15 New North American Bird Species?

A recent article discussed how genetic tests have revealed up to 15 possible "splits" in birds in Canada and the US. These birds include Northern Fulmar, Solitary Sandpiper, Western Screech Owl, Warbling Vireo, Mexican Jay, Western Scrub-Jay, Common Raven, Mountain Chickadee, Bushtit, Winter Wren, Marsh Wren, Bewick's Wren, Hermit Thrush, Curve Billed Thrasher and Eastern Meadowlark. The study stated that DNA diverged by at least 2.5% in different populations of these species, therefore indicating a species separation. Alternatively, they also mention that some species that are currently viewed as separate species are not as genetically divergent: "The Snow Goose and Ross's Goose, for instance, shared 99.8 percent of DNA and the black-billed magpie and the yellow-billed magpie 99.6 percent. Gulls such as the Glaucous and Iceland Gulls were 99.8 percent the same."

So what does this mean to us as birders? The article doesn't state what the AOU's views are on this or what will be done with the data from the study. Listers are probably ecstatic at the idea of getting some "easy ticks" on their lists if some of these species are split. My hope is that these genetic splits are across some type of definitive geographic boundary or that there are field marks that will make these populations easy to distinguish. I'm always open to an ID challenge, but I fear that our field guides will fill with lots of lookalike species that cross boundaries and make identification frustrating or impossible in the field. From a new birder's perspective, these ID challenges can be very overwhelming. On the flip side, I'm intrigued by these discoveries and anxious to see how this plays out. Your thoughts?

GBBC Results for 2/16

I had the day off today, so Beth and I counted birds at our feeders for the Great Backyard Bird Count. Today's the only day we can participate because we're heading to the Brandywine Valley for 3 days to celebrate V-day. Speaking of V-day... never order from FTD.com. Long story, but their customer service is ridiculously awful.

Anyway, back to the GBBC... our suburban feeders managed to attract 9 species of birds with 20 individuals:

Downy Woodpecker - 1
Blue Jay - 2
Black-capped Chickadee - 1
Tufted Titmouse - 3
Northern Mockingbird - 1
Song Sparrow - 1
White-throated Sparrow - 4
Dark-eyed Junco - 4
House Sparrow - 2

We also attracted our usual crowd of 4 bulbous, extremely hungry squirrels. This is what our patio looked like for most of the day. I took this picture with our new Canon S3 camera.



I recently purchased the heated birdbath in this picture. The Titmice seem to like to drink from it, but that's really it so far.



I hope you all get a chance to participate in the GBBC.

Some more Costa Rica videos

Buff-rumped Warbler at Arenal Hanging Bridges


Monteverde Hummingbirds (Coppery-headed Emerald, Purple-throated Mountain-gem, Green-crowned Brilliant, then the Emerald again)

Great Backyard Bird Count - Tomorrow!

Big days, big sits, Christmas bird counts... all of these are events that help our knowledge of birds and bring a little extra fun to our already exciting hobby. For the <1% of my readers who don't know, this weekend is the Great Backyard Bird Count. So, keep an eye on your feeders or go to your local patch and count some birds!

Costa Rica: Day 5

The plan for day 5 was to spend the whole day in the world famous Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. Monteverde is home to many high elevation species, the most famous being the Resplendent Quetzal. People come from all over to see this bird. After an early Costa Rican breakfast, we walked up to the Reserve to try to beat the crowds on the trail. The entrance was buzzing with local guides waiting for someone to pay for their service. Apparently, these jobs are a hot commodity in CR.



We started on some of the less popular trails in hopes of finding some avocado trees we had heard about from another guest. Avocado trees are a favorite place for Quetzals to hang out. No luck on the trees initially, but we did spook a Highland Tinamou from the trail. We continued searching the trails for birds. Birding in the thick rainforest can be very frustrating with many fleeting glimpses or "heard only" birds. We manuevered up and down the trails searching for birds. We were joined for a bit by a local who was hoping to be a guide someday. He pointed out some plants and a few insects. On a brief stop on the trail, I managed to find a Greta (clearwing butterfly) - SWEET!


Greta species

After getting twisted around by the trail map, we headed back toward the entrance. On the way, we encountered a group being lead by a local guide who was a little reluctant to share what they were looking at. It turned out to be a distant group of quetzals with at least one male and female. We had fleeting glimpses. After spending some time with the quetzals, we continued on the trail where we encountered Orange-bellied Trogon (now lumped with Collared Trogon I think) and a Gray-throated Leaftosser singing in plain view!


Gray-throated Leaftosser

Next, we took another trail in hopes of seeing Azure-hooded Jays. Unfortunately, we didn't see the jays, but we did see Buffy Tuftedcheek (great name) and Three-striped Warbler (very similar to our Worm-eating Warbler). We had wonderful views of the cloud forest from this trail as well.


