[obol] Buttonquail vagrancy

[Jeff Gilligan]

Hello Joel and OBOL:

My reply is interspersed.


On 7/19/07 8:52 PM, "Joel Geier" <joel.geier at peak.org> wrote:

> Hi Jeff & OBOL,
> 
> As I commented privately, my point in mentioning the buttonquail escape
> was just to suggest that exotic birds do get out despite the best of
> enclosures (and our small aviary is certainly more sturdily constructed
> than any exotic waterfowl enclosure that I've ever seen). After
> observing their behavior "in the wild," I would more expect Wrentits to
> show up in Spain than I would expect buttonquail to show up as vagrants
> in Oregon.
> 
> The circumstantial occurrence of the McMinnville Red-breasted Goose near
> a breeder who, according to the report at the time, had mentioned losing
> one such bird, and subsequent peregrination of said bird southward,
> makes this one more than a bit hard to swallow as a "true vagrant." But
> I expect the Oregon Bird Records Committee to exercise due diligence on
> this. 

I was told at the time that Mike Rodegerdts, a birder and former waterfowl
collector, is an acquaintance of the owner of the geese, and that Mike
called the owner of the geese and was told that he had not lost any.


> 
> When all is said and done, it was a beautiful bird and most who saw it
> during its free-flying stage probably do not care much whether it was a
> "true vagrant" or a "mere escape." But for the sticklers on bird
> records ... well, they ought to be consistent, or else give up on
> sticklerhood.


A "record": is not necessarily a record of a wild bird. It could be a record
of a bird that was released from captivity, or a record of a bird that was
not accepted as to its identity.

> 
> The classic bird-record committee tendency is to err on the side of
> conservatism, rejecting many "probable" reports if the description is
> not absolutely definitive (i.e. "Type II" vs. "Type I" errors). Strange
> if that tendency should be reversed when the question is wild vs.
> captive origins. 


Why err on either side?


> 
> I'd think that any bird-record committee member in any state who has
> ever voted against a report on grounds that "description does not rule
> out species X with certainty" would be honor-bound to vote against
> reports that do not rule out captive origins with similar degree of
> certainty. Chalk me up as a stickler about sticklers, even if I may not
> be a stickler for much else.
> 
> Good birding,
> Joel
> 
> --
> Joel Geier
> Camp Adair area, vagrant Buttonquail capitol of Oregon
> 
> 
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