Sungrebe – New for North America!

Stunning news from Bosque del Apache NWR in New Mexico: a female Sungrebe was photographed there on 13 November 2008, those photos here. It was correctly identified on 17 November from the photos, then refound and photographed more on 18 November. This is not only a new species for North America, but a whole new family.

A map of the species' whole range can be seen here at InfoNatura (scroll down for the detailed map).

Of course, birders are already debating whether this is a wild, naturally-occcurring bird or an escape from captivity. On one hand, it's a secretive species that is rarely seen flying, with no known history of vagrancy or even real seasonal movements, making the prospect of one appearing nearly 1000 miles northwest of the closest known population seem very unlikely. On the other hand, it's not kept in any zoos, and doesn't seem like the kind of species that would be illegally transported by an individual, which makes the escapee theory unlikely also.

Tipping the balance in favor of natural occurrence, in my opinion, is that in South America Sungrebes are apparently quick to occupy ephemeral wetlands, even when those are isolated many miles from any other suitable Sungrebe habitat. So clearly they are capable of long-distance flight, and wander enough to discover recently-created habitat. Perhaps, like rails, or Masked Ducks, they are capable of amazing feats of vagrancy.

Unless there is some clear evidence of captivity, I would consider this a wild bird. Incredible!

Update 19 November: Jerry Oldenettel has more details and will be updating the bird's status on his website here; and apparently the original photos were taken 13 November, and identified on the 17th, so the bird has been present at least six days.

How many rare birds did we miss before the internet?

Yesterday morning I 'found' Canada's first Lucy's Warbler... in my inbox. 

After reading my recent posts about rare birds, Cathy Mountain (whose redpoll photos were featured here last winter) sent me a series of pictures of a warbler that had been in her yard in Fort McMurray, northern Alberta, from November 8-10, 2008. 

After rejecting the possibility of a drab Yellow Warbler, she thought it might be a Virginia's or Lucy's Warbler, as did other local birders who saw the photos, but they were reluctant to call it since both of those species were so unlikely. 

photo by Cathy Mountain - used by permission

This photo is not the sharpest in the series, but it is the best for showing the identifying features: the small pointed bill, plain gray color, pale lores and eyering, and dark rusty rump just showing under the wings. (and Yes, that is snow.)

This highlights another line of evidence in the debate about how many rare birds we miss - the number of rare birds found and identified only because they are photographed. This bird, like West Virginia's Great Knot in August 2007, and countless others, would have been lost in the swirl of ambiguous possibilities if not for photography. And without the internet to allow immediate sharing, even photos might have laid in a drawer with a very low chance of ever being identified. 

Imagine the chain of events that led to this discovery:

• In all of northern Alberta, this warbler landed in the yard of a birder (maybe not entirely random since Cathy probably has some landscaping to attract birds, but still... northern Alberta's a big place)
  
• She had to notice it and take some pictures
  
• She had to realize it could be something noteworthy and go to the effort and the risk of showing the photos to other birders to try to identify it
  
• When it remained a mystery she had to continue pushing the pictures out on the internet

Judging from her email to me, I think she knew what it was, and just didn't have the confidence to say, but did have the confidence to keep trying to confirm her suspicions.

Now imagine if any one of the links in this chain had broken down. The bird didn't land in a birder's yard, didn't stay long enough or simply wasn't noticed, wasn't photographed, or wasn't 'advocated for'. This Lucy's Warbler could have landed unnoticed in dozens of yards on its trip from Mexico to Alberta. 

The digital photography revolution, and the ability to share pictures easily on the internet, means that a lot more of these birds are found (meaning confirmed), which is fantastic. But this still must be a fraction of all the rare birds that are out there.

So get out there and find something!

How many rare birds do we miss?

As birders we often talk about the problem of common birds being misidentified as rare ones. The counterpoint, but probably more frequent, is that rare birds are simply overlooked. Here's a link to a fantastic "Awareness Test" on YouTube. 

Give it a try, it only takes a minute. The relevance of this test to bird identification should be obvious, so now you can just imagine all the rare birds you haven't seen.

House Sparrow - "New" for North America?

