Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!ub!acsu.buffalo.edu From: dmark@acsu.buffalo.edu (David Mark) Newsgroups: rec.birds Subject: US mainland endemics: ANSWERS Message-ID: <36065@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU> Date: 14 Sep 90 01:46:06 GMT Sender: news@acsu.Buffalo.EDU Organization: SUNY Buffalo Lines: 90 Nntp-Posting-Host: autarch.acsu.buffalo.edu A couple of weeks ago, I posted the following question about US endemics: >How many species of birds have ONLY >been observed in the 48 'contiguous' states plus Alaska? Can you >name them? Even one accidental occurrence in Canada or in Mexico would >disqualify a candidate. The undisputed (I think!) US endemics are: Yellow-billed Magpie Lesser Prairie Chicken Red-cockaded Woodpecker The two I am not sure about are: Boat-tailed Grackle Fish Crow Both of these latter 2 species are listed in Godfrey's "Birds of Canada", but: Boat-tailed Grackle is based on 2 Nova Scotia sight records, from 1968 and 1969, before the split of Great-tailed. Great-tailed is much more prone to wander and has been documented in both Nova Scotia and Ontario in the last decade, so in my opinion Boat-tailed Grackle probably is a fourth US endemic; There are several records of Fish Crow from both Ontario and Nova Scotia, but no specimens. Still, they have been heard, so this seems to negate the otherwise-US-endemic corvid. =============================================================================== Steve Willner (willner%cfa183@endor.harvard.edu) got two of the three: "Beats me. I get yellow billed magpie, ... Correct!! ... cape sable seaside sparrow for sure. Dusky seaside sparrow would have qualified but is extinct." The Seaside Sparrows were all "lumped" (officially declared to be conspecific) in 1973. So, they are not endemic species. If we allow endemic subspecies, I guess there are quite a few. "Two more guesses are lesser prarie chicken ... Correct!! ... and perhaps wild turkey, though I would have expected a Mexican sighting of the latter." Both Mexico and Canada were within the historic range of Wild Turkey, and the species has been successfully re-intruduced into Ontario. =============================================================================== Andrew Taylor got one of the definite endemics and one of the 'possible' ones: "I'd nominate Fish Crow, Yellow-Billed Magpie and Carolina Chickadee. Brown-Headed Nuthatch and Seaside Sparrow are near misses. But... a Carolina Chickadee was identified in the hand (mist-netted) at Long Point, Ontario; and there a few other 'sight/sound' records Brown-headed Nuthatch breeds in the Bahamas, but otherwise has not occurred outside the US. There are quite a few fall vagrant records of Seaside Sparrow in Atlantic Canada. Fish Crow discussed above.