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Blog Birding #220
The interrelation of the 9-primaried oscines has been a particularly tough taxonomic nut to crack, but as David Ringer at 10,000 Birds reports, we’re getting closer.
The authors argue that most major groups, including the sparrows, wood-warblers, blackbirds, and cardinals then diversified in North America and subsequently colonized South America in a series of overwater (before the Isthmus of Panama had formed) or overland dispersal events. An early pioneer, however, made it to South America early on and founded the tanager lineage, which has gone on to diversify into nearly 400 species. The distribution of Old World buntings (and the presence of longspurs and Snow Buntings in the Palearctic) is explained by colonization back across Beringia into Asia.
ABA Blog contributor and former Birding assistant editor Noah Strycker is continuing his global Big Year. You can read about it at Audubon Magazine.
Strategically, this year is a delicate balance between logistics and birding: Ideally, I will spend just long enough in each place to see a bunch of birds before moving onward. I planned most of my itinerary in advance, which involved a lot of research and some guesswork. So far, I’m doing pretty well; I’m ahead of the 14-new-birds-a-day pace I need to maintain to reach 5,000—though it will get harder as the easy ones are checked off.
The draw of owls keeps birders up at all hours of the night, even when it’s difficult to stay awake. Jeff Cooper of NeoVista Birding does the best he can, with some success.
I had the chance to sleep in this morning, but my internal clock didn’t care that it was Saturday. I tossed in bed a bit and then decided to use the early morning hours to look for an owl species I hadn’t seen since last summer. While my most normal people were sleeping in their warm beds I drove to a nearby canyon and began to call for a Northern Saw-whet Owl. The area was perfect habitat for the species, but I wondered if the mild northern Utah winter allowed the tiny owls to stay higher in the mountains. I was delighted when a Saw-whet responded almost immediately to my call.
Greg Gillson of Greg in San Diego recounts his experiences with all the world’s phoebes, those three species of charismatic tyrant flycatchers.
On January 18, I made a successful effort to find and photograph a rather rare Eastern Phoebe that was fairly reliable down at the Bird and Butterfly Garden [site guide] in the Tijuana River Valley. As it turned out, I happened to photograph all three species of Phoebes this day! I present them here. Plus, I tell you the story of the very first time I met each species.
Birders love speculation, particularly when it comes to vagrants. After a particularly nice run of firsts in Utah, Kenny Frisch looks into his crystal ball and tries to predict the next few at Utah Birders.
With all of these state firsts since my unofficial list, I decided it would be fun to put down my official list here of what I think the next state first birds will be. I narrowed my very long list down to 16 birds that I expect to be found next in the state. I tried to get it down to 10 but I felt I was leaving off too many good candidates and I also wanted to have many different types of birds represented. I will give my reason why I think that these birds will be the next species and even some tips to help birders try to find them for themselves. I know that this list has given me some focus of where to look so I hope that it will help out other birders as well.
Join the American Birding Association at www.aba.org!
Source: http://blog.aba.org/2015/02/blog-birding-220.html