[Major updates 25 Feb 2008, adding new information about the introduced Siberian populations]

You might think that the words "intriguing" and "House Sparrow sightings" are mutually exclusive, but here's a case where they go together! In October 2007 a flock of five House Sparrows showed up in the coastal village of Shishmaref in northwest Alaska. They were found and photographed by science teacher Ken Stenek, as you can read on his website here. Two males were still present as of mid-Feb 2008, demonstrating how hardy this species can be.

House Sparrow is a very rare visitor anywhere in Alaska, with only a few records in the state. Interestingly, one of the few prior Alaska records comes from Gambell, on St Lawrence Island, in mid-summer about 15 years ago. So the question is whether these birds, at the very western edge of Alaska, came from North America or Asia. North American birds originate from multiple introductions in the eastern states in the 1800s. They spread rapidly but they have not spread beyond southern NWT. In fact, in recent decades the species has been declining across most of its world range.

In contrast to the widespread declines in the developed world, House Sparrows have been expanding their range in East Asia, although this expansion is apparently man-made, involving deliberate transplants and releases of House Sparrows in Siberian cities (fide Dan Gibson). The spread of House Sparrows across North America was "accelerated" in the same way a century ago, and the success of the birds must also depend on development and human land-use changes and possibly also warming climate in recent decades. They are now apparently established in a number of settlements along the Russian coast of the Bering Sea at least as far east as Anadyr (Paul Lehman, Dan Gibson), and it would be very interesting to know whether or not these populations are increasing.

Above is an updated map (25 Feb 2008) of the current range of House Sparrow around Alaska (comments welcome). Shishmaref is indicated by the large red dot. Smaller red dots show Ketchikan in southeast Alaska where there have been five records of House Sparrow, two of those records involve pairs (fide Steve Heinl), and Gambell, on Saint Lawrence Island, where a single House Sparrow was found in summer 1993. Purple dots in Siberia show cities where House Sparrows are known to have been introduced - Magadan, Kamchatskiy, Anadyr, and Providenya (fide Dan Gibson), and presumably they have also been released in other cities and towns.

In North America the nearest population of House Sparrows is in southern NWT, about 1500 miles east-southeast of Shishmaref. In Asia the species occurs "naturally" only as close as the west edge of the Sea of Okhotsk, about 2000 miles west-southwest. Introduced populations are found along the coast farther east, including Anadyr, less than 500 miles west of Shishmaref, and Providenya, less than 100 miles from Gambell, where some were apparently released just weeks before the 1993 record at Gambell (fide Dan Gibson). My earlier assumption that these cities had been colonized naturally is apparently incorrect, and I don't know how healthy those populations are, whether they are increasing or not, or whether any persist in Providenya.

Still, the fact that Asian populations are so much closer argues in favor of an Asian origin for the Shishmaref birds. The water crossing, on the other hand, seems formidable for birds coming from that direction, and makes many people think the birds must have been "assisted" in their trip to Shishmaref.

If House Sparrows were coming to western Alaska from Canada I would expect them to colonize Fairbanks and other interior Alaska cities along the way. (They have not). Maybe these birds came up on a boat, especially given increased shipping traffic with the longer ice-free summers in recent years. If any bird has a chance of being transported by truck, train, or ship, it is the House Sparrow. But then I would expect them to be seen in Juneau, Haines, Anchorage, Fairbanks..., all cities with bustling transportation centers. Why Shishmaref?

The answer to the question of origin could possibly be found in a careful study of the birds' plumage, since North American birds must look slightly different from Asian birds, although all involve the nominate subspecies P. d. domesticus. Or perhaps stable isotope analysis of feathers could reveal the birds' origin. Ultimately, the next decade or so will probably give us the answer. If House Sparrows are increasing in eastern Siberia and begin to colonize other western Alaska towns (without appearing in southern Alaska) that will be strong evidence that they are invading from the west.

For now it's a very intriguing House Sparrow sighting, potentially adding a new species to the list of naturally-occurring birds in North America.

