Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Warbler Guy, what's one quick tip to improve my birding by ear? Bird song memory is hard! -- so tips to learning bird songs and bird calls would be appreciated.

Here's a fast relief pill to take online for learning wood-warbler songs:

Go to the following web site that's associated with the excellent new book titled
The Warbler Guide (by Scott Whittle and Tom Stephenson):

http://media2.macaulaylibrary.org/PMD/TWG/TheWarblerGuideAudioCompanion_Booklet.pdf

You may also wish to view:

thewarblerguide.com

and click on the "Companion Guide" button on the right side......Excellent information (!)



Otherwise, feel free to see my web site's home page and the "Birding Links" tab pulldown menu where a free handout titled "Top 10 Tips To Improving Your Birding By Ear" appears.

Happy spring and warbler hunting to all, Daniel

www.warblerwatch.cpom

http://warblerwatch.blogspot.com




Sunday, April 20, 2014

Warbler Guy, do female warblers sing? Singing warbler females are common?

Nice question, Jeremiah....Answer: Among the 114 New World wood-warbler species,
I've read at least two sing: Yellow and American Redstart, according to Kimball Garrett's and Jon Dunn's "Warbler Field Guide" (Houghton Mifflin, 1997).


(Yellow Warbler above is a male; below is a female Yellow Warbler. Both sing.)



This guide is excellent and an essential companion for warbler enthusiasts.

Since its publishing date in 1997, it's possible more female wood-warbler species have been detected, though I've not read about any new discoveries.


Thursday, April 10, 2014

Warbler Guy, are Myrtle and Audubon Yellow-rumped Warbler their own species? Or subspecies?



Fine question, Jerry (in Chicago).

As brief background, in 2011 the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) voted down a measure that would have split Yellow-Rumped Warbler into two, three or four species*.

Many of you already know the Yellow-rumped Warbler currently occurs as four subspecies (according to many researchers): the “Myrtle” group (coronata), and the “Audubon’s” group (auduboni), “Black-fronted” (nigrifrons), and “Goldman’s” (goldmani)

The taxonomy of these Yellow-rumped Warbler subspecies was under consideration in 2011 for change by an AOU committee and, currently, is not under consideration for a status change by this committee (according to my "sources").

(NOTE  #1: In the N.A. Birds Online account for this species, the following additional subspecies is described in the "Myrtle group (below photo)":  Yellow-rumped Warbler subspecies: D. c. hooveri (McGregor, 1899). This subspecies breeds in central and s.-central Alaska, se. Alaska, Yukon Territory, Mackenzie, and nw. British Columbia; intergrades with auduboni known from Stikine River, AK (Gibson and Kessel 1997). Like nominate coronata, slightly larger, with longer wing (minimum wing length 73.5 mm in females, 75.5 mm in first-year.


(Audubon's Yellow-rumped subspecies appears in photo, below.)


males, and 78.0 mm in adult males); more streaked below (Alternate-plumaged males) or paler brown (females). Characters broadly clinal where range meets that of nominate coronata; for this reason, hooveri not recognized by Hubbard (1970). More recently, hooverimaintained as valid (Godfrey 1986Gibson and Kessel 1997, R. Dickerman and P. Unitt pers. comment.

NOTE #2: The IOC splits two subspecies in this group and recognizes Audubon's and Myrtle as two species).

(* = The AOU vote was 7–4 against any divisions of the Yellow-rumped complex. The committee members suggested the need for further genetic analysis and determination of the extent of interbreeding in the subspecies’ contact zones where the “Myrtle” group (coronata), and the “Audubon’s” group (auduboni) mix in western Canada. The status of two other subspecies — “Black-fronted” (nigrifrons), and “Goldman’s” (goldmani) remain unchanged.

Black-fronted is a resident in Mexico, and Goldman’s occurs only in southernmost Mexico and Guatemala. Neither of these two subspecies has been observed in the American Birding Association geographical area.)

As for why, the IOC considers the Myrtle and Audubon's to represent two distinct species, the following 10 naming rules appear to guide the IOC's reasons for adopting name choices, with one or more the reason why the IOC divides the Yellow-rumped Warbler into two species: Myrtle Yellow-rumped Warbler and Audubon's Yellow-rumped Warbler:


1.            Each species should have one name only >>
2.            A species name must be unique >>
3.            Anglicized names are acceptable >>
4.            Established names should prevail >>
5.            Local names should not have priority >>
6.            Offensive names should be changed >>
7.            Patronyms are acceptable without bias for or against >>
8.            Simplicity and brevity are virtues >>
9.            Use of the word “island” will be limited >>
10.        Species in the same genus may have different group names >>