Part 70

Certain rocky points are selected by the birds, and to these are often brought the barnacles which they pry off the rocks. These are worked over at leisure, and at one such depot on the Coronados, which I examined there was fully a bushel of shells.

Behavior.--The flight of the black oyster catcher is strong and direct, but it seemed to me to be rather slow and heavy. Lucien M. Turner (1886) says:

The flight consists of a few rapid strokes of the wing, followed by a sail for a few yards. It is sluggish when on the wing, and flies with difficulty, and rarely long continued. When alarmed it flies over the water within a few yards of the shore, and in going from one point of rocks to another it either makes the trip in easy stages from one large rock to another, or else follows the indentations of the shore line. The bird is always on the alert, and not at all shy. It generally sees the hunter long before he suspects the presence of the bird. The bird either squats in a depression of the rocks, or stealthily creeps to the top of some huge bowlder, where it utters a piercing, whistling chatter like that of a policeman’s rattle. It causes the intruder long search to discover the presence of the bird, for its color is so near that of the rocks it frequents that it is not easily detected. The note is then answered by another bird, so that in a few minutes a dozen may be chattering hideously, making the hunter wonder where all the birds came from so suddenly, as all the birds within hearing assemble on the first note of alarm.

Carl Lien says in his notes:

If occasion requires these birds are good swimmers and, if pursued when crippled, will dive deep and long. A very alert bird and always first to give alarm.

Voice.--My notes refer to the cries of this bird as loud, penetrating screams, sounding like whee-up, or whee-ep.

Doctor Dall (1873) says:

They utter, when disturbed, a peculiar, low whistle; which once heard, is likely to be remembered; and they have a habit of standing on the beach or rocks a little way apart, and whistling to one another; one calling and the other answering; and keeping it up for half an hour at a time. It is one of the most peculiar birds of the region, in its motions, having a grave, solemn and stilted gait, and bobbing its head up and down with every step.

Winter.--As the black oyster catcher is practically resident all the year round throughout most, if not all, of its range, there is not much to be said about its migrations, though there is probably some shifting of individuals. Doctor Dall (1873) refers to it as a summer visitor in the Aleutian Islands, but Mr. Turner (1886) records it as a permanent resident there.

DISTRIBUTION

Range.--Pacific coast of North America and Lower California.

Breeding range.--The breeding range of the black oyster catcher extends north to Alaska (Atka Island, Range Island, St. Paul Harbor, Montague Island, Hinchinbrook Island, Sitka, St. Lazaria Island, probably Kuiu Island, Coronation Island, Prince of Wales Island, Forrester Island, and Duke Island); south along the coast of British Columbia (Porcher Island, Skidegate, Vancouver Island, and New Westminster); Washington (Bellingham Bay, Waldron Island, Flattery Rocks, Quillayute Needles, Destruction Island, and Copalis Rock); Oregon (Three Arch Rock, Newport, and Bandon); California (probably Prince Island, Eureka, probably the Farallon Islands, Point Pinos, San Miguel Island, Santa Cruz Island, Anacapa Island, San Clemente Island, and San Diego); and Lower California (Todos Santos, San Benito Island, Cedros Island, Natividad Island, Abreojos Point, and Los Coronados Islands).

Winter range.--In winter, the black oyster catcher is found throughout its breeding range except (normally) in Alaska and (probably) northern British Columbia. It has, however, been recorded on one occasion at this season, in Alaska, St. George Island, January 12, 1917 (Hanna).

Migration.--An early date of arrival in Alaska is Unalaska Island, April 29, while a late date of departure is St. Lazaria Island, September 30.

Egg dates.--Alaska: 14 records, June 5 to 26; 7 records, June 13 to 23. British Columbia: 13 records, May 27 to June 20; 7 records, June 6 to 12. California: 7 records, May 25 to June 10.

Family JACANIDAE Jacanas

JACANA SPINOSA GYMNOSTOMA (Wagler)

MEXICAN JACANA

HABITS

The American jacanas are now split into three species and three additional subspecies, six forms in all. They are widely distributed throughout the American Tropics. All are closely related and all are much alike in habits. The above form barely comes within the range of our check list, as a rare straggler from Mexico into the valley of the lower Rio Grande near Brownsville, Tex.

I have never seen this curious bird in life, but can imagine that it must be a beautiful sight to see it tripping lightly over the floating lily pads, supported on its long toes, where it seems to be actually walking on the water; and it must produce quite a surprising thrill as it spreads its wings to fly, displaying the conspicuous yellow-green patches in its wings, which flash in the sunlight like banners of golden yellow. It seems like a strange connecting link between the spur-winged plovers and the rails or gallinules.

It is a sedentary species of decidedly local distribution and seldom strays far from its favorite breeding haunts. Thomas S. Gillin, who has sent me some very good notes on this bird, describes its habitat as follows:

I learned of a lake a few miles from Tampico and on my first visit to this lake on April 3, 1923, I found over a dozen birds feeding and chasing one another over the floating vegetation. As the first sets of eggs were found on April 25 I apparently found them right in the midst of the mating season. The lake where I found them was about a half mile long and from 100 to 250 yards wide, curved and irregular in outline. Nowhere in the lake was the water over 4 feet deep except where the alligators had their holes; in some of these spots there was always danger of getting in over one’s head. Scattered through the lake were a few stunted trees similar in appearance to our sour gum, Nyssa sylvatica, and in the decayed stump of one of these trees I found a nest of the black-bellied tree duck. About one-third of the surface of the lake was open water and the remaining two-thirds was covered with a floating plant, each individual plant measuring about 12 inches across and resembling lettuce that has not headed up, though the leaves were coarser, more like cabbage leaves. As this did not have its roots extending into the mud the entire mass of vegetation at times changed its position as the direction of the winds might change and cause the entire body of vegetation, and again only part of it, to drift to the opposite side of the lake. The jacanas were, to all appearances, in no way inconvenienced by these free rides, though there was always the danger that the eggs might be lost by the move. During my many visits to this lake from early April until the middle of August I always found the jacanas playing or feeding over the surface of the vegetation. At times the green herons, little blue herons, and an occasional gallinule, least bittern, or redwing would be seen feeding on the surface of the lake.

Courtship.--He refers to the courtship, which must be a very pretty performance, as follows:

During courtship the birds raise their wings over their backs very much as the Bartramian sandpipers do and flirt their wings at each other as if they were attempting to strike one another with the sharp spurs with which their wings are armed.

Nesting.--In the above locality, Mr. Gillin found 38 nests of this jacana between April 25 and August 15, 1923, of which he says:

I sometimes surprised the birds on their nests, but as a usual thing they would leave the nest at the first alarm. The number of eggs was invariably four, though in one case I collected a set of three. The nests consisted of a few bits of green leaves of cat-tails and small pieces of the green leaves of the plants on which they nested, in all nests containing fresh eggs, though in cases where the eggs were incubated the nest material had sometimes turned brown. There was merely enough material to prevent the eggs from rolling apart or falling through into the water, though in most cases the bottom side of the eggs was laying in the water. One day while watching the lake from a blind I saw a jacana go to its eggs and stand over them apparently shading them from the hot sun; this position was maintained for five or six minutes; no attempt was made to warm the eggs by sitting on them; at the end of this shading of the eggs the birds went back to feeding near by.

The late Frank B. Armstrong distributed a large number of eggs of the jacana, taken by his collectors across the Rio Grande in Mexico, mostly near Tampico or somewhere in the State of Tamaulipas. His data describe the nests as made of floating weeds or trash on or under the leaves of lilies or other floating plants, in fresh water ponds.