Ornithology 2 Summary (Spring 2016)
If you miss a class, please check this page and study the listed topics in your field guide. Click here
for last semester's calendar.
Note: Please park in the Hayes Street Parking lot. All spaces are available except disabled
and reserved drop off for the child care center. If the lot is full and you park in the Grove Street lot you will
likely get a parking ticket unless you display the temporary parking passes which
are available to all registered students. These passes must be stamped by the John Adams office which closes at
7:30pm!
Class notes by Elisabeth Koster are here. (Plumage and molt terminology here. )
Please register at eBird and email me your eBird ID. I can then offer to
share field trip lists with you.
Click here for a summary of bird name
changes from the 56th AOU supplement.
Click here for a summary of
bird name changes from the 55th AOU supplement.
Click here for a summary of bird name
changes from the 54th AOU supplement.
Australia Dogs and Beaches brochure.
An online version of Ridgway's Color Standards and nomenclature is available here.
Replacement Sibley 2nd edition first printing
To get a replacement copy, cut the barcode off the back cover of your second edition, first printing and mail it
to:
Penguin Random House
Attn: Consumer Services/DMS
400 Hahn Road
Westminster, MD 21157
I will be offering a free program on "Subspecies for Birders" for Marin Audubon 13 October. Details TBA.
We plan to complete and review the shorebirds on pages 180 and 182.
My Wandering Tattler photos from Half
Moon Bay and from San Francisco. Click
here for photo of a Wandering Tattler and discussion of
its nasal groove.
My Gray-tailed Tattler photos from Australia are here.
Click here for an article on tattler identification with a photo
of a juvenile Gray-tailed Tattler in Washington State.
My Common Sandpiper photos from Tanzania,
India and Thailand.
My Spotted Sandpiper photos from Ohio (with notes) and Belize.
Additional Spotted Sandpiper photo here.
My photos of Upland Sandpiper from Minnesota with notes are here
and here. Additional Upland
Sandpiper photos are here and here.
Click here for a photo and discussion of the identification
of a Whimbrel. My Whimbrel photos including discussion of geographic variation are here
and here. Additional Whimbrel photos here,
here and here;
photo of Eurasian race of Whimbrel is here.
May 25, 2016
We completed and reviewed the shorebirds on page 178 started the shorebirds on page 180..
Click here for photos of the Wood Sandpiper at
China Lake. My Wood Sandpiper photos from India are here
and here.
My Solitary Sandpiper photos from Belize are here
and here. My photos from Pescadero
and Half Moon Bay. Additional Solitary Sandpiper photos
are here, here,
here, here
and here.
My Green Sandpiper photos from India.
My Terek Sandpiper photo from Australia.
Click here for photos and a complete account of the Terek Sandpiper
at the Carmel River, Monterey County.
This was the last class of the semester. Please preregister if you plan to enroll in
the Fall. Click here for details.
May 18, 2016
We completed and reviewed the shorebirds on page 176.
My Common Greenshank photos from India
and Australia. Click here
for details and photos of a Common Greenshank in California and here
for photos of Common Greenshanks in Alaska.
My photos and full
account of a Marsh Sandpiper in California. A Marsh Sandpiper photo from Baja, Mexico is here.
My Common Redshank photo from India
and a comparison of Common Redshank and Common Greenshank here.
We completed the shorebirds on page 174.
My Willet photo with detailed discussion. Click
here for a Willet photo showing spread wings. Click
here and here
for my photos and detailed discussion of Eastern Willets in Louisiana. Long discussion on the taxonomic position
of the Willet here.
Click here for photos and analysis of juvenile Greater
and Lesser Yellowlegs.
Click here, here,
here, and here
for my photos of and notes on juvenile Lesser Yellowlegs in San Francisco, Salinas, Pescadero, and Alviso
We completed and reviewed the shorebirds on page 172.
American Oystercatcher
photo from Chile. Click here for a synopsis of color characteristics
in oystercatchers. Click here for a photo of
an apparent hybrid Black X American Oystercatcher.
Black Oystercatcher in San Francisco is here.
Documentation photos for the California Black Oystercatcher survey are here.
Black Oystercatcher in Daly City is here.
Black-necked Stilt photo from Uruguay.
Black-necked Stilt photos are here, here
and here.
American Avocet photos are here
and here.
Click here for
an article I coauthored on hybridization between the American Avocet and the Black-necked Stilt.
We completed and reviewed the shorebirds on page 170.
Click here for a photo of a Mountain Plover in
California.
Click here for photos of a Eurasian Dotterel in Washington
State and here for photos of a Eurasian Dotterel in Baja,
Mexico.
Northern Jacana photos and notes from
Belize and a juvenile
from Costa Rica.
We plan to reschedule and meet on THURSDAY, APRIL 28TH because of a labor
dispute. The building will be closed on Wednesday 4/27.
We completed and reviewed the plovers on page 168
Click Common Ringed Plover for my photos and notes on a Common
Ringed Plover at Davis.
Click here for my photo of a Semipalmated Plover at Abbott's Lagoon and here for my photo of a Semipalmated Plover in Ohio.
Piping Plover photos from Cuba. Click
here for my photo of a Piping
Plover in Texas and here for two photos of a Piping
Plover at the Salton Sea.
