New Species: Bugun Liocichla

A beautiful new species has been discovered in India. The new species is a liocichla, related to babblers. An astronomer first saw the species in 1995 but could not identify it with existing field guides. He did not see it again for another decade. A colleague suggested that it was an Emei Shan Liocichla (Liocichla omeiensis), a species that occurs 1,000 km away in southwest China. In May 2006, he caught one bird. Measurements taken from that bird, as well as differences in plumage and calls, indicated that this liocichla was a separate species. It has been designated Bugun Liocichla (Liocichla bugunorum) after the local Bugun tribe that owns the forest where most sightings were made.

John Bull Dies at 92

John L. Bull, an ornithologist based in New York City, died this past Friday. Among other accomplishments, he wrote the first guide to the birds of New York State, and co-authored the bird guide for the eastern region in the National Audubon Society's series of photographic field guides.

A research assistant at the American Museum of Natural History, Mr. Bull led popular birding tours of Long Island and Central Park in the 1960’s and 70’s and meticulously kept track of the species and the state of their habitat.

In 1964, he wrote a book, “Birds of the New York Area,” intended for would-be birders living in the suburbs of New Jersey, Long Island and Connecticut and for those in Manhattan itself, a prime birding destination. It covered the mourning doves of Central Park to the horned grebes off Montauk Point.

Mr. Bull later expanded his reach and wrote about all of the 410 bird species that had been recorded throughout New York State. That book, “Birds of New York State,” which was published in 1974, was the first exhaustive survey of the subject in 60 years. Another researcher, E.H. Eaton, had recorded only 366 bird species in 1914.

In Mr. Bull’s book, he noted the new or increased counts of species usually found at more southerly latitudes — like the snowy egret — and suggested that a milder climate might be at work in changing migration patterns.

Joel L. Cracraft, curator in charge of the ornithology department at the American Museum of Natural History, said the guidebook was “a first-rate state bird book.”

“At the time,” Dr. Cracraft said, “there was not a high-quality and professional account of the great diversity of New York’s species and their distributions.”

Chickadees, Titmice, and DNA

The current issue of Birding magazine has some interesting notes about recent research on chickadees, titmice, and other members of the Paridae family. (The report in Birding summarizes a study published last year in The Auk.) Researchers determined that the genus Parus, which used to contain all chickadees, titmice, and related species, should in fact be broken into multiple genera. The suggested division includes Poecile (chickadees) and Baeolophus (titmice) in North America. Eurasian and African tits are now divided into Parus, Lophanes, Periparus, and Cyanistes. The split of New World chickadees and titmice into the Poecile and Baeolophus genera is not new; the AOU recognized the split in 1998.

For North American birders, the results regarding chickadees are intriguing. Though the black-capped chickadee and carolina chickadee interbreed and are similar enough in appearance to make identification difficult, they are not as closely related as one might think. Instead, black-capped is more closely related to the mountain chickadee. Among carolina chickadees, there are significant genetic differences between the two subspecies, the eastern extimus and the carolinensis subspecies in Louisiana. Whether that would be enough to call for a species split is not addressed in the Birding summary.

New AOU Checklist for North America

The American Ornithologists' Union has released the 47th Supplement to their Checklist of North American Birds, the 6th supplement they have released since the publication of the Checklist's 7th edition. The supplement makes the following changes to the list:

Changes in this Supplement fall into the following categories: (1) three species are added because of splits from species already on the list (Calonectris edwardsii, Dendragapus fuliginosus, Loxigilla barbadensis); (2) one species is added because of new distributional information (Fregetta tropica); (3) two species replace others presently on the list because of splitting of extralimital forms (Cuculus optatus, Ficedula albicilla); (4) one species name (Streptopelia risoria) is changed because of recognition of its status as a feral form of S. roseogrisea; (5) one family is merged into another (Dendrocolaptidae into Furnariidae), with no resultant nomenclatural changes; (6) one subfamily is elevated to status of family (Stercorariidae), with no resultant nomenclatural changes; (7) one genus (Asturina) is merged with another (Buteo), resulting in a new name combination (B. nitidus); (8) one species (sissonii) is transferred from one genus (Thryomanes) to another (Troglodytes); and (9) two species (Myiozetetes similis, Catharus mexicanus), in addition to three of the four added to the entire list [see (1) and (2) above], are added to the list of species known to occur in the United States.