Notes:


details of North American distribution from Audubon Christmas Bird Count data

Anderson, T. R. 2006. Biology of the Ubiquitous House Sparrow: from Genes to Populations. Oxford Univ. Press. available online here

White-crested Elaenia - new for North America

[edited 12 Feb 2008]
From Texas comes the remarkable news of the discovery of an apparent White-crested Elaenia (Elaenia albiceps) found by Dan and Honey Jones on 9 Feb 2008. Photos, sound recordings, and ID discussion can be found at Martin Reid's website and some great photos at Erik Breden's website. The bird was found at the Sheepshead Woodlot sanctuary (preserved by the Valley Land Fund) on South Padre Island. [Update: after being seen by many on 10 Feb, the bird could not be found on 11 Feb; hopefully it will reappear]

Given that South Padre Island is a barrier island on the Gulf of Mexico, just north of the Mexican border, it has a distinct geographic advantage when it comes to attracting rare birds. But this particular species could have turned up almost anywhere. The fact that it landed just across the Mexican border would seem to be just a fluke (although one can't discount observer effects: birders on the Mexican border tend to be a little more open to these possibilities when an "odd" bird is found). White-crested Elaenia is a South American species, nesting in Chile and Argentina during the southern summer and migrating north to winter (during the southern winter) in the Amazon lowlands. [update: to clarify, this is referring only to the migratory southern "Chilean" subspecies, which may be a different species from the more or less sedentary populations in the Andes farther north. I'm assuming that the Texas bird is from the migratory southern population.] Fork-tailed Flycatcher is another austral migrant, and a more familiar vagrant in the US and Canada.

So let's speculate about some dates: If this is a young bird it most likely fledged sometime around January 2007, about one year ago. Then in April it migrated north to the lowlands of Brazil, where it stayed for the few months of the southern winter. In October 2007 it would have been ready to migrate back to its breeding range in southern South America, and presumably at that point it made a mistake and migrated north instead of south, bringing it to North America. Right now it should be on its breeding grounds, in mid to late summer. The urge to migrate should have waned in December, but maybe this bird found itself in some inhospitably cold place and was forced to move south for food, bringing it to South Padre Island. Or maybe it's been in that area since last fall. Or maybe this bird's clock, along with its navigation system, is screwed up and it's just off on a wild adventure. We'll never know, but given that the species has a range and migratory pattern like Fork-tailed Flycatcher [wrong - see note below], it is plausible that its patterns of vagrancy would be similar, and that suggests the scenario that this individual arrived in North America about three months ago.

The breeding range of this species is centered about 5000 miles (in a straight line) from South Padre Island, which is a remarkable distance. Small changes in direction of flight, or distance, would bring the bird to very different locations. It could just as easily have turned up at any of the Gulf Coast barrier islands, or a desert oasis like Big Bend, and traveling just 20% farther would bring most of the eastern US within its range! Something to watch for....

Note: Thanks to Chris Vogel for pointing out some flaws in my speculation, which reveals my ignorance of South American birds (and a lack of research). The range and migratory patterns of White-crested Elaenia and Fork-tailed Flycatcher are not very similar after all. Here are maps from Natureserve's InfoNatura database showing the ranges - Fork-tailed Flycatcher (left) and White-crested Elaenia (right)

both images © 2007 NatureServe, 1101 Wilson Boulevard, 15th Floor, Arlington Virginia 22209, U.S.A. All Rights Reserved.

White-crested Elaenia nests in the highlands of western South America, Fork-tailed Flycatcher in the lowlands of eastern South America. There is little overlap in breeding range and the migratory patterns must be quite different. Chris stresses the fact that altitudinal movements are a significant part of the Elaenia's migration, from colder mountains to warmer lowlands, while Fork-tailed Flycatcher is a lowland bird all year. Anyway, the main point I was trying to make is that both species are long-distance austral migrants (at least partly) and the Elaenia (like Fork-tailed Flycatcher) could have turned up almost anywhere in North America as easily as at South Padre Island.

What are the odds?

Slaty-backed Gull in Gloucester, MA on 23 December 2007 - Photo by Phil Brown

Part 1:

On 6 December 2007 at about 8PM, in the midst of an intense winter storm, a resident of Lilllooet, BC heard a thump on their front door. Thinking the dog wanted to come in, they opened the door to find a strange bird lying on the front porch. It later died despite their best efforts, and it turns out to be a Cook's Petrel (although similar species still need to be ruled out)! This is the first for BC and for Canada.

Lillooet is west of Kamloops, in southern interior BC. It is over 100 miles to the nearest salt water, and at least 250 miles to the nearest open ocean where a Cook's Petrel would be "comfortable". How many were blown into BC and simply perished in bogs and lakes? Maybe only one, but what are the odds that the only one happened to crash into the front door of a house? And on top of that a house where the residents would take enough interest to report it?

