Ornithology Commons^™

Aspects Of Bald Eagle Winter Behavior In Rush Valley Utah: A Telemetry Study, Neil B. Sabine

Theses and Dissertations

The diurnal behavior and nocturnal roosting patterns of 28 bald eagles outfitted with tail-mounted radios were investigated in Rush Valley, Utah between January and March 1982-1984. Casting analysis and feeding observations indicated the principal food source was jackrabbit carrion. Jackrabbit availability declined from 1982 to 1984 and eagles responded by; 1) roosting closer to feeding sites, 2) shifting from canyon to valley roosts, 3) arriving later at and departing earlier from roosts, 4) decreasing diurnal activity, and 5) decreasing residence time. Foraging efficiency appeared to be maximized by experienced eagles using familiar feeding areas and by naive birds monitoring their …

Kentucky Warbler (Vol. 63, No. 4), Kentucky Library Research Collections

Kentucky Warbler

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Weather On Kingbird Foraging Behavior, Michael T. Murphy

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Foraging data on Eastern Kingbirds (Tyrannus tyrannus) were collected during the early breeding season in eastern Kansas to test the hypothesis that foraging rate and other aspects of foraging behavior vary with weather. Foraging characteristics of five additional kingbird species were also examined to assess Fitzpatrick's (1980) generalization that kingbirds (Tyrannus spp.) are aerial hawking specialists. In Eastern Kingbirds, total foraging rate was independent of air temperature, cloud cover, wind speed, and time of day, but the rate of aerial hawking varied directly with air temperature and inversely with cloud cover (both P < 0.05). Effects of the two variables were additive. The percentage of foraging movements that were aerial hawks also increased with temperature and declined with cloud cover, and, hover-gleaning and perch-to-ground sallying were observed mainly during cloudy weather. Sally (i.e., foraging flight) distance correlated directly with perch height and air temperature, and large insects were captured almost exclusively in long upward or horizontal flights. I interpret these data to indicate that foraging behavior and the capture of large, flying insects depends on weather because of how it affects the activity of insect prey. Foraging data on kingbirds support Fitzpatrick's generalization, but the relative use of aerial hawking varies considerably among species. Resident Tropical Kingbirds( T. melancholicus) are the most specialized foragers, whereas the migrant and widely distributed Eastern Kingbird appears to be the most generalized. Certain habitats also appear to favor the use of particular foraging methods (e.g., outward striking in grasslands and perch-to-ground sallying in drier, open habitats).

Genic Population Structure And Gene Flow In The Northern Flicker (Colaptes Auratus) Hybrid Zone, Thaddeus A. Grudzien, William S. Moore, J. Richard Cook, Danilo Tagle

Biological Sciences Faculty Research Publications

The Yellow-shafted Flicker (Colaptes auratus auratus) and Red-shafted Flicker (C. a. cafer) form a stable, narrow hybrid zone on the western Great Plains of North America. Allozyme data were obtained from 31 structural gene loci for 33 samples representing 246 Northern Flickers from throughout the Great Plains. Flickers were approximately equivalent to other birds in terms of proportion of polymorphic loci (P = 0.207) and average heterozygosity (H = 0.056). There was no concordant variation between plumage characters and allelic frequencies.

Gene-diversity analysis indicated that 92.5% of the genic variation occurred as within-deme heterozygosity ( …

A Nebraska Specimen Record Of Clark’S Grebe, Aechmophorus Clarkii (Lawrence), Thomas E. Labedz

Nebraska Bird Review

Clark’s Grebe, formerly known as light-phase Western Grebe (Aechmophorus occidentalis clarkii), was elevated to full species status (A. clarkii) in 1985 (American Ornithologists’ Union (AOU) 1983, 1985). This paper presents the first recorded occurrence in Nebraska of Clark’s Grebe and is documented with a specimen. Identification of Clark’s Grebe in the field is discussed, and a comparison is made of the Nebraska specimen with specimen s reported in recent literature.

