Ornithology Commons^™

Barn Owl Sex Determination, Lillian Mckinley

College of Arts and Sciences Presentations

The goal of the study is to develop this model of sex determination in Barn Owls. The sex of birds of prey is usually determined using one of two methods: plumage or size. Plumage is often the most obvious way to tell the difference between male and female birds, because male birds often have bright and colorful plumage and female birds generally have drab and dull colored plumage. In species that do not have plumage variation, size difference is used for sex determination. The most common measurement of size is body mass, but other measurements can also be used including: …

Wpa News 93 (2014), World Pheasant Association

Galliformes Specialist Group and Affiliated Societies: Newsletters

WPA News (Spring 2014), number 93

Published by the World Pheasant Association

Fear Effects On Pheasant Reproductive Ecology And A Curriculum To Teach Wildlife Habitat Selection, Jessica Laskowski

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Predation risk is an important source of selection that shapes prey density, distribution and abundance. The immediate impacts of predator consumption on prey populations are widespread and well-studied, and a growing body of research demonstrates immediate impacts of predator-induced fear (independent of prey mortality) on prey behavior, physiology and life-history expression. However, predation risk is often seasonally variable and while it is clear that consumption effects often carry over to influence prey population demography for years after predators have disappeared, the temporal carry-over effects of fear on prey populations remain largely unexplored. We assessed effects of fall hunting activity by …

Updated Ethography For European Starlings (Sturnus Vulgaris) In Central Coast Vineyards, Vic A. Guerrero

Wine and Viticulture

No abstract provided.

Winter Field Report, December 2013 To February 2014, W. Ross Silcock

Nebraska Bird Review

This was a low-key winter season in terms of reportable phenomena of any significance, although three species provided food for thought: high numbers of Rough-legged Hawks, the possibility of breeding Northern Saw-whet Owls in the cedar canyons of Lincoln Co, and the possible impending demise of Black-billed Magpie over most of the state. Also noteworthy is the continuing increase in midwinter reports of a wide range of species that previously have accounted for very few such records. Notable in this respect are waterfowl, mimids, non-oriole icterids, and sparrows; a Say's Phoebe in December was the most surprising record in this …

Breeding Season Observations Of Sandhill Cranes On The Niobrara River In Nebraska, Mark Czaplewski, Jim Jenniges, Mark Peyton

Nebraska Bird Review

Central Platte Natural Resources District (CPNRD), Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD), and the Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District (Central) have been involved in the monitoring of Interior Least Terns (Sternula antillarum athalassos) and Piping Plovers (Charadrius melodus) along portions on the lower Niobrara River in northeast Nebraska since 2005. On two occasions, we observed a pair of adult Sandhill Cranes (Grus canadensis) during the breeding season.

A pair of adult cranes was observed on June 8, 2011, on the Niobrara River approximately 7.8 km below the U.S. Route 137 bridge in Holt …

2013 Christmas Bird Counts, Don Paseka

Nebraska Bird Review

Fifteen counts were held during the 2013–2014 season. Following a cold snap in early December, the weather was seasonable and mostly dry, but with very limited open water in most circles. An example of the consequences of this can be seen in the Branched Oak–Seward count tally. Although this count has a history of being very productive for water-related birds in most years, only 3 species were found this year: Canada Goose (16), Mallard (2) and Belted Kingfisher (1). The total species count in all the counts was 135, four less than the past two years and historically ranking sixth …

Nebraska Ornithologists’ Union Treasurer’S Report, December 31, 2013

Nebraska Bird Review

One-page spreadsheet constituting the Nebraska Ornithologists' Union treasurer's report at year end (December 31) of 2013. The grand total is $58,106.34.