---------------------------------------------
Part 2:

In early December 2007 it was reported on the OregonBirds listserv that a Jacksnipe had been shot by a hunter in November - a first record for Oregon and only the 6th for North America of this secretive and cryptic species. But then it was discovered that the same hunter shot a Jacksnipe in the same area of coastal Oregon in late October 2004 , making this the 7th for North America.

How many other Jacksnipes have been shot and never reported? How many are wintering along the Pacific coast of North America? Maybe none. But what are the odds that one snipe-hunter, in a single patch of coastal Oregon, could personally find about one-third of all the North American records of this species?

----------------------------------------------
Part 3:

On 23 December 2007 I went on one of my infrequent birding trips to Cape Ann, Massachusetts with my son and two friends. I was aware of recent Slaty-backed Gulls in Illinois and Pennsylvania, so my expectations were up, but it was still a shock to see a Slaty-backed Gull in Gloucester Harbor - the first ever for Massachusetts. I even thought that "the" bird an hour later had a very different looking bill color, and the next day Rick Heil was able to confirm that there were indeed two Slaty-backed Gulls in Gloucester. Most amazing, just an hour or so after I saw the first one in Gloucester, Wayne Petersen and Dave Larsen found another individual on Cape Cod (they thought they had a first state record, only to find that theirs was the second ... or third, by a matter of minutes - Ouch!).

How many other Slaty-backed Gulls are scattered around the eastern US? Maybe only these few. But what are the odds that the very-thoroughly-birded state of Massachusetts would suddenly have three records? Interestingly, at Gloucester and Cape Cod, the Slaty-backeds coincided with an unprecedented invasion of hundreds of Bohemian Waxwings. It seems bizarre to even suggest that movements of these species are related, but could it be just a coincidence?

---------------------------------------

And now we enter a new year filled with possibilities....

More rare bird news and a correction

The latest Siberian highlight was California's first Eurasian Kestrel banded in Marin Co. CA on 23 October 2007 but not seen again (photos here). About 10 North American Records.

Otherwise, in addition to what I listed previously, a Dusky Warbler and four Eastern Yellow Wagtails in CA, and a Rustic Bunting in BC are the only Siberian birds that I've heard of that seemed to find their way down from Alaska. A little above average, perhaps, but my earlier excitement about watching for Eye-browed thrushes, etc hasn't really panned out. Although there's still time....

A well-seen adult Ross's Gull November 10-11 at Vanderhoof, north-central BC ( the 2nd for BC, with a very late and rare-inland Arctic Tern). There was an earlier report of an adult Ross's Gull in September in eastern Colorado! So this is another species for southern birders to keep in mind.

Probably unrelated to the Ross's Gull, but quite a coincidence in timing, an Ivory Gull was reported on 11 November just inland from Vancouver, BC.

The Green-breasted Mango continues in Georgia, and the Wisconsin bird now survives in captivity. See my previous post about mangos for more.

Correction - I said in a previous post that a Tristram's Storm-Petrel off southern California in July this year was the first ever reported in North America, but there are photos of an apparent Tristram's Storm-Petrel trapped on the Farallons, off San Francisco, CA on 22 Apr 2006 (photo here) and currently under review by the California Bird Records Committee.

Green-breasted Mangos in North America

Green-breasted Mango Anthracothorax prevostii

This species is not included in the Sibley Guide to Birds because at the time that I was planning the book there were only two records north of Mexico. By the time I had finished the book there were 7 records (enough to warrant inclusion, if only I had known sooner!). Records have continued to increase with the total as of today up to at least 16 in Texas (through 2006) and single records in NC, WI, and GA. The WI and GA records are both in fall 2007, prompting this summary. Obviously it's a species that should be watched for all over the US.