Masthead From Nebraska Bird Review (September 1987) 55(3)

Nebraska Bird Review

Published quarterly in March, June, September, and December, by the Nebraska Ornithologists’ Union, Inc., as its official journal and sent to all members who are not in arrears for dues. Subscriptions (on a calendar year basis only) are $10.00 per year in the United States, $12.00 per year in Canada and Mexico, and $12.50 per year in all other countries, payable in advance. Single copies are $3.00 each, postpaid, in the United States; $3.50 elsewhere.

Memberships (on a calendar year basis only): Students, $3.00; Active $7.00; Sustaining $15.00; Family Active $10.00; Family Sustaining $20.00; Life $100.00.

All dues and subscriptions …

Nebraska Bird Review (September 1987) 55(3), Whole Issue

Nebraska Bird Review

1987 (Sixty-second) Spring Occurrence·Report … 50

Red Knot and Red Phalarope photographs … 64

Book Reviews … 65

A Nebraska Specimen Record of Clark’s Grebe, Aechmophorus clarkii (Lawrence) … 68

Notes … 72

“Notes” From Nebraska Bird Review (September 1987) 55(3)

Nebraska Bird Review

FUNK LAGOON. We were at the Funk Lagoon 2 July 1987, toward dusk. We saw two Yellow-crowned Night-Herons, five American Bitterns, two Great Egrets, thirty Great Blue Herons, five Double-crested Cormorants, numerous Coots, Blue-winged Teal, Yellow-headed and Red-winged Blackbirds, Killdeer, a flock of Short-billed Dowitchers, and several unidentified shore birds.—George W. Brown, Kearney

WOOD DUCK CARRYING EGG. On 24 April 1987, Gail Roebuck was hiking along the north Stream Trail in Fontenelle Forest and heard Wood Duck calls. She looked up to see the female carrying something in her bill. The Duck dropped the object along the edge of the …

“Book Reviews” From Nebraska Bird Review (September 1987) 55(3)

Nebraska Bird Review

Life Histories of North American Diving Birds. A. C. Bent. xiv + 240 + 55 pp. ot photographs. 5.375 x 8.5, Dover Publications, Inc. New York, paper, $6.95. Life Histories of North American Gulls and Terns. A. C. Bent. x + 338 + 93 pages of photographs, 5.375 x 8.5, Dover Publications, Inc. New York, paper $8.95. Dover has reprinted their original reprints of these books in the Bent series with no changes.

Wild Animals I Have Known. Ernest Thompson Seaton. xxvi + 356, 5 x 7.75, Penguin Books, New York, paper, $7.95. If this sounds familiar, …

1987 (Sixty-Second) Spring Occurrence Report

Nebraska Bird Review

Two hundred and eighty-eight species are listed in this report, from 19 locations, compared to 304 from 22 locations in 1986, 296 from 22 in 1985, and 293 from 13 in 1984.

Kentucky Warbler (Vol. 63, No. 3), Kentucky Library Research Collections

Kentucky Warbler

No abstract provided.

Kentucky Warbler (Vol. 63, No. 2), Kentucky Library Research Collections

Kentucky Warbler

No abstract provided.

Bird Territories: A Key To Understanding Bird Behavior, Robert A. Askins

Biology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Diving Birds Of North America: Frontmatter, Paul A. Johnsgard

Diving Birds of North America by Paul A. Johnsgard

Contents
List of Illustrations and Tables
Preface

Diving Birds Of North America: 2 Comparative Distributions And Structural Adaptations, Paul A. Johnsgard

Diving Birds of North America by Paul A. Johnsgard

The geographic distributions of the loons, auks, and grebes are primarily reflections of the evolutionary histories of each of the groups, past climatic and geologic phenomena, and present-day climatic and ecological conditions. Thus all the loons and auks are Northern Hemisphere birds, which presumably have never been able to bridge the tropical barrier into the Southern Hemisphere, where seemingly suitable breeding habitat might exist in, for example, southern South America and Tierra del Fuego. Indeed, the breeding distribution of the Northern American loons is distinctly arctic oriented, with the greatest species density north of the boundaries of arctic tundra in …

Diving Birds Of North America: 4 Comparative Diets And Foraging Ecologies, Paul A. Johnsgard

