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Additions to the List of the Birds of Louisiana

GEORGE H. LOWERY, JR.

University of Kansas Publications Museum of Natural History

Volume 1, No. 9, pp. 177-192 November 7, 1947

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS LAWRENCE 1947

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PUBLICATIONS, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

Editors: E. Raymond Hall, Chairman, H. H. Lane, Edward H. Taylor

Volume 1, No. 9, pp. 177-192 Published November 7, 1947

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Lawrence, Kansas

PRINTED BY FERD VOILAND, JR., STATE PRINTER TOPEKA, KANSAS 1947

21-6959

Additions to the List of the Birds of Louisiana

By GEORGE H. LOWERY, JR.

Oberholser's "Bird Life of Louisiana" (La. Dept. Conserv. Bull. 28, 1938), was a notable contribution to the ornithology of the Gulf Coast region and the lower Mississippi Valley, for it gave not only a complete distributional synopsis of every species and subspecies of bird then known to occur in Louisiana but also nearly every record of a Louisiana bird up to 1938. However, at the time of the appearance of this publication, one of the most active periods in Louisiana ornithology was just then beginning. The bird collection in the Louisiana State University Museum of Zooelogy had been started only the year before, and the first comprehensive field work since the time of Beyer, Kohn, Kopman, and Allison, two decades before, was still in its initial stage. Since 1938 the Museum of Zooelogy has acquired more specimens of birds from Louisiana than were collected there in all of the years prior to that time. Many parts of the state have been studied where no previous work at all had been done. Also in the last eight years some capable ornithologists have visited the state as students at Louisiana State University, and each has contributed greatly to the mass of new data now available. Despite the excellence of Oberholser's compilation of records, it is, therefore, not surprising that even at this early date twenty-four additions can be made to the list of birds known from Louisiana. Furthermore, this recently acquired information permits the emendation of the recorded status of scores of species, each previously ascribed to the state on the basis of comparatively meager data.

The plan is to publish eventually a revision of the birds of Louisiana which will incorporate all of the new information, but the projected scope of this work is such that many years may elapse before it is finished. The present paper is intended to record only the more pertinent additions, particularly records that may be significant in connection with the preparation of the fifth edition of the American Ornithologists' Union's "Check-list of North American Birds." There are numerous species for which Oberholser cited only a few records, but of which we now have many records and large series of specimens. If, in such instances, the treatment given in the fourth edition of the American Ornithologists' Union's Check-list would not be materially affected, I have omitted mention of the new material in this paper.

I am indebted to a number of ornithologists who have presented their notes on Louisiana birds to the Museum of Zooelogy and who have done much to supplement its collections. Outstanding among these are Thomas R. Howell, Robert J. Newman, Sam M. Ray, Robert E. Tucker, Harold E. Wallace, and the late Austin W. Burdick. Their efforts in behalf of the Museum have been untiring. I am grateful also to Thomas D. Burleigh and Jas. Hy. Bruns, both of whom have played an integral part in our field activities in recent years and without whose help much less would have been accomplished. John S. Campbell, Ambrose Daigre, James Nelson Gowanloch, Sara Elizabeth Hewes, E. A. McIlhenny, Edouard Morgan, and George L. Tiebout, Jr., have generously contributed notes and specimens which are duly attributed in the following text. For assistance in taxonomic problems, or for the loan of comparative material, I wish to thank John W. Aldrich, Herbert Friedmann, Howard K. Gloyd, Alden H. Miller, Harry C. Oberholser, James L. Peters, Karl P. Schmidt, George M. Sutton, J. Van Tyne, and Alexander Wetmore.

#Sula sula sula# (Linnaeus), Red-footed Booby

An immature individual of this species came aboard a boat of the Louisiana Department of Conservation near the mouth of Bayou Scofield, 7 miles below Buras, Plaquemines Parish, on November 1, 1940. It was captured by J. N. McConnell, who delivered it to James Nelson Gowanloch of the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. The bird was then turned over to me in the flesh for preparation and deposit in the Louisiana State University Museum of Zooelogy. It has since been examined by James L. Peters and Alexander Wetmore, who confirmed the identification. This is the first specimen of the species obtained in the United States. The only other record of its occurrence in this country is that of individuals observed near Micco, Brevard County, Florida, on February 12, 1895 (Bangs, Auk, 19, 1902: 395-396). To eliminate possible confusion in the literature, attention is called here to the fact that the above-listed specimen was erroneously recorded by an anonymous writer (La. Conserv. Rev., 10, Fall Issue, 1940: 12) as a Gannet, Morus bassanus (Linnaeus).

