Ornithology Commons^™

Sixty-Five Years Of Whooping Crane Records In Nebraska, Paul A. Johnsgard, Richard Redfield

Paul Johnsgard Collection

In 1933, Myron Swenk determined the status of the Whooping Crane in Nebraska by summarizing all of the records then available to him, and established the general pattern of timing and geographic distribution of Whooping Crane occurrence in this state. Although the population of this species has remained very low since that time, a sufficient number of observations have been made to warrant updating his analysis and comparing the more recent records with these earlier ones. During the summer of 1977 the junior author undertook such a summary as a class project, by extracting such records from all of the …

Habitat Use By Native Gambel' S And Scaled Quail And Released Masked Bobwhite Quail In Southern Arizona, John G. Goodwin Jr., C. Roger Hungerford

Galliformes Specialist Group and Affiliated Societies: Reports and Other Materials

Populations of both Gambel's and scaled quail surveyed in southern Arizona declined by 60% from October 1975 to June 1976. Masked bobwhite population density increased during the study because of additional releases, but survival patterns are uncertain. Raptors were efficient quail predators.

Gambel's quail were associated with a dense overstory of mesquite, hackberry, wolfberry, and catclaw. Understory species varied in density and appeared less essential to good habitat. Scaled quail preferred open, grass-shrub habitat, with few of the plants over 6 feet tall. Masked bobwhite selected dense, grass-weed habitat, with pigweed a characteristic species.

Green vegetation and insects were seasonally …

Whole Issue Nebraska Bird Review (September 1977) 45(3)

Nebraska Bird Review

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1977 (Fifty-second) Spring Migration and Occurrence Report .............................34

Poor-wills in Lancaster and Saunders Counties............................42

The Swanskin ............................................. 45

Book Reviews .................................................................. 50

Notes ......................................................................... 51

Visual Detection Of Cryptic Prey By Blue Jays (Cyanocitta Cristata), Alexandra T. Pietrewicz, Alan Kamil

Avian Cognition Papers

Blue jays learned to respond differentially to the presence or absence of Catocala moths in slides. This detection of the moths by the jays was affected by the background upon which the moth was placed and its body orientation, thus providing an objective measure of crypticity. These procedures are useful for the study of visual detection of prey.

Proceedings Of Perdix I: Hungarian Partridge Workshop, The Wildlife Society, Central Mountains And Plains Section, The Wildlife Society, North Dakota Chapter, North Dakota Game And Fish Department

Galliformes Specialist Group and Affiliated Societies: Conference Proceedings

Perdix I has succeeded in its major objective of bringing Hungarian partridge research and management people together in one place for introduction to one another and for a mutually beneficial exchange of information. A major communications bridge has been gapped by the informalization that occurs with the development of face-to-face relationships, a realization of how similar everyone's technical problems are, and an expression of concern regarding the need to develop work plans and guidelines to help direct future research and management by avoiding unnecessary duplication that often occurs with poor communications. As regards communications, it is refreshing to know that …

Flight Of The Sea Ducks, Paul A. Johnsgard

Papers in Ornithology

Their migration routes have been charted. Their breeding biology is known. Their eggs meat and feathers have long been used by man. But eiders at sea remain an enigma.

Nesting in colonies that can number hundreds of birds, the eiders are among the most conspicuous of tundra-breeding birds. Although female eiders are a study in grays and browns that match the arctic tundra, the males are most boldly patterned in black and white, with striking green head colors. When the nesting season ends, the birds disperse over the vastnesses of the northern oceans, out of range of most human observers. …

Seventy-Five Years Of Changes In Mallard-Black Duck Ratios In Eastern North America, Paul A. Johnsgard, Rose Disilvestro

Papers in Ornithology

One of the most spectacular shifts in waterfowl dIstnbution patterns in North America is the degree to which Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) have come to replace Black Ducks (Anas rubripes) as the dominant breeding and wintering species in the eastern half of the United States and Canada over the past several decades. The reasons for these changes in the actual and relative numbers of Mallards and Black Ducks are doubtless many and probably include such factors as man-induced habitat changes, game management practices such as artificial stocking programs and changing hunting regulations, and possibly even climatic trends, …