Identification
A report by John Arvin on identification of Mango Hummingbirds from the minutes of the 1995 Texas Bird Records Committee meeting:

Arvin discussed his findings regarding identification of immature/female Mango sp. hummingbirds of Central America and northern South America. Arvin has now visited 3 of the 4 major North American collections with numbers of Mango specimens (LSU, Smithsonian, and Field Museum of Chicago; American Museum of Natural History specimens have not been examined). He examined all specimens of the 3 mainland Mango species which are possibly confused:
- GBMA - Green-breasted Mango (Anthracothorax prevostii)
- GTMA - Green-throated Mango (A. viridigula)
- BTMA - Black-throated Mango (A. nigricollis)
A brief summary of distinctive aspects follows:
GTMA is a scarce hummer of n.e. S. Am. It is rare in collections. Fem/imms are easy to separate because the dark stripe on the center of the underparts is short, extending barely past the throat.
BTMA occurs in humid tropical lowlands. Fems/imms are very similar to GBMA except that the central dark stripe NEVER shows any blue or green iridescence; it is flat black.
GBMA is highly migratory at least in the northern part of its range. GBMA fem/imms have varying amounts of color in the central dark stripe but: No GBMA failed to show at least a little blue or green color (at least a few metallic feathers) in the stripe. Thus, IF a mango is a fem/imm and IF any blue/green iridescence is seen in the dark belly stripe, it is a confirmed Green-breasted Mango. If no color is seen, it may be accepted at least as a mango sp. Based on geographic probability, and the fact that the northern pops of GBMA are migratory and no other pops of any of the other spp. are, it is a virtual certainty that any mango sp. in Texas is a GBMA (barring escaped captive). TBRC members may continue to make their own decisions on how conservative they may choose to view records in which no color in the central stripe is seen.
Arvin could find no other plumage differences that would be useful at distinguishing fem/imm GBMA and BTMA. Apparently the amount of rufous/rusty on the sides of the neck does NOT help; it is quite variable within and between these two species.

North American Records:

Texas 1) - 14-23 September 1988. One female or immature was at Brownsville, Cameron Co, TX. Originally accepted only as Mango species (Anthracothorax species) this record was later accepted as a Green-breasted Mango based on geographic probability after a pattern of other documented records developed. the first record of its genus in the United States.

Texas 2) - 6-27 January 1992. One female or immature in Corpus Christi, Nueces Co, TX.
photo here and here. From TBRC 1993 report.

Texas 3) - 22-27 September 1993. One female plumaged bird, in Falfurrias, Brooks Co, TX. 1995 TBRC report

Texas 4) - 18-20 August 1993. One immature was photographed at Santa Ana NWR, Hidalgo Co, TX. 1996 TBRC report

Texas 5) - 17-20 August 1996. Up to two were at San Benito, Cameron Co, TX, 1997 TBRC report

Texas 6) - 3-8, and 21 November to 21 December 1997. One at Corpus Christi, Nueces Co, TX, 1998 TBRC report

Texas 7) - 22-23 May 1999. One at Los Fresnos, Cameron Co, TX. 2000 TBRC report

North Carolina 1) - 12 Nov - 4 Dec 2000. One immature male in Concord, Cabarrus Co, NC. Article in The Chat here (pdf) photos here and here

Texas 8) - 1-8 February 2001. A male at McAllen, Hidalgo Co, TX,

Texas 9) - 10 July-15 August 2001. A female or immature at Pharr, Hidalgo Co, TX,

Texas 10) - 28 September-18 October 2001. A male at McAllen, Hidalgo Co, TX, TBRC 2002 report

Texas 11) - 23 November 2001-12 February 2002. A male at McAllen, Hidalgo Co, TX,

Texas 12) - 9 September- 23 October 2002 The same male returned to McAllen, Hidalgo Co, TX, TBRC 2003 report

Texas 13) - 22 August-5 December 2004. One adult male at McAllen, Hidalgo Co, TX, photos here

Texas 14) - 20 September 2004-25 January 2005. One (or possibly two) adult male(s) at McAllen, Hidalgo Co, TX, photo here and here and here (labeled Pharr, TX?) and here

Texas 15) - 18-20 June 2005. An imm. bird at San Benito, Cameron Co, TBRC 2005 report

Texas 16). 8-9 July 2006. An imm. bird at San Benito, Cameron Co, TX, TBRC 2006 report

Wisconsin 1) - early Sep - 5 Nov+, 2007. Immature or female at Beloit, WI; photos here and here and here. This bird was captured on 5 Nov 2007 and taken into captivity, details here.