Of these, the one likely to affect the most North American birders is the first. Blue Grouse (Dendrapagus obscurus) has been split into two species, Dusky Grouse (D. obscurus) and Sooty Grouse (D. fuliginosus). The two species were split based on mitochodrial DNA and behavioral evidence. Sooty Grouse inhabits the Pacific coast, while Dusky Grouse claims the interior mountain west. There is an intergrade zone in Washington state. The paper that led to the split is here.

In addition to the changes listed in the first blockquote, the AOU has rearranged species into new genera within the sandpiper and tern families. In the case of sandpipers, species in the
Heteroscelus and Catoptrophorus genera have been moved to the genus Tringa, so that the list is now as follows:

Xenus cinereus Terek Sandpiper
Actitis hypoleucos Common Sandpiper
Actitis macularius Spotted Sandpiper
Tringa ochropus Green Sandpiper
Tringa solitaria Solitary Sandpiper
Tringa brevipes Gray-tailed Tattler
Tringa incana Wandering Tattler
Tringa erythropus Spotted Redshank
Tringa melanoleuca Greater Yellowlegs
Tringa nebularia Common Greenshank
Tringa semipalmata Willet
Tringa flavipes Lesser Yellowlegs
Tringa stagnatilis Marsh Sandpiper
Tringa glareola Wood Sandpiper
Tringa totanus Common Redshank

Five genera have been split from the Sterna genus in the tern family: Onychoprion, Sternula, Gelochelidon, Hydroprogne, and Thalasseus. The new order is as follows:

Anous stolidus Brown Noddy
Anous minutus Black Noddy
Procelsterna cerulea Blue-gray Noddy
Gygis alba White Tern
Onychoprion fuscatus Sooty Tern
Onychoprion lunatus Gray-backed Tern
Onychoprion anaethetus Bridled Tern
Onychoprion aleuticus Aleutian Tern
Sternula albifrons Little Tern
Sternula antillarum Least Tern
Sternula superciliaris Yellow-billed Tern
Phaetusa simplex Large-billed Tern
Gelochelidon nilotica Gull-billed Tern
Hydroprogne caspia Caspian Tern
Larosterna inca Inca Tern
Chlidonias niger Black Tern
Chlidonias leucopterus White-winged Tern
Chlidonias hybrida Whiskered Tern
Sterna dougallii Roseate Tern
Sterna hirundo Common Tern
Sterna paradisaea Arctic Tern
Sterna forsteri Forster’s Tern
Thalasseus maximus Royal Tern
Thalasseus bergii Great Crested Tern
Thalasseus sandvicensis Sandwich Tern
Thalasseus elegans Elegant Tern

The Delaware Sparrow

The tidal salt marshes of Delaware, which DC Audubon toured on a recent field trip, are home to a unique subspecies of Swamp Sparrow, the Coastal Plain Swamp Sparrow (Melospiza georgiana nigrescens). This subspecies is small in number and declining due to changes in the vegetation of coastal marshes. Because little is known, the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center is currently studying the life history of the coastal plain subspecies.

It was only 55 years ago that the coastal plain swamp sparrow was identified and categorized as a subspecies of the more common swamp sparrow, says Shriver. And just last year Smithsonian researchers discovered where the bird winters -- a stretch of marshland from Charleston, S.C., to Beaufort, N.C. It's not a very long trek; most migratory birds fly far greater distances between their winter and summer homes. But Shriver explains that there's one crucial difference between the habitats -- freezes don't occur regularly in the coastal Carolinas. Coastal plain swamp sparrows feed on insects and spiders, which they find by poking around in the mud, so moving 500 or 600 miles south ensures a steady food supply in the winter months.