Bobwhite Quail Food Habits In The Southeastern United States With A Seed Key To Important Foods, J. Larry Landers, A. Sydney Johnson

Galliformes Specialist Group and Affiliated Societies: Reports and Other Materials

A search of the literature revealed 27 studies of food habits of bobwhite quail in the southeastern United States. These include data from nearly 20 ,000 birds. In this publication all seed foods reported in these studies are listed and evaluated, and a key to important species is included. Over 650 seed foods are listed, and volume and frequency classes are given for each seed food as reported in each study. Only 78 foods comprised 1 percent or more of the food volume in one or more studies. The 45 most important foods are ranked for each physiographic province. The …

Whole Issue Nebraska Bird Review (September 1975) 43(3)

Nebraska Bird Review

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1975 (Fiftieth) Spring Migration and Occurrence Report ... 46

Young Mountain Plover Seen in Kimball County ... 54

Notes ... 57

A Sutton's Warbler? ... 62

Scott's Oriole Reported ... 64

1975 Fall Field Day ... 66

A Junco Is a Junco Is a Junco ... 67

Waterfowl Portraits, Paul A. Johnsgard

Papers in Ornithology

SINCE HIS days as a boy on the North Dakota prairies, Paul A. Johnsgard has "measured his winters, not by conventional time units, but in the days it took for the snow geese to return from their wintering grounds...." The author of five books: Song of the North Wind-A Story of the Snow Goose; Grouse and Quails of North America; Waterfowl- Their Biology and Natural History; Animal Behavior; and Handbook of Waterfowl Behavior, and of numerous articles in national magazines and over 40 technical papers, he is eminently qualified to capture in pen and ink the very essence of Nebraska's …

Quail Music: The Complex Calls Of A Bird Contain Clues To Its Evolution, Paul A. Johnsgard

Papers in Ornithology

Ethological research has revealed that the vocal communications of birds are highly specialized behavioral adaptations that can shed light on evolutionary processes. The calls of the quails of the New World are a good example. This group of birds includes some thirty species, about half of which are limited to the tropical forests of Central and northern South America. The other species are North American, ranging as far north as southern Canada. Morphological evidence favors the view that the most generalized, or “primitive,” of these species are the tree quails of Mexico’s moist mountain forests. The more open-country and arid-adapted …

Review Of Curassows And Related Birds, Paul A. Johnsgard

Papers in Ornithology

To contemplate the appearance of a new book dealing for the first time with an exhaustive coverage of an entire avian family is to evoke an excitement that is all too rare an occurrence for most ornithologists. This excitement is enhanced when the bird group is one of the least studied and yet, evolutionarily speaking, most significant of the galliform families, and when the authors are as well known and highly respected as Delacour and Amadon. Anticipation reaches its apogee when the contributing artists are as competent as Albert E. Gilbert, George M. Sutton, and David Reid-Henry. After reading the …

The Taxonomy And Relationships Of The Northern Swans, Paul A. Johnsgard

Paul Johnsgard Collection

The recent (1972) publication of the Wildfowl Trust's book The Swans has brought together an unprecedented array of information on all of the swans of the world, and makes it desirable to raise once again the question: how many species of northern swans are there, and what are their evolutionary relationships to one another? Delacour (1954) suggested the comprehensive vernacular name 'northern swans' to distinguish 'the various knobless white swans which breed in or near the Arctic parts of the northern hemisphere' from the Mute Swan (Cygnus olor) and the three southern hemisphere swans. The northern swans have …

How Many Cranes Make A Skyful?, Paul A. Johnsgard

Paul Johnsgard Collection

Every year thousands of lesser sandhills congregate along the Platte River in Nebraska on their spring migration northwards. Mainly because of local damage caused by the birds during their fall migration, they have been legally hunted since 1961. Can the population survive such persistent destruction?

