Ohio Birders:
I read with much interest Bill Whan's comments last week about the possible historical record of Fish Crow in Ohio. I wanted to add that Fish Crows are breeding closer to Ohio than many of us realize. The ongoing Indiana Breeding Bird Atlas has a couple records along the Ohio River in extreme southern Indiana. However, Fish Crows may reach Ohio more quickly from the east where there is now a Pennsylvania breeding record a mere 40 miles from Ohio! Hard to say how long it will take for them to reach Ohio, but Fish Crow are known to make 'jumps' in their breeding range with small populations sometimes turning up large distances from their previous range. You can get an excellent view of the westward expansion of the Fish Crow's breeding range by having a look at the Pennsylvania Breeding Bird Atlas website:
http://bird.atlasing.org/Atlas/PA/Main?cmd=stateSummary&theme=species&edition=current&species=fiscro
By clicking on "View Previous Atlas Data" you can toggle between the Fish Crow breeding map for the current PA Breeding Bird Atlas and the map for PA's first Breeding Bird Atlas (completed in late1980s). In doing this, you'll see that the species has pushed westward toward Ohio by about 90 miles over the last 20-25 years.
While you're at it, have a look at the breeding maps for Common Raven (recently rediscovered breeding in Ohio), which also shows a nice westward expansion in breeding range. And then, click on Yellow-rumped Warbler which has a confirmed breeding record in a PA block (right on) the Ohio border (Ashtabula County) on the east side of Pymatuning Reservoir! As far as I am aware, there is no confirmed breeding record of Yellow-rumped Warbler for Ohio. These and many other maps show some very interesting changes in PA, but the same can be said for the Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas II website. If you want to learn more about OBBA II, have a look at:
http://www.ohiobirds.org/obba2/
Paul G. Rodewald
Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas II
The Ohio State University
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Date: Thu, 8 Oct 2009 08:24:44 -0400
From: Bill Whan <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Putative Ohio species
Well, when we start to recycle the bird-name abbreviation issue (Iknow
of a completely unambiguous 29-character system for North AmericaI'm
willing to share: it would be even shorter except for the pesky
'northern rough-winged swallow'), it's time to try something new.
I read something the other daythat suggested a series of posts, I hope
informative and interesting, about Ohio records that would, had theynot
been forgotten, ignored, or disputed, have added new species to the
state list.
#1 is fish crow. On page 67 of"Birds of West Virginia. Bulletin #3 of
the West Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station," by W. D.Doan,
published in Morgantown in 1888, appears the following entry:"FISH
CROW. Corvus ossifragus. Resident. Rare. I saw two Fish Crows on
Blennerhassett Island October 2. They were flying over the island tothe
Ohio side."
In a quick look, this worklooks like a conscientious compilation of
its time. One slightly whacky thing I found is its inclusion ofnorthern
shrike and omission of loggerhead shrike. Fish crow has a firm placeon
today's West Virginia list, for many more reasons than this report;
George Hall acknowledges it, accompanied by a bit of skepticism, inhis
"West Virginia Birds' (1983).
Part of the reason Ohiodoesn't have this species on its list involves
ID problems far more difficult than those regarding shrikes. Fishcrows
are somewhat smaller than American crows, and there are some
morphometric differences if you have the bird in hand. There aresome
behavioral clues that might lead one to look more closely, but forthe
most part one should rather listen more closely. Corvid expert Kevin
McGowan has some excellent advice at
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/crows/FishCrow.htm Most authoritiesseem to agree this species is slowly extending its range inland via major
watercourses, and Doan's report supports the idea of being extraalert
for this bird along the Ohio River.
More on other species later,
Bill Whan
Columbus
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