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Wpa News 97 (2015), World Pheasant Association

Galliformes Specialist Group and Affiliated Societies: Newsletters

WPA News (Summer 2015), number 97

Published by the World Pheasant Association

Effects Of Management Practices On Grassland Plant And Bird Community Composition In Kane County Forest Preserves, Colleen R. Zumpf

All Student Theses and Dissertations

Loss of grassland ecosystems over the past century has increased importance of efforts to improve and restore habitat for native plant species and the biotic communities they support. As a result of these efforts, biotic and abiotic conditions and interactions with the environment are altered. Species evolution based on these particular environmental conditions has caused many species to be mapped onto various environmental gradients which can be defined as niche separation. This study attempted to determine what environmental gradients had the strongest impact upon grassland bird and plant species niche separation, particularly those gradients defined by management activities such as …

Core And Shell Song Systems Unique To The Parrot Brain, Mukta Chakraborty, Solveig Walloe, Signe Nedergaard, Emma E. Fridel, Torben Dabelsteen, Bente Pakkenberg, Mads F. Bertelsen, Gerry M. Dorrestein, Steven E. Brauth, Sarah E. Durand, Erich D. Jarvis

Publications and Research

The ability to imitate complex sounds is rare, and among birds has been found only in parrots, songbirds, and hummingbirds. Parrots exhibit the most advanced vocal mimicry among non-human animals. A few studies have noted differences in connectivity, brain position and shape in the vocal learning systems of parrots relative to songbirds and hummingbirds. However, only one parrot species, the budgerigar, has been examined and no differences in the presence of song system structures were found with other avian vocal learners. Motivated by questions of whether there are important differences in the vocal systems of parrots relative to other vocal …

Nou Spring Field Days And Annual Meeting, Valentine, May 15–17, 2015, Janis Paseka

Nebraska Bird Review

The annual meeting of the Nebraska Ornithologists' Union was held in Valentine May 15–17, 2015, and ably organized by Dave Heidt and Betty Grenon. Although muddy roads from a Friday night storm prevented travel to several planned field trip destinations on Saturday and rain cut short field trips on Sunday morning, the 58 attendees were able to locate and identify 180 species. Most of the birding took place in Cherry County, and many birders commented happily on the good number of species they were able to add to their Cherry Co. lists.

On Friday evening Wayne Mollhoff told the group …

Oriole Consumption Of Grape Jelly, Gary Lingle

Nebraska Bird Review

It is well known that several species of orioles are attracted to grape (Vitis sp.) jelly. A few years ago I began “feeding” grape jelly to orioles in my yard in Buffalo County. Both Baltimore Orioles (Icterus galbula) and, to a lesser extent, Orchard Orioles (Icterus spurius) frequented my feeder upon their arrival in early May and fed daily until the red mulberries (Morus rubra) ripened and nesting had commenced prior to mid-June. At that time visitation to my feeder plummeted from a high of 1.5 birds per minute to 0 .1 birds …

Subscription And Organization Information [June 2015]

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 …

Spring Field Report, March 2015 To May 2015, W. Ross Silcock

Nebraska Bird Review

This was a largely uneventful spring in terms of major events, as most species stayed within their ranges and movement timing parameters. There are always a few stochastic exceptions, but no clear pattern of, for example, early arrival dates was discernible. However, several interesting situations came to light, and there were a few rarities detected. A Couch’s Kingbird in Sarpy Co was well described but awaits a determination by the Nebraska Ornithologists' Union Records Committee as to whether the evidence is strong enough to add this species to the Official State Bird List. Other exciting finds were a wintering Brown …

Nebraska Bird Review (June 2015) 83(2), Whole Issue

Nebraska Bird Review

Spring Field Report, March 2015 to May 2015 ... 54

NOU Spring Field Days and Annual Meeting, Valentine, May 5–17, 2015 … 86

Oriole Consumption of Grape Jelly ... 93

Book Review of At Home and at Large in the Great Plains: Essays and Memories by Paul A. Johnsgard ... 98

Subscription and Organization Information ... 99

Book Review [Of At Home And At Large In The Great Plains: Essays And Memories], Janis Paseka