#Butorides virescens virescens# (Linnaeus), Eastern Green Heron

No winter records for the occurrence of this species were available to Oberholser in 1938, the latest date cited by him being October 27. Recently, however, it has been noted several times in winter on the coast of Louisiana. Kilby and Croker (Aud. Mag., 42, 1940: 117) observed it at the mouth of the Mississippi River, near Pilot Town, on December 25, 1939, and Burleigh and I each obtained a specimen at Cameron on December 13, 1940. Another was shot by me at the same place on February 2, 1946. The species is therefore of casual occurrence in the state in winter.

#Dichromanassa rufescens# (Gmelin), Reddish Egret

Although previously reported only as a casual summer visitor along the coast, the Reddish Egret is known now to occur regularly in small numbers during the winter. Since Oberholser (op. cit., 56) cited only one specific record of occurrence in the state, all additional records are listed here. On East Timbalier Island, one to three were seen daily, August 16-19, 1940, and two to five were seen daily, November 15-17, 1940. In Cameron Parish, the species has been noted as follows (Lowery, et al.): two on December 14, 1940; one on January 3, 1943; three on September 3 and two on November 4, 1944; one on April 29, 1945. Several specimens were collected.

#Plegadis falcinellus falcinellus# (Linnaeus), Eastern Glossy Ibis

#Plegadis mexicana# (Gmelin), White-faced Glossy Ibis

Considerable confusion exists concerning the specific identity of the glossy ibises inhabiting Louisiana. The fourth edition of the A. O. U. Check-list (1931: 33) stated that falcinellus "breeds rarely and locally in central Florida and probably in Louisiana." In 1932, Holt visited the marshes of Cameron Parish in southwestern Louisiana where he studied the ibises nesting in a large rookery. Later he definitely stated (Auk, 50, 1933: 351-352) that the birds seen by him were Eastern Glossy Ibises (Plegadis falcinellus). It was doubtless Holt's identification that influenced Oberholser to list falcinellus as a fairly common local resident in the state (op. cit., 78). This, however, is contrary to the evidence at my disposal. My associates and I have studied thousands of glossy ibises in the marshes of southwestern Louisiana in the past ten years. These observations include numerous field trips into the region where ibises are plentiful throughout the year, especially during the breeding season. I have also visited a large nesting rookery in Cameron Parish, the only one in the state known to me, and the one which I have every reason to believe is the same colony visited by Holt in 1932. Although Holt identified as falcinellus the birds seen by him at a nesting rookery in Cameron Parish, I have never seen that species anywhere in Louisiana except at Grand Isle, 150 miles east of Cameron, as henceforth noted.

In winter when the White-faced Glossy Ibis lacks the white on its face, some difficulty might be encountered in differentiating that species from the Eastern Glossy Ibis. The perplexing thing, however, is that Holt made his observations in the nesting season when no possible confusion should exist; also he was in the middle of a nesting rookery with birds close at hand on all sides. This fact notwithstanding, the ibis nesting in the Cameron Parish rookery (known locally as "The Burn") on May 28, 1942, was the white-faced species (Plegadis mexicana), as evidenced by moving pictures taken by J. Harvey Roberts and by specimens of varying ages collected at the same time by me. In all, the Louisiana State University Museum of Zooelogy has 19 specimens of mexicana taken in Cameron Parish in April, May, November, December, and January. Field records are available also for the months of February, March, July, and September.

Aside from Holt's statement, Oberholser had only five other records for falcinellus in Louisiana, one being a market specimen with incomplete data and therefore of questionable scientific value. The remaining four specimens were taken by E. R. Pike near the mouth of the Mississippi River on November 13 and 17, 1930, and are now on deposit in the Chicago Academy of Sciences. Recently I borrowed these specimens for reexamination with the following results. The three taken on November 17, 1930, are mexicana and not falcinellus as labeled and so reported by Oberholser. The single specimen taken on November 13 is, however, correctly identified as falcinellus. Alexander Wetmore kindly examined the material for me and confirmed my identifications. The occurrence of falcinellus in Louisiana thus hinged on Holt's statement and one preserved specimen. However, on July 23, 1944, in the marshes on Grand Isle, Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, I encountered a flock of 12 immature ibises that impressed me by their blackness in contrast to the color of glossy ibises with which I was familiar in Cameron Parish. Two specimens were collected and both proved to be falcinellus.