Ornithology Commons^™

The North American Whistling-Ducks, Pochards, And Stifftails, Paul A. Johnsgard

Zea E-Books Collection

Although the 12 species representing three waterfowl tribes described in this volume are not closely related, they fortuitously provide an instructive example of adaptive evolutionary radiation within the much larger waterfowl lineage (the family Anatidae), especially as to their divergent morphologies, life histories, and social behaviors.

The whistling-ducks (Dendrocygna), with three known North American species, are notable for their permanent pair-bonds, extended biparental family care, and strong social cohesion. In contrast, males of the five typical pochards of North American diving ducks (Aythya) establish monogamous pair-bonds that are maintained only long enough to assure that the female’s eggs are fertilized. …

P24. The Birds And The Beats: Perception Of A Beat In An Avian Model, Brendon Samuels

Western Research Forum

Background: Beat perception is a complex cognitive skill that enables humans to “feel” the beat in music, and is an essential component of synchronization of behavior and dance. The mechanisms in the human brain that facilitate beat perception are not entirely understood, and have only been studied thus far using non-invasive techniques. Some animals, such as songbirds, also seem to be able to detect a beat in rhythms, though this has never been formally tested independent of motor synchronization.

Methods: An operant experiment is used to assess if European starlings, a type of songbird, are capable of categorizing …

The Impact Of Various Predator Perceptions On Stress Response And Spatial Memory In Birds, Chlöe S. N. Carter

Western Research Forum

The Impact of Various Predator Perceptions on Stress Response and Spatial Memory in Birds

Background

This project will explore the impact of environmental stressors on the cognitive abilities of birds. Predator perception has been demonstrated to elicit a stress response by elevating stress hormones which can alter the behaviour of birds. The aim of this study is to observe if chronic stress from differently perceived threats of predation in an individual’s environment will lead to differences in the spatial memory abilities in two species of birds. I predict that chronic stress resulting from predator stimuli will impair the bird’s performance …

2016 Christmas Bird Counts, Don Paseka

Nebraska Bird Review

Fourteen Nebraska counts were held during the 2016 CBC season, which is one less than last year. The Harrison and Crawford counts were cancelled this year, but in the opposite corner of the state, a new count was started that includes Indian Cave State Park. An unusually mild November and a seasonable start to December were followed by a modest cold snap during the second week of the month. The Harlan County count was run early in the period on the 15th with ample open water, and it produced a record number of species (90) for that circle. But in …

Annual Color Photo Section 2017, The Nebraska Bird Review

Nebraska Bird Review

For our color photo section this year we asked especially for photos of birds in unexpected places. The images on this page and the following two pages show birds in surprising locations or unusual geographic ranges.

32 images

Canyon Wren in wheel of the photographer’s Subaru at Mary Sue Shoemaker’s ranch in central Cherry Co, 20 Nov 2016. 5th record of this species for Nebraska. Photo by Joel Jorgensen.

Great Horned Owl at water feature in the photographer’s yard, Dixon Co., 18 April 2017. Photo by Jan Johnson.

Brambling, 4th record in Nebraska, coming to the feeders at the home …

Winter Field Report, December 2016 To February 2017, W. Ross Silcock

Nebraska Bird Review

This was an interesting winter from several standpoints. The trend of unexpected winter occurrences and earlier arrivals in “spring” continued. Mid-winter records of several species were notable: Rock Wren, Marsh Wren, American Pipit, Pine Warbler, and Chipping Sparrow. Rarities (see below) that could be considered in this category as well were Golden-crowned Sparrow and Lesser Goldfinch. For earlier arrivals, there was a noticeable influx 14-18 Feb of various species that provided rather early dates for those species. In this group were Blue-winged Teal, Ruddy Duck, Double-crested Cormorant, American White Pelican, and Turkey Vulture.

Some amazing numbers were reported, including a …

The Nebraska Bird Review, Volume 85 March 2017 Number 1

Nebraska Bird Review

Winter Field Report, Dec. 2016–Feb. 2017, by W. Ross Silcock … 2–22 & 31

Annual Color Photo Section … 23–30

Brambling in Bellevue, Sarpy County by Loren and Babs Padelford … 32–33

2016 Christmas Bird Counts, by Don Paseka … 34–49

NOU Annual Treasurer's Report for 2016, by Jan Johnson … 50

Subscription and Organization Information … 51

Brambling In Bellevue, Sarpy County, Loren Padelford, Babs Padelford

Nebraska Bird Review

As we were having breakfast on January 8, 2017, we spotted an unusuallooking bird with House Sparrows in the tree above our deck. After consulting the National Geographic field guide, we determined it was a Brambling. Soon it was feeding on the deck where we were able to get some photos. It was first spotted at 9:25 a.m. and again at 10:30. We put the information on NEBirds and by late morning birders began to arrive.The first group saw the bird at 12:02. By early afternoon we had standing room only in our family room. The bird appeared again at …

