Timiskaming Birds Forum

Greetings all. I have made some changes to the informational structure of all of the species account pages. In the process, I have reviewed the accuracy and consistency of all of the Abundance Codes and Breeding Status Codes. The result of this review is the list of corrections itemized below.  To review the definitions of the codes, please see the top section of the species checklist page.

If anyone is concerned with, is in disagreement with, or has additional information relevant to any of these corrections, please reply and I will try to provide more detailed rationale for the change.

Note that 2009 sightings of rare and "Local Interest" species have not yet been incorporated into the species accounts. They will be added as time permits through the month of January.

Also note that, through your forum posts, we are starting to build up a body of collective observational data that will allow for more local refinement of the arrival and departure dates as time goes on. This, too, will be a gradual update as the data is slowly organized into a more structured format. So you see, your posts are more than just friendly bird banter. Thanks to all for providing your sightings, and keep that data flowing. We will soon begin our "First Sightings" thread for 2010. Watch for it keep your "bins" trained on the trees as we enter the new year.

 You've been busy, Mike. Good work. Have you not already listed our "Darling" Starling as Resident?

Yes, Serge, this listing includes three changes I had made previously, but while I was at it I thought I'd give a thorough list, since at the time I had made those previous corrections I had not told anyone about them.

Hi Mike,

I'm a bit skeptical on Yellow-billed cuckoo.  What evidence do we have for breeding?

Hi Jonathan. Good catch! I too was a bit uncertain of this change for Yellow-billed Cuckoo, since we are too far north for this species to be within their regular breeding range.  The change was based only on recorded evidence of "Probable Breeding" in the 2007 edition of "Atlas of the Breeding Birds of Ontario" covering the survey years 2001-2005.  There is only one atlas square in Timiskaming that shows any breeding evidence for this species. Unfortunately I don't have access to the source data, but the square looks like it is located in the vicinity of Hilliardton Marsh, so maybe Murph has knowledge of the nature of the evidence used to support this record.  The next nearest atlas square showing "Probable Breeding" is down near Sudbury, but most of the breeding range is well south of the French River. The most northern square showing "Confirmed Breeding" is near Sault Ste. Marie, and not again until just north of Lake Simcoe. If it turns out that the evidence for Timiskaming is only at the level of "Permanent territory presumed through registration of territorial song, or occurrence of an adult bird on at least 2 days, a week or more apart, at the same place", or lower, then we should drop it back to "Accidental" status.  I will try to follow this up with Murph.

the only evidence I heard were one or two birds banded in the fall at Hilliardton.  A couple of months ago, I found evidence on BBS run close to Haleybury somewhere in the 70's.  https://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/bbsapps/index.cfm.  It's #047.  You can see there 5 mentioned back in 1974.

I have this BBS data printed out in a binder upstairs, but did not consult it when making these updates. Thanks for reminding me of it. Assuming this BBS data was collected based on call only, how easy in your experience would it be to confuse the two cuckoo species?

 Mike, don't forget a sighting by Gert on May 18th 09 off Hwy 560.

Not everybody agree that it's hard to identify by the song.  The BBS data set suggest VERY big years in the early 70's all over southern Ontario.  So it's not possible that most of the surveyors got mistaken in the same years.

 I never heard one (yellow), but I'm pretty sure I would identify it correctly when I find one!

Well done mike !!!!!  The yellow rail reference in the breeding bird atlas was the banded bird we had caught which we referenced as on suitable habitat during the breeding season so we I am comfortable with the breeding and accidental status you gave it the bird did not have a brood patch and was sexed as an unknown and as was noted we have now caught 2  at the marsh.  So we may find they are not as accidental as our sighting evidence suggests.

Thanks for the feedback Bruce. I presume you're talking about the YB Cuckoo, not Yellow Rail.  So are you suggesting we keep the status as ACCIDENTAL for now? Your information does not seem to support a status of breeding for the time being.

Great job Mike...

Checked back in my records and noted that the other YBCU ( YB Cuckoo I saw was in my apple tree on Sept. 20 2007..also in the fall.

Happy New Year all!

Gert

Thanks for all your input on Yellow-billed Cuckoo. Based on the available evidence to date, we are best to leave this species as Accidental. The fall records most likely represent post-breeding dispersal, and the earlier records are in no way conclusive regarding breeding.

Even breeding would be 'accidental'!

joe_frechette:

Even breeding would be 'accidental'!

I don't know....I'm pretty sure they do it on purpose!

Hi Mike, what standard did you used to set the abundance codes for the species?

Definitions are as follows:

Abundance Codes  Note that the abundance of many species varies considerably from season to season. The code shown for each species applies to season of greatest abundance for that species.  The status code, arrival and departure dates then serve to clarify the seasonality of abundance.  One will also note from the definitions provided below that these codes are, more properly, indicators of the ease and frequency of sighting for any given species than of actual abundance.
A =	Abundant	Very numerous throughout the area, often in a variety of habitats.
C =	Common	Likely to be seen in suitable habitat.
U =	Uncommon	Normally present in proper habitat but cannot be sure of finding one in a given day.
O =	Occasional	Usually present in small numbers but specialized habitat, secretive nature or nocturnal habits may make them hard to find.
R =	Rare	Definitely not expected - occurs only a few times, and sometimes not at all, in a given year.
X =	Out of range	Species is well out of normal range. Only one to a few records exist for the area.

Assignment of abundance is a little bit subjective based on our collective experience with any particular species.