Snowy Plover at Half Moon Bay here & here. Click here
for my photo of a Snowy Plover with chick at Half Moon Bay and here for my
recent photos of Snowy Plovers at Watsonville. .
We plan to complete and review the plovers on page 166.
My Little Ringed Plover image
from India.
My Lesser Sand-Plover photos from Thailand
(also here) and Australia
(with Greater Sand-Plovers for comparison). Click here,
here, here
and here for photos of a Lesser Sand-Plovers
in California, and here for my notes on a Lesser Sand-Plover
in Humboldt County.
Click here for photos, video, notes and discussion
on the identification of a Greater Sand-Plover at Bolinas Lagoon. My Greater
Sand-Plover photo and notes from Australia.
Click here, here
and here for Killdeer photos from our trips
to Coyote Point.
Wilson's Plover images are here, here,
here, here
and here.
We completed and reviewed the plovers on page 164.
My Black-bellied Plover photos with
notes on molt. Click here for a photo and discussion
of the identification of a juvenile Black-bellied Plover.
Click here for my photos and description of a
juvenile American Golden-Plover. Click here,
here, here,
here and here
for photos of juvenile American Golden-Plover and here
for a photo of a breeding male American Golden-Plover.
My Pacific Golden-Plover
photos in Australia with notes. Click here for
comparative photos of juvenile American and Pacific golden-plovers together. Click here
for a photo of a breeding plumage Pacific Golden-Plover in Alaska. Click here
for photos and discussion of the identification of three molting adult golden-plovers in California. I now believe
all three are Pacific Golden-Plovers.
Additional references:
Dunn, J.L., J. Morlan and C.P. Wilds. 1987. Field identification of forms of Lesser Golden-Plover. International Bird Identification - Proceedings of the 4th International Identification Meeting Eilat 1st-8th November 1986. (Click here for a pdf of this paper.)
Johnson, O. W., and Johnson, P.M. 2004. Morphometric features of Pacific and American Golden-Plovers with comments on field identification.Wader Study Group Bull. 103:42-49. (Click here for pdf).
Jarmillo, A. 2004. Featured Photo: Identification of adult Pacific and American Golden-Plovers in their southbound migration. Western Birds 35:120-124. (Click here for pdf.)
No Class!! Spring break.
We completed and reviewed the cranes on page 162 and reviewed the rails, gallinules and coots on pages 158 & 160.
I added a photo of a Eurasian Moorhen from India here.
Click here for photos of the Purple Gallinule
at Death Valley. Images of a Purple Gallinule in Los Angeles are here.
My Purple Gallinule photo from Florida.
Click here for my photo of a Purple
Swamphen in Florida. Clements and eBird split this species into six species. The one established and introduced
in Florida is the Gray-headed Swamphen (Porphyrio poliocephalus). A vagrant African
Swamphen (Porphyrio madagascariensis) has also appeared on Bermuda. My Australasian
Swamphen (Porphyrio melanotus) photo.
Click here for my
photo and notes on a Common Gallinule. A Common Gallinule photo from our recent field trip to Point Reyes is here and my photos of Common
Gallinules in Florida, and Argentina. David Sibley has an essay
on distinguishing Common Moorhen from Common Gallinule here.
Juvenile American Coot.
The "Birds of North America" account for Common Gallinule mentions, "Chick has a 1- to 1.5-mm-long spur on alula (wing) that permits grasping when chick climbs emergent vegetation, enters nest, or clings to submerged vegetation when swimming underwater (Bent 1926, Miller 1946, Wood 1974, Greij 1994)." This may be what appeared to be an external wing-claw in one photo.
Further analysis from Elisabeth Köster
"I have now come to the conclusion that the wing-thing on the gallinule chicks are not anything ON the wings, they ARE the wings. More specific, they are the outer portion (thumb and hand) of the still unfeathered wing, which has yellow skin, so it is very obviously contrasting against the otherwise black bird. It is pretty obvious in this film. Birds do have both radius and ulna! (In albatrosses they seem to be almost fused as shown here). Looking for a hands-on project in class? Here is an idea ;-) Here is an article about spurs, claws etc. Even very young coot have similar wings, though far less prominent. My interpretation of all this is at this point the following: I do no longer think that the gallinule chick wings are anatomically very different from other chick wings. They do have a contrasting skin color which is one thing that makes them more visible. I guess that they must have some signalling function in order for this contrast to have evolved. Also, they seem use them quite a lot for support which seems to have led to them being extra long and sturdy and having the spur on the alula mentioned by your source. I guess that spur is probably what to me looks like a claw at the tip of the alula. The almost constant wing-flapping by the chick in the video suggests to me that they use their wings for support as soon as they are on their feet. They probably climb quite a lot through the vegetation, which we never see, while coot chicks probably swim more, having those nice toe flaps.....
"I also looked a little into the white flank stripe. It really fascinated me that I could find not a single
photo where it was completely hidden by the wing! It seems to me that the flank feathers of gallinules are very
out-standing, fluffy, or whatever a better word might be, so that the wing is covered by them as soon as it is
not fully spread for flight. I found a picture
of a bird stretching its wing, and even here the bend of the wing is still under body feathers."