Georgia 1) - 25 Oct - 11 Nov+, 2007. One immature or female at Dublin, Laurens Co. GA; photos here and here and here


References:
TBRC annual reports and minutes can be found here

Wandering Flamingos

A fascinating story of two flamingos, one from the Yucatan that provides a very rare undisputed US record of a wild bird, and another from the Old World (via a Kansas zoo) that shows how widely an escaped bird can wander.

Details and a great comparison photo are on the Louisiana Ornithological Society website

More Siberian vagrants

In my previous post about Siberian birds I made a tenuous connection between an above-average season for vagrants in the Bering Sea and a few vagrants farther south and east. Updates from Gambell by Paul Lehman show a continued surge of Siberian birds, highlighted by North America's first Sedge Warbler, and even more of the species recorded earlier in the fall (e.g. a final season's total of ten Little Buntings). Saint Paul Island in the Pribilofs has been just as exciting (updates here and some photos here - but you'll have to search all the way back to Aug 2007), with North America's 2nd or 3rd Grey Heron, another Yellow-browed Warbler (second this fall and fifth for North America), and a remarkable fallout of multiple Eye-browed Thrushes and Grey-streaked Flycatchers, along with Siberian Rubythroats and other species. This fallout also reached Adak 450 miles southwest in the Aleutians and a few birds reached Gambell 450 miles north of St Paul. The total number of Eye-browed thrushes and other species falling out across such a wide area must have been huge.

Back in the lower 48, along with the 3 Arctic Warblers and the Common Rosefinch previously reported, there was an undocumented report of a possible Old World Flycatcher in Monterey, CA on 30 Sep, with one listserv post suggesting that Mugimaki Flycatcher was the leading ID contender. That bird was not relocated and remains unconfirmed, the same as a report of a Brown Shrike near Anchorage AK at about the same time.

I still think it's wise for birders all over North America to familiarize themselves with Eye-browed Thrush, Siberian Rubythroat, Little Bunting, Siberian Accentor, Brown Shrike, and other species so that you will be prepared for the remote possibility that one lands in front of you. But also bear in mind that increasing expectations like this will lead to "false alarms" as Mark Brown describes here, turning an apparent Savannah Sparrow into a possible Lanceolated Warbler- it happens to all of us. But if you're pretty certain you've found something rare, get the word out so other birders can see it, and try to take photos to document it.

The first challenge is finding or noticing the bird: overcoming the natural tendency to pigeon-hole it into an expected species. After that you can worry about confirming your identification.

Siberian vagrants on the move?

Update 24 Sep 2007: Seen on the 22nd was Gambell's 3rd Siberian Accentor, 4th Dusky Warbler, and 6th Little Bunting of the season; while St Paul, Pribilofs turned up their 2nd Siberian Accentor and first Pechora Pipit of the season. And the big news, adding some weight to my tenuous connection - a Common Rosefinch at Southeast Farallon Island, California - the first ever in North America away from western Alaska.

It's been an above-average fall for Asian birds in Alaska. The tiny "oasis" of Gambell, on Saint Lawrence Island, has been well-watched by Paul Lehman and others for each of the last 10 or so falls, so I think it's safe to say that Gambell has more rare birds this fall and not just better coverage. Of course, there could still be other explanations besides more vagrants coming to Alaska - local weather that concentrates or keeps birds at the point or in some way makes them easier to find, the same observers with more experience getting better at finding and identifying rarities, random chance....

The Pribilofs (Saint Paul Island) have had less consistent coverage, and with more habitat vagrant landbirds can be harder to find there (relying more on chance), but this has been a good season compared to the last several years, especially considering the Brown Hawk-Owl last month.

Sky Lark - up to 6 at Pribilofs
Brown Shrike - 1 at Gambell (about 8 NA records)
Siberian Accentors - 2 at Gambell, 1 at Pribilofs (about 25 NA records)
Red-flanked Bluetail - 1 at Pribilofs
Dusky Warbler - 3 at Gambell (now about 20 NA records)
Willow Warbler - 3 at Gambell (bringing the total to 4 NA records, all from Gambell)
Yellow-browed Warbler - 1 at Pribilofs (now 4 NA records, the other three from Gambell in he last few years)
Olive-backed Pipit - 1 at Pribilofs
Pechora Pipit - 2 at Gambell (about 30? NA records)
Pallas's Bunting - 1 at Gambell (6th NA record)
*Yellow-browed Bunting - 1 at Gambell, first NA record
Little Buntings 4 or 5 at Gambell, 1 at Pribilofs (now about 20 total NA records)
Common Rosefinch - 1 at Gambell (about 20 NA records?)

