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From: sandee@sun16.scri.fsu.edu (Daan Sandee)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: US mainland endemics: ANSWERS
Message-ID: <683@sun13.scri.fsu.edu>
Date: 14 Sep 90 13:41:55 GMT
References: <36065@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU>
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Organization: SCRI, Florida State University
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In article <36065@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU> dmark@acsu.buffalo.edu (David Mark) writes:
 =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.

Some of you may have been wondering why I didn't answer but I was on
vacation last week ; in stead of doing trivia quizzes, I was chasing
Blue-footed Booby (successfully, I may say). So I'll have to restrict
myself to some minor nitpicking in David's otherwise excellent summary.

 =The undisputed (I think!) US endemics are:
 =
 =Yellow-billed Magpie
     ... NOTE : ONLY species which is endemic to ONE STATE
 =Lesser Prairie Chicken
     TX Panhandle and adjoining areas in NM, CO, KS, OK
 =Red-cockaded Woodpecker
    Widespread in Southeast.
and
 Greater Prairie-Chicken. I understand it is extirpated from its former
    range in Canada, but I may be wrong.

 =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;

Very good detective work! I hadn't thought of that one.

 =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.
 =
MY list of species that are only disqualified because of accidental sightings
in Canada runs :

  Fish Crow
  Bachman's Sparrow        (accidental Ontario)
  Seaside Sparrow          (accidental NB, NS)
  Boat-tailed Grackle      (accidental NS - but see above)
and
  McKay's Bunting - breeds on islands in Bering Sea. There are no records
   from Russian islands, though that may be due to lack of observers.
   Winters in Alaska with stragglers reported in BC, WA, and OR. So that
   makes it a near-endemic to Alaska.

I missed Carolina Chickadee. Ignoring the conditions of the trivia quiz,
I would prefer to call a species endemic if its *normal* range is entirely
within the U.S. 

Daan Sandee                                           sandee@sun16.scri.fsu.edu
Supercomputer Computations Research Institute
Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-4052  (904) 644-7045