Twenty-sixth Report of the Massachusetts Avian Records Committee

Thu, 01 Feb 2024 00:00:12 GMT

Following a flight line that many seabirds take, this Red-footed Booby rounded the northwestern tip of Cape Ann close to shore on October 4, 2022, establishing a first state record. Photograph by Suzanne Sullivan.

For its 26th report, the Massachusetts Avian Records Committee (MARC) evaluated 117 records involving 52 species. The committee accepted all those records. This report covers records from 2021 and 2022, with a few especially notable records from 2023 also included. New records during that period added an impressive seven species to the state list: Siberian Sand-Plover, Common Redshank, Cape Verde Shearwater, Short-tailed Shearwater, Steller’s Sea-Eagle, Red-footed Booby, and Virginia’s Warbler, which brings the state list to 518 species.

Other highlights from this report include the second state records for Mountain Plover and Willow Ptarmigan—both previously known only from specimens from more than a century ago. Additional highlights include the state’s fifth Pacific Golden-Plover, third Vermilion Flycatcher, fourth accepted Western Meadowlark, sixth Swainson’s Warbler, and first Black-headed Grosbeak since 2010. There was a notable influx of three juvenile Wood Storks in November 2021 and an unprecedented—but not unexpected—influx of White Ibises in spring 2022. Additional context is provided for these and other selected species below.

eBird/Clements v2021	eBird/Clements v2023	Notes
Northern Goshawk (Accipiter gentilis)	American Goshawk (Accipiter atricapillus)	split from Eurasian Goshawk
Pacific-slope Flycatcher (Empidonax difficilis)	Western Flycatcher (Empidonax difficilis)	lump of Cordilleran and Pacific-slope Flycatchers
Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis)	Western Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis)	eBird/Clements split
Yellow-nosed Albatross (Thalassarche chlororhynchos)	Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross (Thalassarche chlororhynchos)	eBird/Clements split
Lesser Sand-Plover (Charadrius mongolus)	Siberian Sand-Plover (Anarhynchus mongolus)	eBird/Clements split

Table 1. Species with changes to species limits (and names) since the last published MARC report; those marked “eBird/Clements split” involve changes not yet adopted by the AOS. Several additional species have had minor changes to English names or scientific names. See the MARC website or eBird for the full state list with current nomenclature.

Species taxonomy, nomenclature, and sequence follow the eBird/Clements Checklist (v2023), which closely follows the seventh edition of the American Ornithological Society (AOS, formerly American Ornithologists’ Union) Check-list of North American Birds (AOU 1998) and its supplements, up to and including the two published (Chesser et al. 2022, Chesser et al. 2023) since this committee’s last report in 2021. Table 1 shows taxonomic changes to the Massachusetts state list since 2021; note that three species have been split by eBird/Clements but not the AOS, which results in minor changes in nomenclature. Other differences between eBird/Clements and AOS can be seen on the eBird taxonomy page (eBird 2023a). One statistical consequence of recent taxonomic changes is that the Hadley record of Empidonax difficilis from 10/23/2019 to 12/2/2019 (2019-076) is no longer the first state record, because one banded at Manomet Bird Observatory, Plymouth, 11/10/2006 (2006-038; Rines 2008)—which previously referred to either Pacific-slope (Empidonax difficilis) or Cordilleran Flycatcher (E. occidentalis)—is identifiable to the species level (as Empidonax difficilis) now that Pacific-slope and Cordilleran have been lumped.

The list of species reviewed by the MARC (the Review List) is available at www.maavianrecords.com. Please check the Review List to send evidence of records that are not listed in our Searchable Database—even in this Information Age we often do not receive sufficient information for many records. The MARC strongly encourages written submissions even when photographs are available.

The statistics in brackets for each species or taxon show the number of records accepted in this report followed by the total number of accepted records. Note that some species have a large number of reports that the MARC has yet to review (e.g., Scissor-tailed Flycatcher). Below, we present data for all records covered formatted as follows: Record identification number, count of individuals, location, range of observation dates, original observers, and observers submitting documentation. We credit the discoverer with an asterisk (*). We indicate whether the evidence provided was photographic (ph), video (v), audio (au), or a written description (†). We indicate v.o. for various observers; several others also saw the bird and supported the identification. We use m.ob. for many observers; many people in addition to the listed observers provided much additional documentation for the bird to eBird/Macaulay Library. When records from other regions are cited, all are discoverable in eBird unless otherwise stated (eBird 2023b).

Currently the tallies of total records do not account for records that the MARC has decided pertain to the same bird. We plan to correct this and adjust these tallies in 2024.

Photo Essay: Birds of the Twenty-sixth MARC Report

Thu, 01 Feb 2024 00:00:11 GMT

Vermillion Flycatcher. October 22, 2022. Paine’s Creek Beach, Brewster. Photograph by Peter Trimble.

Common Redshank. July 20, 2022. Minimoy Island. Photograph by Jeff Offermann.

About Books: The Big Slaughter

Thu, 01 Feb 2024 00:00:00 GMT

The Market in Birds: Commercial Hunting, Conservation, and the Origins of Wildlife Consumerism 1850-1920. Andrea L. Smalley with Henry M. Reeves. 2022. John Hopkins University Press: Baltimore, Maryland.

“If I had the last pair of gamebirds on earth, I’d ring their necks.”
(E.S. Bond, game dealer, quoted on p. 31)

There was a period in America’s past when wildfowl became a commodity like oil or timber. This period of the commodification of ducks, geese, grouse, and shorebirds had a disastrous effect on bird populations. Beginning shortly after the Civil War and continuing through the Gilded Age into the early twentieth century was the time of the market gunners whose sole goal was to kill as many birds as they could and to sell them to markets and restaurants across America and even overseas. The Market in Birds by Andrea L. Smalley is a scholarly history of this horrifying yet fascinating time that eventually encouraged state and national legislation to be enacted to protect wild birds, although for some, like the Passenger Pigeon, these important laws would come too late.

At a Glance: February 2024

Thu, 01 Feb 2024 00:00:00 GMT

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Thu, 01 Feb 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Hot Birds: February 2024

Thu, 01 Feb 2024 00:00:00 GMT

February 2024

Twenty-sixth Report of the Massachusetts Avian Records Committee

Photo Essay: Birds of the Twenty-sixth MARC Report

About Books: The Big Slaughter

The Market in Birds: Commercial Hunting, Conservation, and the Origins of Wildlife Consumerism 1850-1920. Andrea L. Smalley with Henry M. Reeves. 2022. John Hopkins University Press: Baltimore, Maryland.

“If I had the last pair of gamebirds on earth, I’d ring their necks.” (E.S. Bond, game dealer, quoted on p. 31)

At a Glance: February 2024

Advertisers: 52-1

Hot Birds: February 2024

“If I had the last pair of gamebirds on earth, I’d ring their necks.”
(E.S. Bond, game dealer, quoted on p. 31)