North American Birds: Vol. 72, No. 2
Michael L. P. Retter
Editor, North American Birds
Most of you are undoubtedly here to read this magazine. Welcome, and thank you! But I want to dedicate most of this space to highlighting our many and burgeoning online offerings. Our online Field Ornithology series allows for quick dissemination of ornithological news. Amy Davis has recently taken up the mantle of Field Ornithology Editor, and her first contribution was a report on vagrants deposited by 2021’s Hurricane Ida. She has since followed up with reports on Hurricane Nora, fall vagrants at Gambell in Alaska, and recent records of Lesson’s Seedeater and Small-billed Elaenia. In addition, Randi Minetor reported on the northward irruption of Roseate Spoonbills and Wood Storks this summer.
Thanks to our volunteer team of report editors and compilers, publication of Regional Reports continues apace. One of the huge advantages of housing Regional Reports online is that they can be published within mere days of receiving them. In the old days of printed reports, you had to wait at least six months to read your region’s report. But right now—in Nov. 2021—you can already read Summer 2021 reports from the Atlantic, Hudson-Delaware, Ontario, Prairie Provinces, and Southern California regions. I want to offer a personal thank you to these regions’ compilers for being so prompt! Another benefit of online reports is that each is now easily searchable: just type CTRL-F (PC) or Command-F (Mac) to use your browser’s search function.
Highly lauded field guide author David Sibley starts off our printed content with notes on the first known U.S. records and the identification of “Cozumel” Bananaquits. Oliver Komar presents results of his study on the field identification Pacific Parakeet [<– FREE pdf download] and its close Middle American relatives. Derek Lovtich takes us on a multi-year photo journey looking at hybrid herons in Maine. The Finch Research Network team reports on the 2020–2021 winter finch invasion. And as usual, we round out the fall issue of the magazine with the annual ABA Checklist Committee Report, my annual Checklist Redux of taxonomic changes, and the Pictorial Highlights column, which showcases some of the most exciting photos gleaned from the online Regional Reports. In addition, we more online content in the form of a detailed, comprehensive report by Michael Carmody of bird records in the Mexican state of Guerrero.
We in the birding community depend on one another to share our knowledge and insights. With that in mind, I ask you to consider submitting a brief article for the Field Ornithology web series, penning a manuscript for publication in the magazine, and/or serving as a Regional Report Compiler or Regional Report Publication Editor. In particular, we need help compiling regional reports in Florida, Utah, Nevada, and Mexico. The ABA strives to make heard the voices of historically marginalized and under-represented groups in birding, and—to be blunt—the lack of diversity among our authors and Regional Report Compilers is concerning. We urgently want and need to hear more and varied perspectives in these pages. By you sharing your knowledge, we can all become more informed and understanding birders.