The North American Perching And Dabbling Ducks: Their Biology And Behavior, Paul Johnsgard

Zea E-Books Collection

This volume, the fourth in a series of books that collectively update and expand P. A. Johnsgard’s 1975 The Waterfowl of North America, summarizes research findings on this economically and ecologically important group of waterfowl. The volume includes the mostly tropical perching duck tribe Cairinini, of which two species, the muscovy duck and the wood duck, are representatives. Both species are adapted for foraging on the water surface, mostly on plant materials, but typically perch in trees and nest in elevated tree cavities or other elevated recesses. This volume also includes the dabbling, or surface-feeding, duck tribe Anatini, a …

Plasma Metabolites Reveal Changes In Physiological State Of Eared Grebes (Podiceps Nigricollis) During Three Non-Migratory Periods, Allison A. Yoshida

Theses

Energy storage and use during the annual cycle of migratory birds is dynamic especially during migration. However, considerable amounts of the annual cycle are spent not migrating, and the physiological state of birds during these non-migratory periods is not well understood. We compared plasma metabolites (TRIG, BUTY, URIC, GLY) in Eared Grebes (Podiceps nigricollis) residing at three important areas when they are not migrating: fall staging (postbreeding at Mono Lake, California), spring staging (pre-breeding at Great Salt Lake, Utah), and an extended stopover prior to spring staging (Salton Sea, California). Plasma metabolites were also measured in resting and active grebes …

Egg Discrimination Along A Gradient Of Natural Variation In Eggshell Coloration, Daniel Hanley, Tomáš Grim, Branislav Igic, Peter Samaš, Analía V. López, Matthew D. Shawkey, Mark E. Hauber

Publications and Research

Accurate recognition of salient cues is critical for adaptive responses, but the underlying sensory and cognitive processes are often poorly understood. For example, hosts of avian brood parasites have long been assumed to reject foreign eggs from their nests based on the total degree of dissimilarity in colour to their own eggs, regardless of the foreign eggs’ colours. We tested hosts’ responses to gradients of natural (blue-green to brown) and artificial (green to purple) egg colours, and demonstrate that hosts base rejection decisions on both the direction and degree of colour dissimilarity along the natural, but not artificial, gradient of …

Kentucky Warbler (Vol. 93, No. 1), Kentucky Library Research Collections

The Kentucky Warbler

No abstract provided.

Responses Of King Penguin Aptenodytes Patagonicus Adults And Chicks To Two Food-Related Odours, Gregory B. Cunningham, Sarah Leclaire, Camille Toscani, Francesco Bonadonna

Biology Faculty/Staff Publications

Increasing evidence suggests that penguins are sensitive to dimethyl sulphide (DMS), a scented airborne compound that a variety of marine animals use to find productive areas of the ocean where prey is likely to be found. Here we present data showing that king penguins Aptenodytes patagonicus are also sensitive to DMS. We deployed DMS on a lake near a king penguin colony at Ratmanoff beach in the Kerguelen archipelago. We also presented DMS to ‘sleeping’ adults on the beach. On the lake, penguins responded to the DMS deployments by swimming more, while on the beach, penguins twitched their heads and …

Migration And The Post-Fledging Period: Examining Two Critical Stages Of The Cerulean Warbler Life Cycle, Douglas William Raybuck

Student Theses and Dissertations

To reverse declining population trends for migratory birds, a full annual and life cycle conservation approach is necessary. However, two life history stages of relatively high mortality—the migratory and the post-fledging periods—are not well-understood for most declining bird species, including the Cerulean Warbler (Setophaga cerulea), a declining species considered vulnerable to extinction. Here, I explored the possibility of using geolocators to obtain migration data for Cerulean Warblers and examined potential negative effects of applying these devices to this species, finding no effects during the breeding season of deployment but lowered annual return rates compared with color-banded control counterparts. I also …

Factors Affecting Snowy Plover Chick Survival In A Managed Population, Stephen J. Dinsmore, Eleanor P. Gaines, Scott F. Pearson, David J. Lauten, Kathleen J. Castelein

Institute for Natural Resources Publications

Understanding survival of precocial chicks in the period immediately following hatching has important conservation implications because population growth is often sensitive to post-hatching survival. We studied federally threatened Western Snowy Plover (Charadrius nivosus nivosus) broods at the northern limit of their range in coastal Oregon (n ¼ 1,157) and Washington (n ¼ 84) from 1991 to 2011 in an attempt to understand seasonal, annual, and spatial patterns of chick survival. In Oregon, plover chick survival increased with age, varied between sites, and was greater at sites with predator management. The mean probability of surviving from hatch to fledging at 28 …