Nebraska Bird Review (March 2014) 82(1), Whole Issue

Nebraska Bird Review

Winter Field Report, December 2013–February 2014 ... 2

Breeding Season Observations of Sandhill Cranes on the Niobrara River … 16

2013 Christmas Bird Counts in Nebraska ... 27

NOU Annual Treasurer’s Report for 2013 ... 42

Subscription and Organization Information ... 43

“What Do Birds In Nebraska Eat?” Color Photo Section [March 2014, Pp. 20–26]

Nebraska Bird Review

Photographs of American Robins with Eastern red cedar berry and earthworm and Purple Martins with red admiral butterfly and snowberry clearwing moth (p. 20); Lazuli Bunting with millet, Grasshopper Sparrow with grasshopper, Cedar Waxwing with ornamental crab apples, and Herring Gull with unidentified fish (p. 21); Red-tailed Hawk with Eastern fox squirrel, Sharp-shinned Hawk with Eurasian Collared-Dove, Rough-legged Hawk with small mammal, and Cooper’s Hawk with House Finch (p. 22); Swainson’s Thrush with grain, Orchard Oriole with mulberry, Yellow-throated Vireo with unidentified fly, and Turkey Vulture with unidentified snake (p. 23); Pileated Woodpecker feeding juvenile, Downy Woodpecker feeding juvenile, Northern …

Subscription And Organization Information [March 2014]

Nebraska Bird Review

The Nebraska Bird Review is published quarterly by the Nebraska Ornithologists' Union, Inc., as its official journal, and is sent to members not in arrears of dues. Annual subscription rates (on a calendar-year basis only): $25 in the United States and $35 in all other countries, payable in advance. Single copies are $7 each, postpaid, in the United States and $9 elsewhere. Send orders for back issues to Anita Breckbill, NOU Librarian, c/o Music Library, WMB 30, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 68588-0101.

Memberships in the NOU (on a calendar-year basis only): Active Household (one or more people) $25; Sustaining …

A Global Analysis Of The Impacts Of Urbanization On Bird And Plant Diversity Reveals Key Anthropogenic Drivers, Myla F.J. Aronson, Frank A. La Sorte, Charles H. Nilon, Madhusudan Katti, Mark A. Goddard, Christopher A. Lepczyk, Paige S. Warren, Nicholas S.G. Williams, Sarel Cilliers, Bruce Clarkson, Cynnamon Dobbs, Rebecca W. Dolan, Marcus Hedblom, Stefan Klotz, Jip Louwe Kooijmans, Ingolf Kühn, Ian Macgregor-Fors, Mark Mcdonnell, Ulla Mörtberg, Petr Pyšek, Stefan Siebert, Jessica Sushinsky, Peter Werner, Marten Winter

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Urbanization contributes to the loss of the world's biodiversity and the homogenization of its biota. However, comparative studies of urban biodiversity leading to robust generalities of the status and drivers of biodiversity in cities at the global scale are lacking. Here, we compiled the largest global dataset to date of two diverse taxa in cities: birds (54 cities) and plants (110 cities). We found that the majority of urban bird and plant species are native in the world's cities. Few plants and birds are cosmopolitan, the most common beingColumba livia and Poa annua. The density of bird and …

Variable Facial Plumage In Juvenile Cliff Swallows: A Potential Offspring Recognition Cue?, Allison E. Johnson, Steven Freedberg

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Although the ability to recognize related offspring is essential in the evolution of social behavior, the cues that birds use to identify their own offspring are not fully understood. The Cliff Swallow (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota) is a highly social species that nests in large colonies and exhibits a high incidence of both conspecific brood parasitism and extrapair fertilization, behaviors that can potentially lead to parents investing energy and resources in unrelated offspring, which reduces the parents’ genetic fitness. Because parents continue to feed offspring after they leave the nest, parents also risk investing in unrelated offspring by misidentifying their …

Kentucky Warbler (Vol. 90, No. 1), Kentucky Library Research Collections

The Kentucky Warbler

No abstract provided.