Most birders have little chance of getting to Gambell in the fall, so these reports seem unreal. But if you like to be optimistic, an unprecedented three Arctic Warblers in southern California last week could start to look like a pattern of Asian vagrants. Unprecedented things seem to happen in California pretty regularly... but the distance from Gambell to southern California is about the same as the distance from Gambell to Michigan.

OK, I admit it is a bit of a stretch to link the CA Arctic Warblers to the Siberian birds at Gambell, but birders all over North America would do well to recall past records of things like Siberian Accentors in the northern Rocky Mountains, Siberian Flycatcher in Bermuda, Brown Shrike in Nova Scotia, Siberian Stonechat in New Brunswick, and Siberian Rubythroat in Ontario.

Get to know your local patch, keep an open mind, and go out there and look. There's no telling what might turn up.

Rare bird news

An eventful few weeks for bird records in North America:

The long-anticipated first nesting record of Lesser Black-backed Gull in North America (even though it hybridized with a Herring Gull) - on Appledore Island, Maine.

Green Violetear reaches Maine - the farthest northeast record to date. 19 Aug 2007 on Mount Desert Island; photo here

First Fan-tailed Warbler in Texas, in Pine Canyon, Big Bend NP and still present 30 Aug 2007. One of few records in the US.

First Great Knot in West Virginia (and eastern North America; and one of fewer than five records in North America outside Alaska) demonstrating once again that rare birds can turn up anywhere. You just have to get out there and look. 13 Aug 2007 at Winfield Locks and Dam, WV (photo links down, hopefully back soon - 7 Feb 2008).

First Townsend's (Newell's) Shearwater for mainland North America. Details here. Found on land (!) at night on 1 Aug 2007, San Diego County, CA

• Closely related to the other small black-and-white shearwaters, the AOU currently considers this a single species: Townsend's Shearwater (Puffinus auricularis), with two subspecies:
• P. a. auricularis (commonly known as Townsend's) breeding on the Islas Revillagigedos off western Mexico.
• P. a. newelli (commonly known as Newell's) and breeding on Kauai, Hawaii.
• The two differ slightly in appearance (plumage and structure), habitat at sea, and breeding range and season. But identification and separation from Manx and other potential confusion species at sea is extremely difficult. Given trends in seabird taxonomy it seems likely that these two will be split into two full species, but neither had previously been documented within the birder's North America.
  

Tantalizing first report of Tristram's Storm-Petrel in North America - seen briefly but unfortunately not photographed from a pelagic birding trip off southern California on 21 July 2007.

The third verifiable North American record of Little Shearwater, and the first since the late 1800s, when beached specimens were found in Nova Scotia and South Carolina. The bird was seen and well-photographed during a pelagic birding trip south of Nantucket, MA on 25 Aug 2007. Photos here, in fact quite possibly the best photos ever taken of this species at sea.

• taxonomy is confusing, since the AOU still maintains a widespread and variable species called Little Shearwater, but most authorities have split the North Atlantic breeders from populations in the rest of the world. The new species, called Macaronesian Shearwater, is comprised of two subspecies which also seem likely to be split into two species:
• P. b. baroli - nesting in the Canaries, Azores, and Madeira and the source of all three North American records
• P. b. boydi - nesting in the Cape Verdes

The totally unexpected first North American record of Brown Hawk-Owl - 27 Aug on St. Paul Island, Alaska (hiding among the crab pots, as many forest birds do on treeless St. Paul Island) photo and details here

Meanwhile, at Gambell on St. Lawrence Island, AK, Brown Shrike, Pechora Pipit, Willow Warbler and Dusky Warbler have all been seen in the past week. Check out updates here.

Finally, a Jabiru in Isola, Mississippi, reported 24-27 Aug 2007 (and possibly seen two weeks earlier as well) feeding at catfish farms with Wood Storks and Great Egrets. Photo and details here. This is the first for Mississippi, and one of fewer than ten records in the US of this spectacular bird.