Passerine Morphology: External Measurements Of Approximately One-Quarter Of Passerine Bird Species, Robert Ricklefs

Biology Department Faculty Works

Studies of community organization and clade diversification that include functional traits have become an important component of the analysis of ecological and evolved systems. Such studies frequently are limited by availability of consistently collected data. Here, I present a data set including eight measurements of the external morphology of 1642 species, roughly one‐quarter of all passerine birds (Aves: Order Passeriformes), from all parts of the world, characterizing the relative proportions of the wing, tail, legs, and beak. Specimens were measured opportunistically over the past 40 years in museums in the United States and Europe. Numbers of individuals measured per species …

Acoustic Characteristics Of Lekking Male Greater Prairie-Chicken (Tympanuchus Cupido Pinnatus) Vocalizations (Supplement), Cara E. Whalen, Mary Bomberger Brown, Joann Mcgee, Larkin A. Powell, Edward J. Walsh

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Boom

Cackle

Whine

Whoop

A Multicriteria Decision Analysis For Identifying Priority Conservation Areas For Grassland Birds, Flavio Sutti, Allan Strong, Noah G. Perlut

Environmental Studies Faculty Publications

Biodiversity conservation frequently competes with the needs of society for agricultural production and development. However, properly designed and efficiently implemented conservation programs can be used to integrate wildlife and human needs. We tested the efficacy of multicriteria decision analysis as a tool to select priority areas for conservation in human-dominated landscapes using grassland birds in the northeastern US as a test case. We created detailed GIS layers including landscape- (forest, grassland, development, and roads within a 3000-m buffer around each grassland patch) and patch-level (size, management, and conservation status) criteria important in grassland bird habitat selection and conservation. We developed …

Offspring Sex Ratio In Double Brooding Prothonotary Warblers, Radleigh Herschel, Anthony G. Kouri, Rebecca Vareed, Stephanie Warshawsky, Matthew Desaix

Rice Rivers Center Research Symposium

Prothonotary warblers are bright, golden birds who, with their loud calls, make themselves known in wetland habitats in the spring after returning from their winter homes in the Neotropics to breed. This migratory species is important to study because of their need for these habitats and are declining in population due to the degradation of wetland environments across the western hemisphere.

VCU started a project in 1987 to study prothonotary warblers including population genetics, breeding biology, and migration ecology. Since then, with the help of Richmond Audubon Society, the project has erected over 600 nesting boxes along the James River …

Projecting Habitat Of The Nonbreeding Prothonotary Warbler (Protonotaria Citrea) Under Various Climate Scenarios, Hannah Byrne, Lindsey Flanary, Ernesto Gagarin, Jessica A. Reese, Catherine B. Viverette

Rice Rivers Center Research Symposium

Understanding a species’ range, and how it may change over time, allows researchers to develop more robust species management plans and to identify vital habitat for conservation planning. For migratory bird species, different habitats are utilized during different times of year. While a neotropical migratory species’ breeding grounds may be adequate, its wintering ground or various stopover areas may be under threat. In what is known as a carry over effect, the degradation of wintering grounds can lead to poor quality individuals in the breeding range (Rockwell et al., 2012), thus reduced fitness.

The tropics are predicted to experience changes …

Male And Female Parental Care In The Golden-Rumped Euphonia (Euphonia Cyanocephala), Zachary Wright, Jeff Port, Harold F. Greeney

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

A single nest of the Golden-rumped Euphonia (Euphonia cyanocephala) was filmed for 72 hours near the Yanayacu Biological Station in Ecuador located in tropical montane forest. Recording was between 15-21 February 2014. We report the first observations of incubation and feeding behavior by individual parents. We use the collected observations collected during the six day period after hatching to analyze visit frequency, duration, time, and activity patterns during visits. Both male and female visited at similar rates (mean male = 20.2 ± 1.8, mean female = 21.0 ± 1.3 visits/day) with an alternation of visits by members of the pair …

The City Where The Storks Fly: Sustainable Agriculture And Species Reintroduction In Toyooka City, Japan, Nako Kobayashi

Anthropology Department Honors Papers

In 1971, the Oriental White Stork went locally extinct in Toyooka, Japan. Today, around 80 of the birds fly free throughout the city. Toyooka uses the Stork Reintroduction Project and the promotion of “Stork-Friendly” agriculture to help combat the difficulties faced as a rural Japanese municipality including population decline, increased farmland abandonment, and falling rice prices. This thesis investigates how Toyooka City uses a pragmatic approach to achieve holistic sustainability that works within the framework of our current globalized cultural, political, social and economic landscape. By drawing on the fieldwork I conducted in Toyooka as well as the informal and …