2014 Interior Least Tern And Piping Plover Monitoring, Research, Management, And Outreach Report For The Lower Platte River, Nebraska, Mary Bomberger Brown, Joel G. Jorgensen, Lauren R. Dinan

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

This document reports on our monitoring, research, management, and outreach activities during the past 12 months (2013–2014). We prepared it to inform our partners, cooperating agencies, funding sources, and other interested parties of our activities and to provide a preliminary summary of our results.

The lower Platte River and its major tributaries provide important nesting and migratory stopover habitat for two bird species of special conservation concern: the state and federally endangered Interior Least Tern (Sternula antillarum athalassos) and threatened Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus). The Tern and Plover Conservation Partnership (TPCP), based at the University of …

New Host And Location Record For The Bat Bug Cimex Adjunctus Barber 1939, With A Summary Of Previous Records, M. E. Grilliot, J. L. Hunt, C. G. Sims, Chris E. Comer

Faculty Publications

In June 2009, 14 Rafinesque’s big-eared bats (Corynorhinus rafinesquii) were collected from an abandoned house near Shepherd, San Jacinto County, Texas. Three individuals harbored bat bugs which were subsequently identified as Cimex adjunctus Barber 1939. This is the first record of this species from C. rafinesquii. In August 2013, 10 C. rafinesquii were collected from a maternity colony in Drew County in southeastern Arkansas. Four of the bats harbored bat bugs, which were identified as C. adjunctus. This is the first record of this bat bug from Arkansas. A summary of previous state and host records of the insect is …

Proceedings Of The Twelfth North American Crane Workshop, David A. Aborn, Richard Urbanek

Proceedings of the North American Crane Workshop

CONTENTS

PREFACE iii

RESEARCH PAPERS

DISTRIBUTION, ABUNDANCE, AND MIGRATION TIMING OF GREATER AND LESSER SANDHILL CRANES WINTERING IN THE SACRAMENTO-SAN JOAQUIN RIVER DELTA REGION OF CALIFORNIA - . Gary L. Ivey, Bruce D. Dugger, Caroline P. Herziger, Michael L. Casazza, and Joseph P. Fleskes 1

CHARACTERISTICS OF SANDHILL CRANE ROOSTS IN THE SACRAMENTO-SAN JOAQUIN DELTA OF CALIFORNIA - . Gary L. Ivey, Bruce D. Dugger, Caroline P. Herziger, Michael L. Casazza, and Joseph P. Fleskes 12

EFFECTS OF WIND FARMS ON SANDHILL CRANE PLAYA OCCUPANCY ON THE TEXAS HIGH PLAINS - Laura Navarrete and Kerry L. Griffis-Kyle 20

EVALUATION OF …

Responses Of Forest Bird Populations To Long-­‐Term Changes In Local Vegetation And Regional Forest Cover, Mary Buchanan

Biology Honors Papers

Bird and vegetation surveys have been conducted periodically in the Connecticut College Arboretum since the 1950s, permitting analysis of long-term relationships of bird populations with the structure and floristic composition of the vegetation and with forest cover changes in the surrounding region. Principal component analyses created vegetation factors encompassing variables such as total basal area, basal area of common tree species, and tree diversity, and created a forest fragmentation factor based on GIS analysis of the landscape within 2 kilometers of the study site. Poisson regression models revealed relationships between these factors and population changes for twenty individual species and …

As The Egg Turns: Monitoring Egg Attendance Behavior In Wild Birds Using Novel Data Logging Technology, Scott A. Shaffer, Corey Clatterbuck, Emma Kelsey, Alex Naiman, Lindsay Young, Eric Vanderwerf, Pete Warzybok, Russell Bradley, Jaime Jahncke, Geoff Bower

Faculty Publications, Biological Sciences

Egg turning is unique to birds and critical for embryonic development in most avian species. Technology that can measure changes in egg orientation and temperature at fine temporal scales (1 Hz) was neither readily available nor small enough to fit into artificial eggs until recently. Here we show the utility of novel miniature data loggers equipped with 3-axis (i.e., triaxial) accelerometers, magnetometers, and a temperature thermistor to study egg turning behavior in free-ranging birds. Artificial eggs containing egg loggers were deployed in the nests of three seabird species for 1–7 days of continuous monitoring. These species (1) turned their eggs …