Nebraska Bird Review

Nebraska birders may remember reading some of the 14 essays published in this book, since they appeared previously in Prairie Fire, the monthly Great Plains public policy newspaper. Topics of the short and engaging essays range from changing bird life to outstanding birding areas to conservation in the Great Plains. We read about sediment deposits, the “gifts of glaciers past,” which were left by retreating rivers of ice thousands of years ago and resulted in the creation of the prairie potholes so important now to our waterfowl and wading birds. One essay marvels at the variety of animal skeletons, including …

Using 3d Printed Eggs To Examine The Egg-Rejection Behaviour Of Wild Birds, Branislav Igic, Valerie Nunez, Henning U. Voss, Rebecca Croston, Zachary Aidala, Analía V. López, Aimee Van Tatenhove, Mandë E. Holford, Matthew D. Shawkey, Mark E. Hauber

Publications and Research

The coevolutionary relationships between brood parasites and their hosts are often studied by examining the egg rejection behaviour of host species using artificial eggs. However, the traditional methods for producing artificial eggs out of plasticine, plastic, wood, or plaster-of-Paris are laborious, imprecise, and prone to human error. As an alternative, 3D printing may reduce human error, enable more precise manipulation of egg size and shape, and provide a more accurate and replicable protocol for generating artificial stimuli than traditional methods. However, the usefulness of 3D printing technology for egg rejection research remains to be tested. Here, we applied 3D printing …

Competition And Habitat Quality Influence Age And Sex Distribution In Wintering Rusty Blackbirds, Claudia Mettke-Hofmann, Paul B. Hamel, Gerhard Hoffman, Theodore J. Zenzal Jr., Anne Pellegrini, Jennifer Malpass, Megan Garfinkel, Nathan Schiff, Russell Greenberg

Faculty Publications

Bird habitat quality is often inferred from species abundance measures during the breeding and non-breeding season and used for conservation management decisions. However, during the non-breeding season age and sex classes often occupy different habitats which suggest a need for more habitat-specific data. Rusty Blackbird (Euphagus carolinus) is a forested wetland specialist wintering in bottomland hardwood forests in the south-eastern U. S. and belongs to the most steeply declining songbirds in the U.S. Little information is available to support priority birds such as the Rusty Blackbird wintering in this threatened habitat. We assessed age and sex distribution and …

Variation In Avian Vocalizations During The Non-Breeding Season In Response To Traffic Noise, Amy I. Oden, Mary Bomberger Brown, Mark E. Burbach, James R. Brandle, John E. Quinn

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Low-frequency traffic noise that leads to acoustic masking of vocalizations may cause birds to alter the frequencies or other components of their vocalizations in order to be heard by conspecifics and others. Altering parts of a vocalization may result in poorer vocal performance or the message contained in the vocalization being received incorrectly. During the winters of 2011–2012 and 2012–2013, we recorded and measured the “chick-a-dee” call of Black-capped Chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) and the “po-ta-to-chip” call of American Goldfinches (Spinus tristis) to determine whether components of the calls produced in areas of high traffic noise and …

Kentucky Warbler (Vol. 91, No. 2), Kentucky Library Research Collections

The Kentucky Warbler

No abstract provided.

Seasonal Variation In Corticosterone, Stress Responses, And Physiology In The Northern Cardinal Cardinalis Cardinalis, Benjamin Matthew Duckworth

Master's Theses

Seasonal regulation of the adrenocortical response (e.g., ‘stress response’) appears to be ubiquitous in mid- to high-latitude vertebrates. Northern Cardinals (Cardinalis cardinalis) are a Temperate dwelling passerine of Tropical-descent with a wide species range (tropics to Northern Temperate zones). This species encounters a wide variety of environmental conditions and strong seasonality, however corticosterone (CORT, the main adrenal stress hormone) has not been studied with regards to changes in seasonal levels. I initially analyzed samples from cardinals collected between 2007-2011 from the Lake Thoreau Environmental Research and Educational Center (Hattiesburg, Mississippi, USA). The data suggested seasonal differences of CORT, with higher …

