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Subject:

Updates to the MD/DC Records Committee web pages

From:

Phil Davis

Reply-To:

Phil Davis

Date:

Mon, 5 Mar 2007 02:13:18 -0500

MD Osprey:

On the MD/DC Records Committee (MD/DCRC) web pages we have posted 
updates to the committee's data reports. Some of these changes are 
due to recent committee decisions; other changes are to conform to 
the correct order of the latest 47th AOU Checklist supplement taxonomy.

You can link to any of these documents from our MD/DCRC home web page here ...

         http://www.mdbirds.org/mddcrc/rcindex.html


Document update highlights and shortcuts include:

Official Lists. The Official Lists of the Birds of MD and DC are here ...

         MD      http://www.mdbirds.org/mddcrc/pdf/mdlist.pdf 
    (429 species)
         DC      http://www.mdbirds.org/mddcrc/pdf/dclist.pdf 
    (326 species)


MD and DC Databases. We are closing in on our database research and 
the capture of historical "reviewable" reports of MD and DC 
sightings. Since the last database update was posted, we have 
captured and entered into our database all known published reports of 
species of questionable origin. For this exercise, however, I limited 
the species to those found in the 7th edition of the AOU Checklist 
(our standard for taxonomy) including it's Appendix (where the AOU 
places species of a more hypothetical nature). Note that the AOU 
Checklist covers all of North America, not just the USA, Canada, and Mexico.

So, in this edition of our databases you can find (by doing a 
"search" or "find" in the database PDF documents) reports of some 
interesting species reports for MD and DC that were published and 
were not previously in the database. (Some similar species were 
already in the database; e.g., Falcated Duck, Baikal Teal, etc.) 
These newly added species fall into two categories:

AOU Main Checklist species (i.e., those accepted by the AOU as 
occurring in North America or Hawaii) --  however, note that 
publication does NOT mean that these MD and DC reports were accepted 
or considered as natural vagrants:

         Lesser White-fronted Goose
         Garganey
         Harris's Hawk (most certainly escaped falconer's birds)
         Chukar (established in some locations our west, most 
certainly game-raised birds in our area)
         African Collared-Dove (formerly Ring-necked Turtle-Dove; 
still an AOU main checklist species!)
         Monk Parakeet (there are many more reports than most people thought!)
         Budgerigar
         Blue-gray Tanager
         Red-crested Cardinal (aka, Brazilian Cardinal; an AOU 
species but only from Hawaii)
         Golden-crowed Sparrow (sightings a result of migratory 
release experiments from PWRC in the 1960's)
         Bananaquit
         Nutmeg Mannikin

AOU Checklist "Appendix" Species (considered "hypothetical" as 
species with "insufficient evidence for placement onto the main list"):

         Graylag Goose
         Bar-headed Goose
         Ruddy Shelduck
         Common Shelduck
         Red-crested Pochard (an AOU "North American" species, but 
only in Hawaii)
         Mandarin Duck

The MD/DCRC databases (PDF documents) can be found here ...

         MD      http://www.mdbirds.org/mddcrc/pdf/mddatabase.pdf

         DC      http://www.mdbirds.org/mddcrc/pdf/dcdatabase.pdf

FYI, the database versions that are posted to the web are abridged in 
that they do not show all of the fields in the complete committee 
database. The complete database includes for each record or report 
the capture of all published references, all observers who submitted 
reports and they type of documentation they submitted (photos, 
videos, sketches, etc.), more details on reported locations, and the 
text of the committee's decision for accepted and not-accepted records.

Thanks to Bob Ringler for his knowledge and information from his 
database on these species and to MOS Webmaster, Taylor McLean, for 
his assistance with posting these updates.

Hope this helps ..

Phil


===================================================
Phil Davis, Secretary
MD/DC Records Committee
2549 Vale Court
Davidsonville, Maryland  21035     USA
301-261-0184
mailto:[log in to unmask]

MD/DCRC Web site:  http://www.MDBirds.org/mddcrc/rcindex.html
===================================================