Diving Birds of North America by Paul A. Johnsgard

Auks, loons, and grebes are birds whose anatomies and behaviors have been sharply influenced by their foraging niche adaptations. In each species these have evolved through natural selection over extended periods of geologic time as a reflection of available food resources, the presence of competing species, and the limitations on innate variations in anatomy, physiology, and behavior imposed by available genetic mutations and recombinations. To a very considerable degree the auks, loons, and grebes seem to have adjusted to the effects of interspecific competition by evolving differences in bill shape and body size that sometimes open specific new foraging niche …

Diving Birds Of North America: 3 Comparative Egocentric And Locomotory Behaviors, Paul A. Johnsgard

Diving Birds of North America by Paul A. Johnsgard

As used here, "egocentric behavior" means those categories of individual survival and maintenance behaviors that are exclusive of such social interactions as aggressive, sexual, and parental behaviors, which will be considered in detail in the individual species accounts and also will be separately summarized in chapter 5. A discussion of the ecological aspects of foraging behavior will also be deferred until chapter 4, though behavioral aspects of underwater locomotion and prey catching will be considered here.

Diving Birds Of North America: 6 Comparative Life Histories And Reproductive Success Rates, Paul A. Johnsgard

Diving Birds of North America by Paul A. Johnsgard

It is now well recognized that, like behavior, a species' life history characteristics, such as age at sexual maturity, clutch sizes, and incubation, brooding, and fledging patterns, are evolved traits that may be strongly influenced by a variety of ecological factors. Within the auks, loons, and grebes one can find variations in the age at sexual maturity and time of first breeding ranging from as little as 1 to as many as 5 or 6 years, average clutch sizes that range from 1 to 4 eggs, and substantial variations in adult survival rates and maximum longevity. However, compared with such …

Diving Birds Of North America: Species Accounts — Loons (Gaviidae), Paul A. Johnsgard

Diving Birds of North America by Paul A. Johnsgard

Loons are large diving birds having long, straight, and acutely pointed bills, with feathers covering the lores (region between eye and bill) and extending to the linear nostrils. There are 10 functional primaries and 22–23 secondaries, the inner secondaries shorter than the primaries. Molting of the remiges (flight feathers) is simultaneous, and the wings are not used for underwater propulsion. The 16–20 rectrices (tail feathers) are short and stiff. The body feathers are shiny and water-resistant; aftershafts and adult down feathers are present. The legs are set extremely far back on the body, making standing very difficult and walking or …

Diving Birds Of North America: Index, Paul A. Johnsgard

Diving Birds of North America by Paul A. Johnsgard

This index is limited to the English vernacular and Latin names of species and subspecies of loons, grebes, and auks discussed individually in this book. Complete indexing is confined to entries for the English vernacular names of species as used in this book. The principal account of each species is indicated by italic page numbers.

[Publisher’s note: The PDF files of the complete book and all chapters have been converted to text via optical character recognition, and may be word-searched from Adobe Reader or Acrobat.]

Diving Birds Of North America: Literature Cited, Paul A. Johnsgard

Diving Birds of North America by Paul A. Johnsgard

14 pages, with more than 500 references.

Diving Birds Of North America: 1 General Attributes And Evolutionary Relationships, Paul A. Johnsgard

Diving Birds of North America by Paul A. Johnsgard

Loons, grebes, and auks comprise a rather large number of species of aquatic diving birds that are fairly unfamiliar to most people, inasmuch as they tend to spend much of their time well away from shore and, when approached on the water, usually dive inconspicuously and reappear a considerable distance away. Thus in many areas grebes, simply called "helldivers," are often confused with coots or even diving ducks. Many people know loons only by their wild, penetrating cries and romantically associate them with northern woods and lakes, while auks are symbolic of arctic coastal cliffs. But ornithologists can find fascinating …

Diving Birds Of North America [Complete Book], Paul A. Johnsgard

Diving Birds of North America by Paul A. Johnsgard

Considering the great nostalgic attraction of such birds as the common loon for people who have lived at least part of their lives around the lakes of Canada and the northern United States, and given the endearing visual appeal of species like puffins and auklets, it is rather surprising that there are so few books on these groups of aquatic birds. During my childhood summers at our Minnesota lake cottage I used to spend hours watching loons and red-necked grebes, and I marveled at their wonderful diving ability and powerful voices. Much later, the wild puffins and massed breeding colonies …

