Date: Thu, 11 Apr 2002 22:50:43 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Phil Davis Subject: Re: Introduced Birds In-Reply-To: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed At 09:11 PM 04/11/2002 -0400, Dave Kidwell wrote: >My question came about with the recent monk parakeet observations. In an >e-mail to osprey, one gentleman suggested that while the bird was nice to >see, it can't be counted for his list. Dave, et al. - There is only one set of "listing rules" that I'm aware of ... and it belongs to the American Birding Association (ABA). Each year, members of the ABA submit their "list totals" to the ABA who compiles them and publishes them in a thick Annual report. IF you are an ABA member and IF you want to play their listing game, and have your totals published in their report, then you need to agree to submit lists that comply with their rules. Listing categories include various geographic areas, including the "ABA Area" (Lower 48, Canada, and Alaska), the United States, Canada, World, individual US states (including Maryland), Canadian provinces, and a whole host of international geographic categories. For more information, try this URL (the space between Rules and Committee seems to be intended--(?)). http://americanbirding.org/resources/reslistru1.htm#Rules Committee Even the Maryland "locality" list totals, which the MOS publishes each year for members that submit list totals for MD, DC and the MD counties, has no formal rules to dictate which species are eligible for listing. Outside of ABA listing, the most commonly heard phase is, "you can list anything you want on your own list". So, if you keep your own life list of birds you've seen in MD, Anne Arundel County, or anywhere in the world, you are free to list the Monk Parakeet you saw in Laurel, and no one can tell you did anything wrong. Monk Parakeet is not on the "Official List of the Bird of Maryland" as published by the MD/DC Records Committee. (You can reach this list by following the URL in my signature block). Some people might use this list as a standard as to whether or not to count a Monk Parakeet in MD, but again, that's up to you. >My question is: At what point does >a bird that is not endemic to our region become a 'Bird of Maryland'? The >answer appears clear when you read the preface of the yellow book "Not >included are exotic waterfowl, parrots and other common cage birds which are >probably not of natural occurrence". However, in the same book the Mute >Swan and European Starling is listed. So there must be a threshold that an >introduced bird must cross to be a 'Bird of Maryland'. Mute swans and >starlings are established, while other introduced birds are not. As indicated above, the MD/DC Records Committee makes the decision as to which species are added to the "Official List of the Birds of Maryland". Your question is an excellent one. Currently, there are no set standards for accepting an introduced species. It is handled on a case by case basis, however, this is not a frequent issue. The last two introduced species added to the MD list would probably be (in reverse order), the Mute Swan and the House Finch (introduced into the eastern US from the western US). The ABA uses a general standard of a species being an "established population" in order to be accepted onto the ABA Checklist, and hence being "ABA countable". A general interpretation of an "established population" might involve [the following are my words] reproducing at a stable or increasing rate over many years without reliance on direct human intervention. >Unfortunately I do not know the natural history of the monk parakeet in our >area, so I can't say of its level of establishment. I have seen several >monk parakeet nests, but that is the extent of my knowledge. Any help on >this subject would be appreciated, and perhaps someone with more knowledge >of the parakeet can explain further its local natural history. Monk Parakeets were first accepted onto the Florida state list, and subsequently were later added to the official list of other states. Last time I checked, these other states were: Texas, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, and Illinois. Maryland had a small population of Monk Parakeets many years ago (about 20 or 25?), but they did not survive ... with a some help from local governments who feared the birds would become agricultural pests. Hope this helps ... more than you (n)ever wanted to know about listing and Monk Parakeets. Phil =================================================== Phil Davis, Secretary MD/DC Records Committee 2549 Vale Court Davidsonville, Maryland 21035 USA 301-261-0184 mailto:PDavis@ix.netcom.com MD/DCRC Web site: http://www.MDBirds.org/mddcrc/rcindex.html =================================================== ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================