Mid-May marks the start of nesting season for the coastal plain swamp sparrow and the start of field research. Studies in Chesapeake Bay marshland have shown a steady drop in the number of sparrow nests since the late 1980s. Shriver and Greenberg want to see if that pattern is occurring in Delaware marshes. Coastal plain swamp sparrows like to nest in high marsh, which features a mix of tall and short grassy vegetation with shrubs mixed in. They often attach their nests to the base of the Hide Tide Bush, a common shrub, and then use tufts of Salt Hay to camouflage the nests. Finding these small, well-hidden nests is a bit like finding a needle in a haystack. Fortunately, the female vocalizes a distinctive "chip, chip, chip" call when
leaving the nest.

Coastal plain swamp sparrows like to nest in high marsh, which features a mix of tall and short grassy vegetation with shrubs mixed in. They often attach their nests to the base of the Hide Tide Bush, a common shrub, and then use tufts of Salt Hay to camouflage the nests. Finding these small, well-hidden nests is a bit like finding a needle in a haystack. Fortunately, the female vocalizes a distinctive "chip, chip, chip" call when leaving the nest.

Learn more about coastal plain swamp sparrows.

May 4 lecture at the National Zoo: Chivalry Is Dead in Migratory Birds: Lessons From the Winter Season

May 4 – Lecture at 7:30 p.m.

Chivalry Is Dead in Migratory Birds: Lessons From the Winter Season

The relationship between male and female migratory birds during the breeding season appears idyllic: Both members of a breeding pair vie for each other's attention, cooperate to bring food to their nestlings, and, in some cases, even raise a second brood together. Things change dramatically during the winter season in the tropics. There, it's a battle of the sexes. Males compete with females for the best habitats—and usually win. As a result, females suffer lower survival. Peter P. Marra of the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center will talk about this and other discoveries of his 15-year research program on the winter ecology of migratory birds in Jamaica. This lecture is part of the Zoo's celebration of International Migratory Bird Day.

The lecture is FREE, but please RSVP at http://nationalzoo.si.edu/ActivitiesAndEvents/Lectures/rsvp.cfm. The lecture is in the National Zoo's Visitor Center, just off Connecticut Avenue. Take public transportation, or drive through the vehicle entrance at Connecticut Avenue and park in Lot A.

Lady Whipbirds Sing With An Accent

From The Discovery Channel: A Scotsman with a heavy brogue may speak the same language as a Texas cowboy, but each has a distinct accent; now researchers have discovered that female whipbirds in Australia sing the same basic songs, but with regional accents.

Female birds in general rarely sing, so that find itself is unusual. The determination is doubly noteworthy because the scientists observed that the males of this species, Psophodes olivaceus, sing with no accent whatsoever.

Mennill and his colleague Amy Rogers measured eastern whipbird recordings from 16 different populations along the east coast of Australia. For each of the 112 birds that they recorded, they measured the song's number of syllables, the length of the first syllable, the highest and lowest frequency of the last syllable, the time between these frequency extremes and other characteristics.

The vast majority of female recordings showed variations on each of these criteria, but male songs were all virtually identical.

In terms of accents, he said that geographical variations, or dialects, are found in other songbirds, whales, seals and primates.

Findings were published in a recent issue of the Journal of Avian Biology.

*Female 1

*Female 2

*Female 3

*Male whipbird call

Dating Is For The Birds

Scally-Headed Parrot
(From www.caracara.org)

An ornithologist who set up a dating agency for lonely parrots says it has been a huge success. Rita Ohnhauser has already brought 1,300 lonely hearts together in Berlin and unlike other matchmakers she knows her pairs will never split - because the birds mate for life.

"In the wild parrots search out a life partner and then spend every minute of the day with them, but when they are kept as pets they are mainly alone and get very depressed," said Ohnhauser.
She added that parrot owners across Germany had started bringing their feathered friends to the sanctuary to find a mate, and she currently had 150 parrots busy "getting acquainted" with other birds.