One may ask the question “How many cranes are enough?” This is perhaps analogous to the rhetorical question as to how many redwood trees are needed to make a viable forest; for a remnant crane population is not only unimpressive but also seemingly does not survive or reproduce well, judging from population trends in the …

Natural And Unnatural Selection In A Wild Goose, Paul A. Johnsgard

Papers in Ornithology

Blue goose and snow goose color phases enable the species to reproduce efficiently in the harsh Canadian climate. But hunters, more eager than sporting, are upsetting this finely tuned pattern of survival.

Whole Issue Nebraska Bird Review (June 1973) 41(2)

Nebraska Bird Review

Table of Contents

Honorary Member - Carl H. Swanson ... 22

The Seventy-second Annual Meeting ... 23

The Yellow Rail in Nebraska ... 24

1972 (Fifteenth) Fall Occurrence Report ... 28

Notes ... 42

24 Gambel Quail, Paul A. Johnsgard

Grouse and Quails of North America by Paul A. Johnsgard

Callipepla gambelii (Gambel) 1843
Other vernacular names: Arizona quail, Codorniz de Gambel, desert quail, Olanthe quail.
Range: From southern Nevada, southern Utah, and western Colorado south to northeastern Baja California, central Sonora, northwestern Chihuahua, and western Texas.

25 California Quail, Paul A. Johnsgard

Grouse and Quails of North America by Paul A. Johnsgard

Callipepla californica (Shaw) 1798
Other vernacular names: California partridge, Catalina quail, Codorniz Californiana, crested quail, San Lucas quail, San Quintin quail, topknot quail, valley quail
Range: From southern Oregon and western Nevada south to the tip of Baja California. Introduced into southern British Columbia, Washington, Idaho, northern Oregon, and Utah

26 Bobwhite, Paul A. Johnsgard

Grouse and Quails of North America by Paul A. Johnsgard

Colinus virginianus (Linnaeus) 1758
Other vernacular names: American colin, Codorniz Común, Cuiche Común, partridge, quail
Range: Virtually all of the eastern United States north to southern Maine, New York, southern Ontario, central Wisconsin, and central Minnesota, west to southeastern Wyoming, eastern Colorado, eastern New Mexico, and eastern Mexico south to Chiapas and adjacent Guatemala, but excluding the lowlands of Yucatán. Also existing as isolated populations in Sonora (largely extirpated) and as introduced populations in the Columbia and Snake river basins of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and northwestern Wyoming (Bighorn and Shoshone River valleys).

27 Black-Throated Bobwhite, Paul A. Johnsgard

Grouse and Quails of North America by Paul A. Johnsgard

Colinus nigrogularis (Gould) 1843
Other vernacular names: Black-throated quail, Codorniz Garganta Negra, Cuiche Yucateco, Yucatán bobwhite.
Range: The Yucatán peninsula, the Lake Petén district of Guatemala, and coastal portions of British Honduras and Honduras, to extreme northeastern Nicaragua.

28 Spotted Wood Quail, Paul A. Johnsgard

Grouse and Quails of North America by Paul A. Johnsgard

Odontophorus guttatus (Gould) 1838
Other vernacular names: Bolonchaco, spotted partridge, thick-billed wood quail
Range: Forested parts of the subtropical zone of southeastern Mexico south through Guatemala, British Honduras, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica to extreme western Panama.

29 Singing Quail, Paul A. Johnsgard

Grouse and Quails of North America by Paul A. Johnsgard

Dactylortyx thoracicus ( Gambel) 1848
Other vernacular names: Chiviscoyo, Cinco Real, Codorniz, Chifladora, long-clawed quail, long-toed partridge, long-toed quail
Range: Mountainous areas from Mexico to El Salvador and Hondu

30 Harlequin Quail, Paul A. Johnsgard

Grouse and Quails of North America by Paul A. Johnsgard

Cyrtonyx montezumae (Vigors) 1830
Other vernacular names: Black quail, Codorniz Encinera, Codorniz Pinta, crazy quail, fool quail, massena quail, Mearns quail, Montezuma quail, painted quail, squat quail
Range: Southwestern United States south to Oaxaca, Mexico. The doubtfully distinct species C. ocellatus (Gould) extends from southern Oaxaca to Nicaragua.

