Warbler Guy: Which wood-warblers benefit from people changing their coffee drinking patterns by buying beans that are “shade grown”....?

Warbler Guy: Which wood-warbler species' utilize non-breeding season habitat in the tropics that includes "shade grown" coffee farms? In theory, is it correct that 

changing coffee drinking patterns favoring "shade grown" coffee could benefit songbirds such as wood-warblers?

The brief answer, Jeremiah (in Rockford, IL)

is to note that several wood-warbler species likely

benefit from changed coffee farming methods that

favor “shade-grown” coffee, including Canada, Wilson's, Black-throated Green, and Cerulean Warbler. Cerulean populations, in specific, have dropped precipitously, perhaps in part due to habitat destruction of their "wintering" grounds (per Breeding Bird Survey trends and results suggested by other monitoring efforts).

To learn more (go to the ShadeCoffee.org web site) and/or see the following two links:

http:nationalzoo.si.edu/scbi.migratorybirds/coffee

(For a nice overview of a blog site article related to the benefits of using "shade grown" coffee as your morning delight choice, please see: http://naturallyavian.blogspot.com)

http://www.fws.gov/birds/documents/LR-CoffeeBirds.pdf

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:Q-jkmF-HQo0J:www.birdsandbeans.com/FactSheetonMigratoryBirdsinShadeCoffeePlantations.pdf+wood-warbler+coffee&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESgo8sf7YWBtzwF50tIobylT4yhhqTVHtvs4vE3ujvWkY7ojYEkbcXcnMcV1NnuG-Us4KwjijFJPnZHbMZr4IsoYcLk7vXHs4RjZYBe-hbao2RUJv5QcEXLoT6Cpy7V5uxSW8Eh0&sig=AHIEtbR537Bc4GGn3274ZYuQ-eVv6Rs0zg

Warbler Guy: Among the strangest warbler questions, a leading one must be: Why is the Yellow-breasted Chat still classified a wood-warbler?

Smart question, Andrea (in Spokane, WA).


Because even a quick glance at a chat suggests — even "yells" — the thought: This species is NOT a warbler, given the large bill (in comparison to other wood-warbler species), large size (two inches bigger than many other wood-warbler species), and a mimic-like/Mimidae family member-like song that is unlike the more dainty, plaintive song heard in most other wood-warbler species.

So: Here's why the Yellow-breasted remains in the wood-warbler family (Parulidae), despite considerable mutiny and bounty dialog that seeks to oust it. Note that two respected analyses of this warbler species’ blood anatomy (i.e., its molecular characters) continue to place the species in the wood-warbler family. More specific (for you molecularly-literate warbler fans), based on the analysis of proteins encoded by loci in various wood-warbler species, the chat remains grouped with other wood-warbler family members. 

Other researchers — including David Sibley’s dad, Charles Sibley — concluded, likewise, through blood analysis (i.e., DNA hyridization) that the chat should remain in the warbler family, despite comparisons of it to tanagers, vireos, mimids (Mimidae family members), and other bird groups.  

OK, I'll abide. The taxonomists know a lot more than me. 

But if a chat is a warbler, then Santa Claus needs scuba diving gear.

Hey, Warbler Guy, where can I see a Connecticut Warbler this autumn?

Thanks, Hank (in New York state):

Here's one, below, that was seen on Friday, 9/7/12.....So, Hank, I'll spring for your gas and you scoot east (young man)....Maybe you'll see the one below that Brian Toal observed....If you see it, Hank, please let me know so I can immediately turn green (with envy).

In other words, I rarely see or hear a COWA (Connecticut Warbler).

Are other readers like me in striking out often with this nemesis bird?

Feel free to answer this question by clicking on the comments button below...and you can
add your comment via the "anonymous" button....a method that is fastest way to post a comment
at this blog site.....

Cheers to you enjoying the warblers,

Daniel (415-382-1827; danieledelstein@att.net; www.warblerwatch.com)

Subject: Connecticut Warbler, west Hartford powerlines Date: Sat Sep 8 2012 7:06 am From: penguinsz AT sbcglobal.net

9/8 - Brian Toal just called to report a Connecticut Warbler on the powerline cut on Rt 44 in West Hartford, going up Avon mountain. The bird was found between the first and second poles on the left side of the trail. Sara Zagorski Wethersfield

Warbler Guy: Now that "fall" southbound migration has begun, where's a GREAT web site to check rare bird sightings in the area where I live? Where I plan to bird soon on my upcoming birding vacation?

Stacey, great question, and here's a new web site where you can read rare bird reports corresponding to any USA state (to which you might travel for birding and wish to know which "cool" bird species
are potential "hot" draws for you and other birders to sleuth out:

http://birding.aba.org

Jeff Gordon, the American Birding Association's (ABA) Executive Director, noted the importance of this new web site in the following linked article that goes to the ABA's web site where an ongoing update of rare bird sightings is present at:

http://blog.aba.org/2019/08/rare-bird-alert-august-16-2019.html

Regards, Daniel Edelstein

Birding Guide Since The 1980s

Certified Wildlife Biologist Asc.