The Feasibility Of Counting Songbirds Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Andrew M. Wilson, Janine M. Barr, Megan E. Zagorski

Environmental Studies Faculty Publications

Obtaining unbiased survey data for vocal bird species is inherently challenging due to observer biases, habitat coverage biases, and logistical constraints. We propose that combining bioacoustic monitoring with unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology could reduce some of these biases and allow bird surveys to be conducted in less accessible areas. We tested the feasibility of the UAV approach to songbird surveys using a low-cost quadcopter with a simple, lightweight recorder suspended 8 m below the vehicle. In a field experiment using playback of bird recordings, we found that small variations in UAV altitude (it hovered at 28, 48, and 68 …

Wpa News 104 (2017), World Pheasant Association

Galliformes Specialist Group and Affiliated Societies: Newsletters

WPA News (Winter 2017), number 104

Published by the World Pheasant Association

Local Scale Comparisons Of Avian And Woody Vegetation Communities Within Four Arkansas State Parks, Bennett P. Grooms, Rachael E. Urbanek

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

Measuring the spatial distribution of biotic communities can provide useful data to wildlife managers on how and why species assemblages differ across a landscape. During 18 May – 7 August 2015, we conducted avian point counts and collected vegetation data in nested subplots at 4 Arkansas state parks. We then used a series of one-way ANOVAs and Kruskal-Wallis tests to examine differences in species richness, Simpson’s evenness, Simpson’s diversity, and Bray-Curtis similarity across the 4 parks. Mount Magazine State Park had the lowest avian evenness (F_3,22 = 9.57 P = 0.003) and diversity (F_3,22 = 17.8 …

Central Nests Are Heavier And Have Larger Clutches Than Peripheral Nests In Cliff Swallow (Petrochelidon Pyrrohonota) Colonies, S. Osborne, D. R. Leasure, S. Huang, Ragupathy Kannan

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

Improving Survey Methodology To Monitor Rare Grassland Birds In South Dakota, Kassondra Hendricks

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) data for grassland bird species has shown the most rapid population decline of any other bird group. Current roadside survey techniques, however, may fall short of providing accurate numbers of rare grassland bird species such as chestnut-collared longspur (Calcarius ornatus), lark bunting (Calamospiza melanocorys), Sprague’s pipit (Anthus spragueii), and Baird’s sparrow (Ammodramus bairdii). Trends resulting from roadside data for grassland birds are oftentimes determined to be statistically insignificant because many grassland bird species occur on too few routes, occur in low numbers per route, and show high annual fluctuations in number. It is possible roadside surveys …

Propensity Of Predator Mimicry In Wild Steller's Jays, Trinity C. Tippin

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Avian vocal mimicry has been described in a variety of contexts, suggesting its function is multifaceted within and across species; however, basic empirical data describing mimetic signal prevalence and context is lacking for numerous species. I examined occurrence and context of mimicked red-shouldered hawk (Buteo lineatus) calls over a 12-month period in a wild population of 49 individually color-marked Steller’s jays (Cyanocitta stelleri) and reviewed the occurrence of the behavior in historic re-sight data. I documented mimicry of red-shouldered hawk calls in 14 of 49 (28.6%) jays during the study. Hawk mimicry occurred more often during …

Mobbing Behavior In Wild Steller's Jay (Cyanocitta Stelleri), Kelly Anne Commons

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Mobbing is a widespread anti-predator behavior with multifaceted functions. Mobbing behavior has been found to differ with respect to many individual, group, and encounter level factors. To better understand the factors that influence mobbing behavior in wild Steller’s jays (Cyanocitta stelleri), I induced mobbing behavior using 3 predator mounts: a great horned owl (Bubo virginianus), common raven (Corvus corax), and sharp-shinned hawk (Accipiter cooperii). I observed 90 responses to mock predators by 33 color-marked individuals and found that jays varied in their attendance at mobbing trials, their alarm calling behavior, and in …

Morphology And Variation In The Gargle Call In A Chickadee Hybrid Zone In Central Illinois, Shannon Marie Regan

Masters Theses

Black-capped (Poecile atricapillus) and Carolina Chickadees (P. carolinensis) have distributions that span the northern and eastern portions of the United States. The areas where these distributions meet are called contact zones and extend from Kansas to New Jersey. Contact zones often have a narrow range of hybridization and usually within these zones of hybridization we will see a mixture of genetic, morphological, and cultural traits. One focus of this project was to compare morphology and genetics of chickadees within and near the largest Illinois contact zone, which has not been done previously. This contact zone was …