"Birds experience love at first sight just like humans. But others make a really careful choice before entering a relationship. It can take up to three months," she said. (From Ananova)

* The Parrot Pages

When Wings Sing

Richard Prum, a Yale ornithologist, was hiking through an Ecuadorean forest 18 years ago when he had one of the strangest experiences an ornithologist can have. He watched a bird sing with its wings.

Dr. Prum was observing a male club-winged manakin. The tiny red-headed bird was hopping acrobatically from branch to branch in order to attract female manakins. And from time to time, the male would wave its wings over its back. Each time the manakin produced a loud, clear tone that sounded as if it came from a violin.

"I was just utterly stunned," Dr. Prum said. "There's literally no bird in the world that does anything that prepares you for it. It's totally unique."

Ever since, Dr. Prum has wondered how the club-winged manakin managed this feat. Now he and a former student, Kimberly Bostwick of Cornell University, believe they have solved the mystery.

Club-winged manakins rake their feathers back and forth over one another, using an acoustic trick that allows crickets to sing. While the technique is common among insects, it has never been documented before in vertebrates.

The noise-making skill of manakins first came to the attention of naturalists in the 1800's. The club-winged manakin belongs to the manakin family (Pipridae), which includes about 40 species, many of which have peculiarly shaped feathers that allowed them to make sounds.

In many species the males use the noises during their courtship displays. "Some of them pop like a firecracker, and there a couple that make whooshing noises in flight," Dr. Prum said.

How Do They Do It?

Dr. Bostwick traveled to New York to study the manakin collection at the American Museum of Natural History. "I spent a lot of time playing with the feathers," she said. She noticed that next to the strangely ridged feather was another feather with a stiff, curved tip. She realized that each time a manakin shook its wings, its tip rakes across the ridges of the neighboring feather like a spoon moving across a washboard. Each time it hit a ridge, the tip produced a sound. The tip would strike each ridge twice - once as the feathers collided and once as they moved apart again.

Dr. Bostwick realized that this raking movement allowed a wing to produce 14 sounds during each shake. As a result, a bird could shaking its wings 100 times a second could produce a sound with a frequency of 1,400 cycles a second. "All the questions that hadn't made any sense just clicked into place," Dr. Bostwick said. (More from the NY TIMES)

Source: Science

* Video Manakin Mating Call (from Science Magazine)
* Cornell Press Release

Those Philandering Finches

National Geographic

Researchers found that about 25 percent of the black rosy-finch hatchlings found in this and two other nests were not sired by the male feeding and guarding them—proof that the female had not been monogamous.

Blood samples were taken from the nestlings and the male parent and then using microsatellite DNA fingerprinting—a method used to determine paternity in animals—researchers determined that the samples suggested the female had been visiting neighboring males for sneaky copulations.

This behavior was supported by samples later taken from other black rosy-finch nests, with around 25 percent of chicks sired by males other than the female's nesting mate. For the first time this bracketed female rosy-finches with a range of other birds, from flamingoes to sparrows, that also "play" away from home. Read more from National Geographic.

Ornithologie Online

François Nicolas Martinet engraved illustrations of birds for books by some of the most influential ornithologists in 18th-century France. Towards the end of his career, Martinet drew upon his experience engraving birds for others and published his own ornithology books, producing plates until his death sometime in the late 1780s or early 1790s. The Smithsonian has made Martinet's book of hand-colored illustrations, Ornithologie, available online.

Books On Birdsong

While Donald Kroodsma, a specialist in the interpretation of bird songs, has released a new book, The Singing Life of Birds: The Art and Science of Listening to Birdsong, he is also the subject of another book -- about those who listen to birds.

Birdsong, by Don Stap, details the work and passions of people who analyze the sounds of birds. Stap followed Kroodsma from the lab into the field to write his account of the researcher at work.

Listen to the NPR story

David Rothenberg, a jazz musician, explores birdsong through science, poetry and music in Why Birds Sing: A Journey Into the Mystery of Bird Song (Basic Books). He examines not only why birds sing, but what their songs mean to other birds and to humans, and how birdsongs can be instinctive or learned. He points out that although males sing to defend territory or attract mates, they also sing when no females or male competitors are present - perhaps, he suggests, because they simply enjoy singing. (AP Story)

Why is everyone aflutter over Birdsong? Birdsong may reveal clues to brain function. Listen for more on NPR.