31 Gray Partridge, Paul A. Johnsgard

Grouse and Quails of North America by Paul A. Johnsgard

Perdix perdix (Linnaeus) 1758
Other vernacular names: Bohemian partridge, English partridge, European partridge, Hungarian partridge, Hun, Hunkie
Range: Native to Europe and Asia but introduced into North America and now widely established in southern Canada and the northern United States (see distribution map). The North American population was probably derived from stock representing several different geographic races.

32 Chukar Partridge, Paul A. Johnsgard

Grouse and Quails of North America by Paul A. Johnsgard

Alectoris chukar (Gray) 1830
Alectoris graeca (Meisner)
Other vernacular names: Chukor, Indian hill partridge, rock partridge (refers to graeca only).
Range: Native to Eurasia, from France through Greece and Bulgaria (typical graeca) southeastward through Asia Minor and southern Asia (typical chukar). These two populations should probably be regarded as separate species (Watson, 1962a, b), and all of the introduced United States stock is apparently referable to A. chukar. The racial origin of the birds introduced into North America is varied and includes not only Indian stock (probably A. c. chukar, as recognized by Sushkin, 1927) but …

Keys To Identification, Paul A. Johnsgard

Grouse and Quails of North America by Paul A. Johnsgard

The three following keys can be used to identify unfamiliar species of North American grouse or quails that may be examined in the hand. Unless one is certain that the bird represents either a grouse or a quail, he should begin with the first key. The procedure, as in the use of all such keys, is to choose which of the two initial alternative descriptive couplets (A and AA) best fits the unknown bird. Having chosen one of these, proceed to the choice of couplets (B and BB) occurring immediately below the couplet chosen, without further regard for descriptions listed …

Name Derivations, Paul A. Johnsgard

Grouse and Quails of North America by Paul A. Johnsgard

From: Alectoris—from Latin alector (Greek alectryon): cock ...
through:
Tympanuchus—from Greek tympanon: a drum

Sources, Paul A. Johnsgard

Grouse and Quails of North America by Paul A. Johnsgard

Bibliography; more than 600 works cited

Index, Paul A. Johnsgard

Grouse and Quails of North America by Paul A. Johnsgard

Index of vernacular and scientific names

English vernacular names indexed here are for the most part those used in this book for species or larger groupings. Vernacular names for subspecies as well as alternative vernacular names for species are included only if they are in general usage or have been referred to in the text discussions. Plates and figures are identified by number, and pages containing major discussions of each species are indicated by boldface.

Scientific Names: Names indexed here are restricted to those of subspecies, species, or larger groupings of galIinaceous birds mentioned in the text. Technical names of …

Color Plates, Paul A. Johnsgard

Grouse and Quails of North America by Paul A. Johnsgard

32–35. Sage Grouse • 36–39. Blue Grouse • 40–43. Spruce Grouse • 44–46. Willow Ptarmigan • 47–49. Rock Ptarmigan • 50–51. White-tailed Ptarmigan • 52–54. Ruffed Grouse • 55–58. Pinnated Grouse • 59–60. Sharp-tailed Grouse • 61. Downy Young of Grouse and Partridges • 89. Long-tailed Tree Quail • 90. Bearded Tree Quail • 91. Mountain Quail • 92. Barred Quail and Scaled Quail • 93. Elegant Quail • 94. Gambel Quail • 95. Scaled Quail • 96. Gambel Quail • 97. Hybrid Gambel x Scaled Quail • 98. California Quail • 99. Bobwhite Quail • 100. Spotted Wood Quail …