birds see, to the enormity of the glass-impact problem, to the sad autopsies of the victims, and the seriousness of convincing the public about the extent of the problem. The book is also cleverly illustrated.
Readers of this substantive book should fight the temptation of rushing to chapters 9, 10, and 11, chapters which outline solutions, legal remedies, and citizen action, in the same way that readers of a murder-mystery should avoid skipping to the last pages of such a novel.
Skipping to the end may provide you “the answer,” but the reader should really appreciate the crime first, the evidence, and the sleuthing involved before reaching the conclusion. Klem does just that.
Indeed, Klem’s chapter 8, “Getting the Word Out – Transforming Education into Action” is a particularly vital piece of the narrative – and of the science – how so many people, professional and otherwise, have contributed to the possibility of establishing a satisfying set of solutions to this problem.
If you are seriously interested in the glass-and-bird subject, this book’s an absolute must.
MORE ON GLASS AND FATAL LIGHT
Related to the previous short book review, it’s important to appreciate that in North America, during the peak of avian fall migration, an estimated four billion birds will navigate constructed environments as they move southward to their wintering grounds. Millions of those birds will not make it.
One activity related to this problem is the Global Bird Rescue (GBR), run from September 27 to October 3, an engaging team effort that reports on bird collisions. The Fatal Light Awareness Program (FLAP) in Canada, in partnership with Nature Canada and teams in the U.S., Costa Rica, Panama, in and out of this hemisphere took to the streets to rescue and document any bird that has collided with a building into a “Global Bird Collision Mapper.”
The sharing of “citizen science” bird-data becomes easier with each passing month and year, and the simple act of sharing a post, or communicating with friends, family, neighbors, or coworkers about this subject can go a long way to gradually solving the problem of bird collisions.
For specifics on this project, see here:
At the same time, there are more “Lights Out” efforts spreading around North America. And the awareness of the impact – literally – is expanding.
One example concerns Pittsburgh. An estimated 100,000 birds pass over the Pittsburgh region each year during migration, and a new initiative is helping to make it safer for birds. A group of organizations that includes the Building Owners and Managers Association of Pittsburgh, BNY Mellon, BirdSafe Pittsburgh, and the National Aviary announced their cooperation in early September to mitigate bird/window events caused by bright artificial light in the city at night.
Of course, turning down the lights will not only protect countless birds, but it will also save energy and reduce carbon emissions to help meet Pittsburgh’s goal of a 50% reduction in energy use by 2030.
For years, volunteers with BirdSafe Pittsburgh have been collecting data to document bird fatalities. Now the effort can also document any progress made on reducing bird mortality resulting from this Lights Out initiative.
The Pittsburgh effort is just one example of growing progress and cooperation. For more information about the Pittsburgh area Lights Out initiative, and engaged partners, visit:
OUR BEHAVIOR, BIRDS, AND THE PANDEMIC
Of course, and as we’ve already mentioned, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has reduced – or geographically shrunk – many of our own bird-related activities. It has also drastically reduced almost everyone’s “human mobility.” This has affected wildlife, including birds, and we’ll probably be studying it – reviewing collected data - for years. Indeed, the investigation has already started.
Toward the end of September, a paper in Sciences Advances reviewed some of these preliminary observations in the U.S. and Canada dealing with urban habitat, near major roads and airports, and in counties where “lockdowns” were more pronounced or occurred at the same time as peak bird migration.
Using records of 4,353,739 observations of individual birds from 88,846 checklists from the eBird database, the researchers found that counts of 66 (80%) of their 82 “focal bird species” changed in pandemic-altered areas, usually increasing in comparison to pre-pandemic abundances.
Behavioral adaptations - or plasticity - have enabled some bird species to cope with, or even benefit from, certain types of human disturbances, but not others. Future investigation could assess whether the effects of these lockdowns on birds were likely caused by decreased noise, traffic mortality, air pollution, or other factors. This would help us to understand why counts of some species increased in relation to some measures of human activity but decreased in relation to others. Nonetheless, the researchers concluded that the effects of lockdowns tended to increase the number of birds counted in human-altered areas when activity and traffic declined.
Among other things, these researchers concluded that we could make urban spaces more attractive to birds by reducing traffic and mitigating the disturbance from human transportation as we emerge from the pandemic.
You can check it out in more detail here:
TIP OF THE MONTH: FALL PREPARATION
For many of us in temperate areas and looking forward to the next few months, a little backyard planning is very much in order. (Again, see this month’s “Rarity Focus.”) You can consider adding or expanding areas of native plants, including native flower beds, and paying special attention to borders and near-by weedy areas. Of course, native birds do best where native plants are accessible, but it’s also good to allow some areas to “go wild” for cover into the late fall and the start of winter. And also think about perches in key areas. This is particularly helpful near feeders or bird baths, and it also helps to encourage birds to use an available perch where they can be easier to observe, identify, and even photograph.
It’s all a lead-up to winter-feeding plans, of which we may remind you next month!
ANOTHER PIPING PLOVER STORY
Readers may remember our recent Piping Plover stars and the story in August of their Lake Erie (Maumee Bay, Ohio) nesting, young, and adoring human fans:
So, here is another Piping Plover story, one focusing on “HL”, affectionately known as Helen Louise, originally banded in 2014 at a lovely beach in southern Nova Scotia, not far from the town of Shelburne. She nested at that beach that year and also in 2015, 2016, and 2017, following a pattern of returning to the same beach year after year. In 2018, she had an unsuccessful nesting, but was found in 2019 at Dominion Beach at Cape Breton, some 310 miles to the north. Helen Louise returned to her original beach on the south shore for the 2019 and 2020 breeding seasons. And was spotted – but not found nesting – this year in locations not far from Halifax. Some years she has the same partner; some years she doesn’t.
A small “HL” leg-flag, like the one on Helen Louise’s right leg, makes it easier for observers to identify her, wherever she may be. She has been spotted migrating through New Jersey in the spring of 2018 and in North Carolina in the fall of 2019 and 2020. Researchers keeping track of HL still don’t know where she spends her winters, but folks are still looking.
You can read the full story – with photos and a map - here, from Birds Canada:
DUCK STAMP WINNER AND HUMOR
After two days of judging in late September, James Hautman of Chaska, Minnesota, won the 2021 Federal Duck Stamp Art Contest with his impressive painting of a pair of Redheads floating in the water. (For those interested in the fascinating “duck-art dynasty” of the three Hautman brothers - Jim, Bob, and Joe - Bob, came in second in the competition.)
The winning Redheads, will appear on the 2022-2023 Federal Duck Stamp, which will raise tens of millions of dollars for wetland and grassland conservation after it goes on sale in June 2022.
The issue of “hunting heritage,” no longer required in future art competitions, was handled deftly as the winning pieces attest:
This does not mean that the “hunting heritage” issue went away quietly. Indeed, there was the introduction of some humor into the entire process, with Last Week Tonight’s, host John Oliver having revealing on 27 September that his satirical news-show had actually commissioned five paintings to poke a little good fun at the hunting-heritage requirement. It was all in good humor and in support of the stamp’s intent: to raise funds for habitat conservation. Oliver also announced that he would auction off the five paintings with all proceeds going to the conservation efforts of the Federal Duck Stamp Program. See the 12 minutes of his show on the subject, with some bawdy language included:
Note: Almost $100,000 was raised. See here:
LAST WORD
Finally, if you have any friends or co-workers who wish to join the monthly Birding Community E-bulletin mailing list, you can simply refer them to this link:
