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Woodford's Rail - another flightless gem

One of the main reasons for the journal title changes was that journals named after birds put ornithologists at a decided disadvantage when they were compared against academics from other "-ologies" that have standard journal titles. Let's say there is a search for a new faculty member at a...

The wing looks like Swainson's Hawk, with 4 four fingers, pale underwing coverts and dark remiges. The tail looks like an adult Red-tail, the head and body like a leucistic Red-tail or Krider's Red-tail. Weird. Andy

Bartram's records of "Vultur sacra" in Florida have been assessed by many (e.g., Howell 1932, AOU 1983, Robertson and Woolfendon 1992, Greenlaw et al. 2014) and interpreted as Crested Caracara (AOU1983) or even a "mythical species (Howell). Robertson and Woolfenden note that no fossils from King...

Looks like a Fox Sparrow, the local Thick-billed type. Andy

Looks like Clay-colored to me. Andy

Female Hooded Warbler? They can a little black on crown, are often near or on ground. You often see them flicking their tail, which has lots of white on the inner webs of the outer tail feathers...

10 Hermit Thrush looks good. Swainson's has spotting below more restricted to breast. 2) Savannah Sparrow Andy

I think Bushtit. Head feathers are molting, making the bill look bigger. Wrentit has a longer tail, more brownish tones, and it would be quite unusual to pose vertically like this - they almost always are horizontal in posture and have their tail cocked up. Andy

Agree with Pine Warbler. Also, the tail is quite long, the body bulky, and look at that tree it's in! Andy

To me, better for a Marsh Wren. Plain unstreaked cap, median and lesser coverts unbarred, wider barring on tail. Andy

When using small samples of the genome, (especially haploid markers like mtDNA) morphology and genetics are rarely going to align at the subspecies level, unless populations have been separate for 1000s of generations with little or no gene flow (at which point they are or nearly species)...

I have been doing crossword puzzles for decades, and erne (had sometimes ern) is a common bit of "crosswordese" junk used to fill grids. But I have never seen anyone use the term out of the crossword context. Now I have! Is a legit term across the pond? Andy

Not necessarily. A reproductively isolating morphological trait could spread through a population quite quickly, while the mtDNA lags behind for 1000s of generations. Andy

AOS 61st supplement is out: https://academic.oup.com/auk/article/doi/10.1093/auk/ukaa030/5865308

Where has it been written that McCown was a "slave trader?" In the rather wide reading of his history by the NACC, he never owned slaves (let alone "traded"), he lived in a part of Tennessee that was against secession, and although he served as an officer in the CSA army, he disparaged the...

Completely different forging strategy, reflected in their wing shape. Nighthawks are superb at aerial maneuvering, as they chase flying insects. If it is a cloudy day, and insects are flying low, they will often be up foraging well before dark. Other caprimulgids have blunter wings and I...

Mississippi Kite adult Andy

The upper wingbar on pewees are usually much less distinctive than the lower one, especially in Westerns. This looks like a Willow/Alder Flycatcher. Andy

I think all are Common Terns. If you enlarge, you can see that the outer web of the tail feathers is dark and inner web light. Forester's has the opposite pattern, dark inner web and light outer web. Andy