Aythya americana x Aythya collaris Status: Accidental in spring. Taxonomy: Redhead is known to have hybridized with each of the other four North American Aythya in the wild, Canvasback, Lesser Scaup, Greater Scaup, and Ring-necked Duck (Woodin and Michot 2020). Record: A drake was documented at Flanagan Lake, Douglas Co 4-6 Apr 2020 by Sam […]
Yellow-shafted, Red-shafted and intergrade flickers in Nebraska
Joel G. Jorgensen and W. Ross Silcock | joel.jorgensen@nebraska.gov, silcock@rosssilcock.com | 28 December 2020 The Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus) is a common species that has two field identifiable subspecies, the “yellow-shafted” flicker (YSFL) and the “red-shafted” flicker (RSFL). The problem and challenge for Nebraska birders is that YSFLs and RSFLs regularly interbreed and the intergradation […]
GREAT KISKADEE
Pitangus sulphuratus texanus Status: Accidental in spring. Taxonomy: A recent decision by AOS (Chesser et al 2018) rearranged the order of subfamilies within the Tyrannidae, placing Tyranninae (Nebraska-occurring genera Myiarchus, Pitangus, Tyrannus) ahead of Fluvicolinae (Nebraska-occurring genera Contopus, Empidonax, Sayornis, Pyrocephalus). We follow this order of genera. Of ten recognized subspecies (Gill et al 2022), only […]
BLACK PHOEBE
Sayornis nigricans semiatra Status: Accidental in spring. Taxonomy: There are six subspecies, two of which occur in South America and may be a separate species, White-winged Phoebe, and four in central America and Mexico, only one of which occurs north of Mexico, semiatra (Gill et al 2022, but note spelling). The Nebraska record is presumed […]
[MEXICAN WHIP-POOR-WILL]
Antrostomus arizonae Status: No accepted records. Taxonomy: There are five subspecies, only one north of Mexico: arizonae, occurring in the southwestern USA into Mexico (Gill et al 2020). This species was split from Eastern Whip-poor-will (former Caprimulgus vociferus, now A. vociferus) in 2010 based on differences in vocalizations and mitochondrial and nuclear DNA (Han et […]
Making sense of eBird’s Canada Goose subspecies
Joel Jorgensen | 8 January 2020 | joel.jorgensen@nebraska.gov eBird (eBird.org), the dominant platform used by birders these days, provide birders the opportunity to report certain birds to recognized subspecies. Birds of Nebraska – Online (BONO) provides detailed information about recognized subspecies in the taxonomy section of each species account. In some instances, though, eBird merges […]