[Birdtalk] Re: Salt Lake Birders newsletter, endemic birds

[Kristin Purdy]

Mark, thanks for the nice words about articles of mine that have been 
printed in the Salt Lake Birders' newsletter, but I'm afraid I can't take 
credit for the one on endemics of the world in the April issue of Bird Talk. 
It was mostly drawn from James F. Clements' Bird of the World, A Checklist; 
I did not contribute.

Thanks for adding to the information from your knowledge of Mexico's birds, 
and I agree with you about the great job Steve Carr does as editor of Bird 
Tracks.

Kris
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mark Stackhouse" <westwings at sisna.com>
To: "Kristin M. Purdy" <kristinpurdy at comcast.net>; <slbnet at utahbirds.org>; 
"Bird Talk" <birdtalk at utahbirds.org>
Sent: Tuesday, April 03, 2007 1:06 PM
Subject: Salt Lake Birders newsletter, endemic birds


>I just received my Salt Lake Birders newsletter and wish to congratulate 
>the editor Steve Carr on a job well done, and all of those who wrote such 
>interesting articles - it's a pleasure to read.
>
> I especially enjoyed reading Kris Purdy's work, and am glad she shares it 
> in the newsletter, because I  don't get the Ogden paper, and so don't have 
> the opportunity to see it very often. Being a bit of a numbers geek, I was 
> especially interested in a little piece she wrote on endemic birds of the 
> world, and which countries had the most and the least endemics. I agree 
> with most of her assessment, and have only two comments.
>
> The list she made of 11 United States endemics all look good to me, and I 
> agree that McKay's Bunting probably occurs on the Asian side of the Bering 
> Strait. However, I think Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow belongs on the 
> list as well, bringing the U.S. total to an even dozen. Although 
> recognized by the A.O.U., I don't know if Clements includes the split in 
> the sharp-tailed sparrows. I don't think that the Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed 
> Sparrow gets to Canada (anyone know for sure?), and the few sharp-tailed 
> sparrow records for extreme northeast Mexico, and a sketchy record for 
> Baja, apparently represent Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow.
>
> I was most puzzled by the lack of mention of Mexico in the list of 
> countries with a high number of endemics. Kris lists eight countries 
> (counting New Guinea as one country) that have over 80 endemics, and says 
> that all of the rest have less than 70 endemics. However, by my 
> calculations, Mexico should occupy sixth place on the list. By the 
> strictest definition of endemic species (A.O.U. recognized full species, 
> no records or only a few clearly accidental occurrences outside of the 
> country), I count at least 99 endemic species for Mexico, out of a total 
> of about 1090 bird species for the country. Steve Howell, author of the 
> most definitive field guide for Mexican birds, proposes another 9 species 
> that have not yet been recognized by the A.O.U. that would also be endemic 
> to Mexico. Many of his proposed splits have already been made by the 
> A.O.U., and some of these 9 forms are certain to be made full species in 
> the future (such as Cape Pygmy- Owl) as more research is done. There are 
> another 4 species that are endemic breeders that stray out of the country 
> only during the non-breeding season, such as Aztec Thrush and Sinaloa 
> Martin. At least three species are essentially endemic in that they occur 
> only intermittently outside of Mexico - Eared Quetzal (seen some years in 
> SE Arizona), Black-capped Gnatcatcher (also seen some years in SE Arizona) 
> and Tamaulipas Crow (apparently no longer seen regularly in Brownsville, 
> TX since the closure of the dump there). So depending upon how strictly 
> you define endemic, Mexico has at least 99 and as many as 116 endemics.
>
> If you include those species that occur only in Mexico and adjacent 
> Guatemala and Belize, you can add about another 20 "regional" endemics.
>
> Although a very few of Mexico's endemics occur only on island possessions 
> of Mexico, the vast majority are on the mainland, making Mexico the 
> endemic-rich region most easily accessible from the U.S. From my home in 
> San Blas, you can find about 25 endemics, include the mountains above 
> Mazatlan, about 4 hours away, and you can find 30. A trip to Oaxaca can 
> produce as many as 60 endemics. I only have a few Mexican endemics left to 
> find, but with nearly 1100 species of birds, birding Mexico is always a 
> pleasure.
>
> Buena suerte!
>
> Mark Stackhouse
> mark at westwings.com
> 801-487-9453 (Salt Lake City, Utah, USA)
> 011-52-323-285-1243 (San Blas, Nayarit, Mexico)
>
>