A beautiful view of the cloud forest

We had to hightail it down the trail because lunch time had come and gone. We were starving. On the way down the trail, we saw Golden-bellied Flycatcher and Spotted Barbtail. Unfortunately, on the way down my camera also decided to stop working! Oh well...


A species of long-tailed skipper

After lunch, we headed back to the Reserve. We didn't see many new birds, but we did get some more looks at the quetzals. We never did get a perfect view of them. Nothing can compare to the quetzal that we saw perched 10' away from us on our trip to Savegre in 2005. Overall, I was disappointed with Monteverde. I think Savegre has a nicer lodge, a more open forest for birding, and less people. The day did end on a cool note though. I finally saw a tarantula in the wild. It was in a tunnel in the side of a hill by the trail. Did I mention how I'm deathly afraid of spiders but I'm still fascinated by them?

Cameras and Bird Stamps

As you may have read, my camera fizzled while I was in Costa Rica. The lens on the Canon S2 refused to retract and the screen just said "E 18". It turns out that the dreaded E 18 error is so chronic in Canon point-and-shoot cameras that it warrants its own website. Canon wants $175 to fix it and so does the local camera shop. Boo-hisssss. The camera only costs $225 new! I'm not sure what to do yet, but a new camera is probably on the horizon.

I've started reading To See Every Bird on Earth. The author uses postage stamps as illustrations. He got the stamp pictures from Chris Gibbins' amazing web site of bird stamps. Check out his identification corner for some good fun.

Robo-Ode

How cool is this new remote control dragonfly? Check out video of it in action.

Costa Rica: Day 4

We started day 4 with some pre-breakfast birding around the lodge. It was a foggy and cloudy morning with few surprises except for a Bright-rumped Attila (lifer), a funny member of the flycatcher family. After breakfast, we packed up a van for our trip to the Trapp Family Lodge next to the world famous Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. Now, there are two ways you can get there from Arenal. You can drive 6 hours on extremely bumpy, narrow, mountainous roads or you can take a water taxi across Lake Arenal and then drive 2 hours on bumpy, narrow, mountainous roads. The choice was obvious. On our way to the water taxi, we found some White-throated Magpie Jays! Love the curly-q!

The water taxi ride was pleasant and included birds like Great and Snowy Egrets, Mangrove Swallow, and Neotropic Cormorant. The drop-off point for the taxi proved to be surprisingly birdy. After trekking up a staircase made of sandbags, we were treated to an Orange-chinned Parakeet less than 10 feet away. Ruddy Ground-doves were everywhere. A few Slaty Antshrikes called like crazy from the brush on the side of the road, but would not come out to see us. At one point, they must have been a foot away from our feet but we couldn't see them!


Orange-fronted Parakeet

We boarded our vehicle for the arduous trek to Monteverde. It was indeed bumpy and mountainous. The drivers in CR must need to buy new shocks every month. Our driver did an amazing job getting us there relatively comfortably though.

The Trapp Family Lodge is a very nice place. Everything is made of decorative wood, the beds are comfortable, and each room has a patio door or balcony view of the yard. The restaurant is very nice with a good choice of food, good (at times leisurely) service, and great fresh juice. My only complaints are that you can't flush the toilet paper and our room had a strange chemical smell. The TP thing is common in the more remote lodges and is not a huge deal.





After a late lunch we headed to Monteverde Reserve. Luckily, Trapp lodge is only an 8/10 mile (slightly uphill) walk to the reserve. We encountered many inquisitive Slate-throated Redstarts on our way towards the reserve. The weather became interesting. It's not called a cloud forest for nothing. A constant mist sprayed against our raingear. We were essentially standing in a cloud. It was a bit of a nuisance, but I'll take it over pouring rain.

We didn't go in the reserve itself (that's for tomorrow), but we did visit the Hummingbird Gallery located right outside the entrance. No matter how many times I go to big hummingbird feeding stations, they never get old. Hummers whiz by your head, perch inches away, feed like crazy, fight for space at the feeders, and really put on a show. You can't beat it. We saw 11 species of hummingbird at these feeders including the endemic Coppery-headed Emerald, Purple-throated Mountain-gem, Violet Sabrewing, Stripe-tailed Hummingbird (new for me), and Magenta-throated Woodstar. Say those names three times fast.


Stripe-tailed Hummingbird


Magenta-throated Woodstar

We ended the day birding the road back to the lodge. After a great dinner (did I mention how good the steaks in Costa Rica are?), we had one more bird on our agenda. Bare-shanked Screech Owls have been heard at the lodge, so we decided to try for it. Keep in mind that it gets pretty chilly and windy at night in Monteverde. Tonight was no exception. The six of us standing in the bombarding winds with icy, horizontal rain pounding the backs of our legs must have been quite a sight. Needless to say, we didn't see the bird. On day 5, we head to the reserve!