Diving Birds Of North America: 5 Comparative Pair-Forming And Copulatory Behaviors, Paul A. Johnsgard

Diving Birds of North America by Paul A. Johnsgard

All species of loons, grebes, and auks are monogamous, with adults forming strong pair bonds that are established or reestablished each year, probably during the spring prenesting period. The extent of remating by birds mated the previous year in these groups is still largely undocumented, though at least in alcids it is fairly high, given the relatively long life-spans and the tendencies of the birds to return year after year to essentially the same territory and sometimes to the same nest site. Such conditions would promote reestablishment of contracts between previously paired birds, since it is not believed that in …

Diving Birds Of North America: Species Accounts — Grebes (Podicipedidae), Paul A. Johnsgard

Diving Birds of North America by Paul A. Johnsgard

Grebes are small to medium-sized diving birds having bills that vary from short and rather blunt tipped to long and acutely pointed, with bare lores and head feathers not extending to the linear or oval nostrils. There are 11 functional primaries and 17–22 secondaries, the inner secondaries longer than the primaries. Molting of the primaries is simultaneous; the wings are not used for underwater propulsion, which is provided by the feet. The rectrices are soft, rudimentary, and hidden. The body feathers are small, water-resistant, and shiny. Aftershafts and adult down feathers are present. The legs are set extremely far back …

Diving Birds Of North America: Appendices, Paul A. Johnsgard

Diving Birds of North America by Paul A. Johnsgard

Sources of Scientific and Vernacular Names
Keys to Identification of Loons, Grebes, and Auks
Key to Families of Loons, Grebes, and Auks
Key to Species of North American Loons
Key to Species of North American Grebes
Key to Species of North American Auks
Major North American Auk Colonies
Summer Abundance and Breeding Status of Grebes at Selected National Wildlife Refuges

Diving Birds Of North America: Species Accounts — Auks (Alcidae), Paul A. Johnsgard

Diving Birds of North America by Paul A. Johnsgard

Auks are small to medium-sized diving birds having bills that are variably pointed and compressed but never acuminate and are sometimes covered with colorful horny sheaths in breeding adults. Feathering densely covers the lores and often extends to the nostrils, which vary from linear to oval. There are 10 functional primaries and 15–19 secondaries; the greater secondary and primary coverts are usually lengthened. Molting of the primaries is usually simultaneous but is gradual in some species; the wings are used for underwater propulsion, and the feet are then used mainly for steering. The 12–18 rectrices are short and normal in …

Diving Birds Of North America: Color Plates, Paul A. Johnsgard

Diving Birds of North America by Paul A. Johnsgard

1. Arctic loon, adult in breeding plumage. Photo by author.
2. Red-throated loon, nesting adult. Photo by Kenneth W. Fink.
3. Yellow-billed loon, adult in breeding plumage. Photo by Kenneth W. Fink.
4. Common loon, nesting adult. Photo by Kenneth W. Fink.
5. Pied-billed grebe, adult in breeding plumage. Photo by author.
6. Least grebe, adult and young. Painting by Mark E. Marcuson.
7. Red-necked grebe, nesting adult. Photo by author.
8. Eared grebe, adults with young. Photo by Kenneth W. Fink.
9. Horned grebe, nesting adult. Photo by Kenneth W. Fink.
10. Western grebe, adult with young. Photo by …

Kentucky Warbler (Vol. 63, No. 1), Kentucky Library Research Collections

Kentucky Warbler

No abstract provided.

Thermal Constraints On Foraging Activity Of Adult Starlings, Larry Clark

Larry Clark

The operative temperature of the environment was estimated for starlings using hollow, unheated taxidermic mounts. On average, adults foraging in full sun were characterized by shorter foraging bouts than those adults foraging in full shade. Simultaneous observations of air temperature, operative temperature, and the foraging duration of adults indicated that air temperature was a poor predictor of the maximum length of a foraging bout. The operative temperature of the environment was not correlated to the maximum and mean length of foraging bouts for temperatures below 31.5 ~ C, but was negatively related to maximum and mean foraging duration for values …