A Library Of Song

Source: Audubon Magazine

Cornell’s Lab of Ornithology, and the Macaulay Library, boast the recordings of more than 6,000 bird songs of the world's 9,000 or so bird species arranged taxonomically from ostrich to raven.

Don Stap writes in Audubon Magazine “on one shelf were the babbling-brook arias of mockingbirds; on another, the flutelike ee-oo-lays of wood thrushes; and on others, the wistful melodies of white-throated sparrows, the caroling of robins, and the songs of birds I had never seen nor heard: the superb lyrebird, the laughing kookaburra, the black-and-gold cotinga, the snowy-headed robin chat, and more. The room was brimming with sound. But of course I heard nothing. The silence was profound.

“Several recordings hold the voices of birds now extinct (the Guam flycatcher and Bachman's warbler) or most likely extinct (the ivory-billed woodpecker). Many are the only known aural records of rare and elusive species.”

*Bird sounds to download from the Library.

Up Close In 3-D

Source: Zoological Museum of the University of Amsterdam
Reed Warbler collected in 1872

The bird collection of the Zoological Museum of the University of Amsterdam counts over 60,000 examples. When the (Royal) Zoological Society 'Natura Artis Magistra' was founded in 1838 its main aim was to exhibit live animals, however since most birds did not survive long, they ended up mounted on display in the museum's halls. About 2000 birds, mostly large specimens, from this early period survive. Over 150 examples are available to view in 3-D online.

Source: Zoological Museum of the University of Amsterdam
Magnificent x King Bird of Paradise hybrid

Birdbrain, The Bigger The Better

Source: New York Times

Another study aims to upset birdbrain myth.

Bigger brains are better when it comes to dealing with a new environment.

Bigger-brained birds adapted much better to new surroundings, establishing populations more quickly, than smaller-brained species, the international team of experts found.

They gathered data on brain mass for 1,967 species.

In more than 600 introductions of nearly 200 bird species into new habitat they found that species with brains large relative to their body size tended to survive better in new environments than smaller-brained birds.

Reuters has more.

Birds Breathalyzed But Not For Drinking And Flying

According to the Washington Post migrating songbirds stop periodically to eat and store energy for the next leg of their journeys. Now, thanks to a tiny, three-valve "bird breathalyzer," scientists can figure out what they're eating, and it's not always what seems obvious.

Working on Block Island off the Rhode Island coast, Brigham Young University ecologist Kent A. Hatch led a team that sampled the breath of migrating white-throated sparrows and yellow-rumped warblers that stopped, ostensibly to feed on bayberries, before continuing south to the Caribbean. The research was reported in the current issue of the journal Oecologia.

Hatch uses his breathalyzer, which shows what a bird has been eating.

The team caught the birds with fine-mesh nets, put the mask on and let them breathe and re-breathe the oxygen before releasing them. They drew off the breath sample with the syringe and analyzed it for isotope content in a mass spectrometer.

Hatch said the warblers ate bayberries exclusively for the previous 12 hours, the period covered by the breathalyzer. But the sparrows' diet also included corn, millet or sorghum -- probably from bird feeders, he said, because Block lsland is not known for agriculture.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58849-2005Feb27.html

Smithsonian Studies Shy Swamp Sparrow

Sparrow Study

The Coastal Plain Swamp Sparrow makes its home in Delaware's vast tidal marshes. The bird is an unusual subspecies of the more widespread Swamp Sparrow.

Scientists from the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, in cooperation with the Delmarva Ornithological Society, have their eye on the secretive bird. For more on Sparrow study visit the website.

NPR Interview On How Being Bird-Brained Could Be A Good Thing

NPR's Alex Chadwick talks to Ira Flatow, host of Talk of the Nation Science Friday, about a study challenging the wisdom of the epithet "bird-brained." The research indicates that birds' brains are far from primitive. Interview aired February 3, 2005.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4484649