Distribution Of The Egyptian Goose (Alopochen Aegyptiacus) In Northwestern Arkansas And In The United States Of America, Cameron Chesbro

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Egyptian Goose (Alopochen aegyptiacus) is an exotic member of the Anatidae that has been residing in northwestern Arkansas since the 1980s (Smith and James 2012). Following the discovery of Egyptian Geese in the area, not much attention has been given to the consequences of population increase. The Egyptian Goose has shown many diverse population growth patterns in areas where it has been introduced and started feral populations. The purpose of this study was to assess the current population size of the Egyptian Goose in northwestern Arkansas,and confirm successful breeding. The methods used in this study included conducting road surveys …

Habitat And Site Selection Of Pheasants And Their Hunters During The Hunting Season, Lindsey Messinger

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

Predator-prey interactions are dynamic and complex with implications for predators, prey, and entire ecological communities. Though predation has obvious mortality costs for prey, equally strong non-consumptive impacts of predation have been the focus of recent studies. Not only are prey affected by their predators through both consumption and fear of predation, but predators are driven by selection to respond to prey behavior. Here, we show how habitat decisions made by highly mobile predators and prey are dynamically linked. In our study system, recreational hunters (predators) make decisions about where to hunt based on a variety of resources (potential prey abundance, …

Shorebird Migratory Stopover Responses To Local And Regional Change: Habitat Decisions In A Vanishing Landscape, Caitlyn Gillespie

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

Understanding the consequences of anthropogenic change for migratory species is challenging because although they have evolved to cope with environmental uncertainty, migrants still rely on predictable relationships within and among habitats to make informed decisions. Calidris shorebirds rely on ephemeral wetlands during northward migration through mid-continental North America, where favorable habitat conditions are annually and regionally unpredictable and increasingly altered by land-use change. During spring 2013 and 2014, we assessed Calidris habitat use in the Rainwater Basin (RWB) and the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) at both local and landscape scales. Although anthropogenic change has altered the wetland landscape in both …

West Nile Virus And Ferruginous Hawks (Buteo Regalis) In The Northern Great Plains, Shubham Datta, Jonathan A. Jenks, David Knudsen, Kent Jensen, Will M. Inselman, Christopher C. Swanson, Troy W. Grovenburg

Natural Resource Management Faculty Publications

Emerging infectious diseases (EID) present significant threats to the conservation of global biodiversity (Daszak et al. 2000). Evaluating impacts (spatial, temporal and demographic) of EIDs on sensitive and declining wildlife populations is challenging because quantitative information is usually dependent on estimates rather than counts (Wobeser 2007) and mortality rates are seldom quantified with conventional monitoring (Naugle et al. 2005).

Interspecific Egg Rejection As Ecological Collateral Damage From Selection Driven By Conspecific Brood Parasitism, Bruce E. Lyon, Daizaburo Shizuka, John M. Eadie

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Distinguishing between interspecific and intraspecific coevolution as the selective driver of traits can be difficult in some taxa. A previous study of an avian obligate brood parasite, the black-headed duck, Heteronetta atricapilla, suggested that egg rejection by its two main hosts (two species of coot) is an incidental by-product of selection from conspecific brood parasitism within the hosts, not selection imposed by the interspecific parasite. However, although both species of coot can recognize and reject eggs of conspecific brood parasites, which closely resemble their own, they paradoxically also accept a moderate fraction of duck eggs (40–60%), which differ strikingly …

Multi-Level Adjustments In Singing Behavior By A Migratory Songbird In Response To Urbanization, Jacob Job

Dissertations

The spread of high-amplitude anthropogenic noise across natural landscapes is a serious issue for vocally communicating animals. Noise disrupts communication, which has implications for individual fitness and population persistence. In response, animals adjust their vocal signals with increasing noise. As the increase in noise has occurred on a relatively short time scale, evolutionary responses are likely not the primary cause of adjustments. Instead, short-term behavioral adjustments may drive population differences; however, such adjustments are currently not well understood. Moreover, noise is only one characteristic of urbanized landscapes and whether other characteristics, such as highly reverberant surfaces interact with noise to …