Maine Bird Records Committee 12th report

[Louis Bevier]

The Twelfth Report of the Maine Bird Records Committee is available on our website here:
https://sites.google.com/site/mainebirdrecordscommittee/reports

Thanks again to Bird Observer for publication of the committee's report. Of interest in this year's report are formal acceptance of the Steller's Sea-Eagle and Western Marsh Harrier (aka Eastern Marsh-Harrier). The harrier account is of interest (see page 120). What was likely the same bird first seen in Maine showed up eleven weeks later and 350 miles to the south at Troy Meadows, New Jersey. Then a week after the last sighting there, an immature Western Marsh Harrier was killed in a birdstrike with an aircraft landing at Newark airport 15 miles to the southeast. Analysis of DNA and a feather recovered from the plane matched age and species. Carla Dove at the Feather Identification Lab, National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D. C., provided the analysis of this presumed unfortunate ending to the bird's journey in North America. The first New England and Maine record of Broad-tailed Hummingbird is accepted in this report. The committee also accepted White Ibis, based on last year's influx, and Brewer's Blackbird, an older record for which photographs were finally archived. Both species had been on the official state list based on historical records presumed correct but not previously reviewed.

As ever, the committee is grateful for submissions that make up the valuable historical archive maintained. Becky Marvil, who does so much for the Maine birding community, continues as our Secretary. With unanimous approval, Kyle Lima took over as Chair of the committee at our last annual meeting.

Louis Bevier
Fairfield

[Louis Bevier]

> On Apr 17, 2023, at 4:38 PM, Louis Bevier <lrbe...@colby.edu> wrote:
>
> Western Marsh Harrier (aka Eastern Marsh-Harrier). The harrier account is of interest (see page 120).

Magill Weber pointed out my error in the last post. The Western Marsh Harrier is also known as "Eurasian Marsh-Harrier" under the Clements/eBird nomenclature. There is indeed an Eastern Marsh Harrier (C. spilonotus), as I wrote, but that is a different species. For those interested, read on.

Western Marsh Harrier (Circus aeruginosus) has been the published name used by the AOU (now AOS) since it was added to the North American checklist in 2000. That is the name used by the International Ornithological Committee and the American Ornithologists' Society, among other entities. The eBird name obviously needs mention but is problematic given C. aeruginosus is not pan-Eurasian and truly is the western counterpart of Eastern Marsh Harrier. The paper looking at the contact zone between aeruginosus and spilonotus used the English names Eastern Marsh Harrier and Western Marsh Harrier, no hyphens (see Fefelov, I.V. 2001. Comparative breeding ecology and hybridization of Eastern and Western Marsh Harriers Circus spilonotus and C. aeruginosus in the Baikal region of eastern Siberia. Ibis 143[4]:587–592.)

Use of the name Marsh Harrier before the split is old, and I think it is a carry-over that has not been shed as a group name (e.g., marsh-harrier). Our Northern Harrier in Maine was formerly known as Marsh Hawk, for example. Most species of Circus harriers are found around marshes! The group term "marsh-harrier" is perhaps not enlightening and is used inconsistently in the eBird taxonomy. But no need to go into that here.

Not many species on our Maine list differ in nomenclature from eBird, but this one does. I hope that makes understanding this subject less imperfect.

Louis Bevier
Fairfield