Abstracts From Proceedings Of The Twelfth North American Crane Workshop, 13–16 March 2011, Grand Island, Nebraska, Usa (Published 2014)

Proceedings of the North American Crane Workshop

ASSESSMENT OF THE EASTERN POPULATION GREATER SANDHILL CRANE FALL SURVEY, 1979-2009 Courtney Amundson, Douglas Johnson, Sean Kelly, and Tom Cooper 80

FACTORS INFLUENCING GREATER SANDHILL CRANE NEST SUCCESS IN NEVADA .Chad August, James Sedinger, and Chris Nicolai 80

INFLUENCE OF FOOD AND PREDATOR ABUNDANCE ON STRESS LEVELS OF SANDHILL CRANES WINTERING IN NORTHERN MEXICO Ingrid Barcelo and Felipe Chavez-Ramirez 81

A SUSTAINABLE SOLUTION FOR CROP DAMAGE BY CRANES AND OTHER BIRD SPECIES TO PLANTED SEED Jeb Barzen and Anne Lacy 81

MODELLING THE EFFECT OF LANDSCAPE AND ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS ON SANDHILL CRANE DISTRIBUTION IN THE CENTRAL PLATTE RIVER VALLEY OF …

The History And Reintroduction Of Whooping Cranes At White Lake Wetlands Conservation Area, Louisiana, Gay M. Gomez

Proceedings of the North American Crane Workshop

On 16 February 2011, whooping cranes (Grus americana) were reintroduced in the wetlands of southwest Louisiana, after an absence of 61 years. This brief communication provides background on the historical presence of whooping cranes in this region, describes the long road to reintroduction, presents observations from the reintroduction’s first day, and offers thoughts on its future prospects.

On 15 May 1939, biologist John J. Lynch of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service observed 13 whooping cranes in the remote freshwater marsh north of White Lake in Vermilion Parish, Louisiana. He not only confirmed what local residents and trappers had long …

G@Llinformed: Newsletter Of The Iucn-Ssc Galliformes Specialist Group 8-13 (2014-2017), Iucn Species Survival Commission Galliformes Specialist Group

Galliformes Specialist Group and Affiliated Societies: Newsletters

Issue 8 (April 2014)

From the Co-chairs, Peter Garson and Ilse Storch

Co-chairs advisory board members

G@llinformed letters and reports

The EAZA Cracid TAG: What about it? Cathy King

The EAZA Galliformes TAG update, Jan Dama

The last indigenous black-necked pheasant population of Europe, Christos Sokos and Periklis Birtsas

The ecological requirements of the spotted wood-quail Odontophorus guttatus in Noj K'a'ax Meen Elijio Panti National Park, Roni Martinez and Jack Clinton Eitniear

Honduran Ornithological Society-Ocellated Quail Conservation Project, Jack Clinton Eitniear

Venezuelan wood-quail: Request for information, Jack Clinton Eitniear

Hume’s pheasant in Nagaland, Lansothung Shitiri

Strategic conservation planning workshop for …

Wpa News 95 (2014), World Pheasant Association

Galliformes Specialist Group and Affiliated Societies: Newsletters

WPA News (Winter 2014), number 95

Published by the World Pheasant Association

Variations In Intra- And Interspecific Response To Mobbing Calls By The Black-Capped Chickadee (Poecile Atricapillus), Katerina M. Faust

Honors Theses

Mobbing calls are produced by a variety of bird species in response to predator sightings. These mobbing calls often function in intraspecific recruitment, but have recently been shown to have an interspecific response component as well. The mobbing calls produced by the Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) are distinct and encode information about the threat level of the predator. Conservation biologists often use playbacks of chickadee mobbing calls to detect species of birds and numbers of individuals in an area with higher accuracy than counts conducted without the use of playbacks. In this study, the factors that could potentially …