Avian Biologist

&

Community College Birding Instructor

warblerwatch.com

Warbler Guy, where can I see autumn warbler migration on radar? Judging & planning potential good fall warbler watching days is possible by looking at online radar web sites?

Yes, Charlene (in Dubuque, IA), there's a superb composite radar site I recommend for birders: http://www.woodcreeper.com

Here, the current article posts relate to last spring's migration patterns, BUT on the
right side of the home page, look for the department heading "BIRDAR Network."

This listing of radar sites will help you get current information related to this summer and fall's migration dyanamics. So, for example, if you're wondering whether tomorrow is a likely heavy migration of incoming warblers through the Pheasant Branch Creek Conservancy (a superb Middleton, WI (Madison suburb) warbler "magnet trap" nature preserve/park with miles of hiking and biking trails within 15 minutes of the University of Wisconsin campus), then look at one or more of the sites posted under the "BIRDAR Network" area at the woodcreeper.com site. 

Wisconsin birders, alone, will be treated to their own Wisconsin-centric radar view of the southern portion of the Badger state (see graphic here, BELOW). Interpreting the color code meanings is another story for a different article here (or maybe one of my WarblerWatch followers wishes to pose a question to the infamous Warbler Guy, whomever that may be (?) ).

Note the woodcreeper.com site hosts many oThere's a chapter more of information that I could explain about monitoring radar sites to assist your birding efforts, but I don't have time now.

Instead, it's time to leave the Great Indoors, escaping with my binos that are cocked and ready to again view a couple of nearby juvenile Cooper's Hawk that I wish to currently go enjoy at dawn. That's when their calling behavior peaks. And with a pitch that initially resulted in head scratching. But then I listened more carefully, grabbed my long-term memory of the base root of an adult Cooper's typical staccato pattern. Result: daily Cooper's Hawk viewing fun.....and a nice substitute while I wait for the southbound warbler march to begin (i.e., I'll be in WI 8/30 - 9/4/12 to enjoy that region's warbler migration.)

Which bird field guides feature range maps that show non- and breeding territory for species?

Not many. Perhaps none, if you're considering only the most common ones among birders. 

So, if not none, then which one? 

Here's the only title that (I know) features range maps depicting non-breeding and breeding range areas for many orders of birds:

Neotropical Migratory Birds: Natural History, Distribution, and Population Change.  1995. Richard M. DeGraaf and John H. Rappole. Comstock Publishing.

Why do I cherish the above title? Because, for example, if you wish to know the destination of "our" nesting wood-warbler family members that perform neotropical migration (i.e., obligate
long-distance migration), then this resource helps. 

I can look at p. 431 to see where in S. America BLACKBURNIAN WARBLER migrate to after the breeding season.

Other best-selling bird field guides typically merely feature a map that denotes no more than Mexico and northward within N. America (i.e., Central America and S. America are absent).

Ergo, true obligate, long-distance migrants such as the BLACKBURNIAN WARBLER are not accounted for year-round in most field guides' maps.

Warbler Guy, do the new AOU bird name changes include any for North American wood-warblers?

No, Carrie (in Madison, WI), there's no wood-warbler name changes in the 53rd Supplement to the American Ornithologists’ Union (AOU) Check-list of North American Birds . . . butthere's some other interesting changes that birders may wish to know.

Feel free to Read All About it at:http://blog.aba.org/2012/07/new-aou-check-list-changes-2012.html

If you wish to save time and skip the study hall time, then here's the less-than-big-news highlights: 1. First, as background, it should be noted that AOU and the name changes is anannual action performed by the American Ornithologists' Union (thus, AOU) andthis year's recent action creates the 53rd Supplement to the American Ornithologists' Union Check-list of NorthAmerican Birds.

2. As for the name changes, they relate to a

a) split of the Xantus's Murrelet into two species;and

b) a shifting of the falcon and parrot orders to new positions on the check-list.

There's many other scientific name changes related to genera, but I won't bore you with those details, though they are present at the above web site link, if you wish to visit it.The one that I think is interesting for our NBB area — given the resident presence of our urbane House Finch and its close relative, the Purple Finch that also is a year-round resident in the NBB area — relates to how these two species(and the Cassin's Finch) are NO longer in the Carpodacus genus.....they are now separated from the Eurasian Rosefinches and these three finch species have beenplaced in the genus Haemorhous, which is name of an old finch genus.

So, if you're still following me, in a nutshell: It's hello Haemorhous and good-bye Carpodacus.

Regards, Daniel Edelstein

www.warblerwatch.com

http://warblerwatch.blogspot.com