Two Long-billed Curlews fitted with radio transmitters have begun their southbound migration from their breeding sites in the Nebraska sandhills.

Photo: Cory Gregory.

You can follow the birds on line here.

With 10,000 or more bird species recognized, the task of giving each a distinctive English name is not inconsiderable. The historical laxness with which such old names as “chat,” “robin,” “bunting” have been applied to birds across  family lines is notorious, but there is also at least one case where a single English noun is still used to refer to birds in different orders.

Both the Recommended English Names of the IOC and the latest edition of Clements use the English noun “racket-tail” (or “racquet-tail,” if you’re a fan of quaint obsolete spellings) as the name of a hummingbird and of a genus of parrots (Prioniturus).

Booted Racket-tail, Ecuador. Photo: Rick Wright.

The glorious little Booted Racket-tail more than deserves both parts of its name. A common species of the subtropical and temperate Andes, this hummingbird is seen on many of our tours to Ecuador, Venezuela, and Peru, where, as in the photo, it is readily attracted to feeders.

The Prioniturus parrots, in contrast, include some of the rarest birds in the world. Restricted to the Philippines and neighboring island groups, all of the nine or so species in this genus are sadly threatened by habitat loss and collecting.

Photo: Chris West

After the excitement of the ABA Area’s first Gray-collared Becard, an immature male discovered two weeks ago in Arizona’s Chiricahua Mountains, another was reported this morning from Sunny Flats Campground in the same range.

This second bird is reported as an adult male. Now if only a female or two would venture north of the border….

Both becards have proved themselves skulky and inconspicuous. Visiting birders intent on seeing one or the other of these great birds might wish to engage a local guide; you can visit AZ-Birding.com to request a reservation on line.

Rumors have been circulating for years now about a “split” in the Winter Wren complex. The only troglodytid to occur outside of the New World, this taxon exhibits noticeable morphological variation across its Holarctic range. Here in North America, studies have concentrated more and more on the differences in song between Winter Wrens in the East and their cousins in the West.

With the discovery in British Columbia of birds of each song type on adjacent territories, ornithologists looked for intermediates among the wrens in the contact zone–and they didn’t find any. “Genetically and behaviorally, the Tumbler Ridge wrens looked like separate species.”

With an eye to a future split, canny world birders are keeping track of where they see their Winter Wrens, what they look like and what they sound like. Who knows? One of these days, the field guides really may have to be revised, as this article suggests.

Bryan Bland has long been a favorite among WINGS birders, and with good reason.

Now This Birding Life, a series of interviews, readings, and musings on this our shared hobby-sport-passion, features Bryan in a new “podcast,” shot on a recent visit to Guatemala–where Bryan will be leading a new WINGS tour in February.

If you haven’t already had the pleasure of birding with Bryan, this interview will surely inspire you to join him soon.