Relative Importance Of Male Song On Female Mate Selection In The Zebra Finch (Taeniopygia Guttata), Casey Sprague

Scripps Senior Theses

In the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata), song and its social context play an important role in female mate selection. The song of the zebra finch is unique in that it can only be produced by males, which makes the species ideal for analyzing the components of male song that influence female song preference and mate selection. There are three consistent features of zebra finch song that affect female mate preference: 1) the amount of time a male sings, 2) the size and complexity of his song repertoire, and 3) the structural conformation to species or population norms (reviewed …

Experimental Analysis Of Nest-Site Choice And Its Relationship To Nest Success In An Open-Cup–Nesting Passerine, Sarah Cancellieri, Michael T. Murphy

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Nest placement presumably reflects selection for secure sites to minimize failure. Most tests of this hypothesis, however, have failed to support it. We used artificial nests (ARTs) to experimentally evaluate nest-site-choice behavior by an open-cup–nesting bird, the Eastern Kingbird (Tyrannus tyrannus). In 2010 and 2011, we placed ARTs in trees in the riparian zone at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Oregon, USA, to test whether (1) characteristics describing the physical location in trees of used and unused ARTs differed, (2) used ART sites more closely resembled naturally chosen sites, (3) successful natural nests (NATs) and successful ARTs were similarly …

Nest Destruction Elicits Indiscriminate Con- Versus Heterospecific Brood Parasitism In A Captive Bird, Rachel C. Shaw, William E. Feeney, Mark E. Hauber

Publications and Research

Following nest destruction, the laying of physiologically committed eggs (eggs that are ovulated, yolked, and making their way through the oviduct) in the nests of other birds is considered a viable pathway for the evolution of obligate interspecific brood parasitism. While intraspecific brood parasitism in response to nest predation has been experimentally demonstrated, this pathway has yet to be evaluated in an interspecific context. We studied patterns of egg laying following experimental nest destruction in captive zebra finches, Taeniopygia guttata, a frequent intraspecific brood parasite. We found that zebra finches laid physiologically committed eggs indiscriminately between nests containing conspecific eggs …

Air Sac Nematode Monopetalonema Alcedinis In A Belted Kingfisher (Megaceryle Alcyon) In Maryland, Usa, Ellen Bronson, Kathleen Kelly, Eric P. Hoberg

Harold W. Manter Laboratory of Parasitology: Faculty Publications

Sporadic and geographically widespread reports of parasites affecting the Belted Kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon) have been published but few have described details of the pathology. A female, adult kingfisher was found dead in a heavily wooded area of a zoo in Maryland, USA. At necropsy, numerous sexually dimorphic, 4.4–40.5-cm adult Monopetalonema alcedinis nematodes were found tightly wound within the coelomic cavity between organs and completely filling the caudal thoracic and abdominal air sacs. Abundant, 30–60-mm diameter, larvated, thick-walled ova were found in the bronchi and parabronchi, within the mesentery, and in the serosa of multiple coelomic organs. Monopetalonema alcedinis …

Nesting Ecology Of White-Throated Sparrows (Zonotrichia Albicollis) : The Effects Of Variation In Clutch-Initiation Date And The Application Of Prescribed Fire On Nesting Success, Melissa Olmstead

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The study of nesting success is one of the most widely-used methods for examining the factors governing recruitment in birds. Many ecological influences act together to increase or decrease nesting success, and knowledge of these mechanisms is crucial for determining the habitat or conservation requirements of a given species. One ecological influence is the timing of breeding, which in many species is related to a decline in nest success later in the breeding season. Much of the research on this subject has focused on cavity-nesting species, and the hypothesis that this seasonal decline is caused by a mismatch between clutch-initiation …

Painted Redstarts In South Texas, 2013-2014, Timothy Brush

School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences (Formerly Dept. of Biology)

No abstract provided.