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Home , New World warbler, North America

An Introduction

MICHAEL L. P. RETTER • Fort Worth, Texas • [email protected]

ince this is my first issue head- the other ends: at the – bor- der in the Darién Gap. ing up the team at North Ameri- North America is vast and rich with can , it seems like a won- life. Including the ’s associated (e.g., the Aleutians, the , , derful opportunity to introduce the Archipelago, etc.), about 2,000 spe- cies have been recorded in North America, and Sour readers to North America. And while of those, over 900 are endemic: They can reli- that may seem an odd thing to do for the ably be found nowhere else on the planet. Fur- thermore, some of these species belong to the generally thoughtful and knowledgeable four bird families that are endemic to readership of this journal, I still found it North America or the seven more that are en- demic to the West Indies. I don’t think most of necessary. Just what am I going on about? us appreciate how many of our “everyday birds” are unique to this continent. As I sit and type In short, I believe that the concept of “North this afternoon, I’m only now realizing that ev- America”, as many birders in the ery single species I’m watching attend my bird and understand it, is flawed, and that feeder is endemic to North America: Mourning it has negative consequences both for the birds Dove, , , and the people who live in North America. I Downy Woodpecker, Carolina Wren, White- can hear some of you already: “This is a pedan- winged Dove, Blue Jay, Bewick’s Wren… In tic and unimportant distraction!” Stay with me fact, discounting the high Arctic, some species’ just a moment, and I think you’ll see that it isn’t. ranges almost perfectly delineate the boundar- As most of us from Canada and the United ies of North America. These include Northern States learned in elementary school, the West- Harrier, Red-tailed , , and ern Hemisphere has but two : North ABA’s 2020 Bird of the Year, Cedar Waxwing. America and . One begins where Yet for some reason there is a tradition—at

6 AN INTRODUCTION TO NORTH AMERICA

The tiny, poorly named, and ear-splittingly-loud (Zeledonia coronata) is neither a wren nor a thrush. After years of being placed in the New family, Parulidae, it is now placed in its own family. With a restricted range in the Chiriquí highlands of and far western Panama, Zeledoniidae is one of main- land North America’s four endemic bird families. Cerro de la Muerte, Costa Rica. 14 2017. Photo © Jorge Eduardo Chinchilla Arroyo

VOLUME 71 • NUMBER 1 (2020) 7 AN INTRODUCTION TO NORTH AMERICA

8 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS AN INTRODUCTION TO NORTH AMERICA

The ranges of Wilson’s Warbler ( pusilla) guage. With the exception of parts of eastern [top], Red-tailed Hawk ( jamaicensis) [middle], Canada, shrinking enclaves of rural and Maine, and pockets of the southwestern and Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura) [bottom] United States, one can travel across this im- are broadly overlapping with the North America mense, contiguous landmass while not leaving continent. Even without the locations of the photos a broadly uniform cultural and linguistic area. listed here, you can be quite comfortable knowing So you could easily and with little planning drive a car from , through Canada, to that they were taken in North America. Wilson’s Texas. But that’s where things changed—rather Warbler photo © John Sutton. Red-tailed Hawk abruptly—at the Rio Grande. photo © Tim Lenz. Mourning Dove photo © Suddenly, the driver was confronted with Laura Pontiggia. Map images provided by eBird the need for a passport, tourist visa payment (www..org) and created on 15 April 2020. confirmation, a vehicle permit, and supple- mentary car insurance—not to mention the different and culture. Even for Span- ish-speakers, “ease and comfort of travel” was least a century old—of birders and others in over. These are very practical and understand- the natural history field excluding and able obstacles to travel across the southern bor- from the definition of North der of the United States, but I fear there are America. Why? other, perhaps less flattering, concepts at work. The most obvious answer has its roots in While this is certainly not the case with all shared culture and ease of travel. Indeed, the traveling birders, xenophobia is a real issue. American Birding Association and its “ABA Area” Many - will never leave the con- were created with this concept in mind (see Ret- fines of Canada and the United States because ter 2009), and for many birders North America they are afraid to venture outside their com- is synonymous with the ABA Area. For almost fort zone. The exact reasons why undoubtedly 50 years (1969–2016) the ABA bylaws stated: vary, but some I suspect are far from charitable,

…“North America” shall be defined as the continental United States (including the Dis- trict of Columbia), Canada, St. Pierre and In addition to Zeledoniidae, the families Miquelon, and adjacent waters… Peucedramidae, Ptiliogonatidae, and Icteriidae (not to be confused with Icteridae!) are also Now let me step back a moment and say that in no way am I blaming the nascent ABA for endemic to the North American mainland. creating this exclusionary definition of North Long-tailed Silky-flycatcher (Ptiliogonys America. The idea existed in the naturalist caudatus) [top] San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica. community long before the ABA came along. 16 April 2018. Photo © Mick Thompson. Olive Take, for instance, Arthur Cleveland Bent’s im- pressive Life Histories of North American Birds Warbler (Peucedramus taeniatus) [middle] Gila, series (first published in 1919); Frank Bell- Arizona. 27 April 2019. Photo © Steve Valasek. ’s Ducks, Geese, and of North America Yellow-breasted (Icteria virens) [bottom] (1942); and the venerable Golden Guide, Birds Uvalde, Texas. 6 June 2019. Photo © Mick Thompson. of North America by Chandler S. Robbins and Bertel Brunn (1966). At the same time, I do believe that the codification of “exclusionary North America” into the ABA bylaws has had real and profound effects on establishing this idea in the minds of Anglophone birders. For decades, birders have played the list- ing game, and for many of us living in Canada and the United States, we’ve concentrated our travels here. Why? That ease (and comfort) of travel. U.S. dollars are widely accepted in Canada, and your car insurance is valid in both countries. Furthermore, travel between the two countries was until recently passport- optional. The United States and Canada have strong bonds of culture and (the English) lan-

VOLUME 71 • NUMBER 1 (2020) 9 AN INTRODUCTION TO NORTH AMERICA

Geographic definitions of North America and some of its subdivisions Images derived from work by © Ssolbergj.

North America is the northern continent in the . The ABA Area comprises Canada, the tiny French It meets South America in the Darién Gap, at the Panama–Colombia islands of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, and the 50 . Its associated islands include the West Indies, Greenland, United States and the District of Columbia. the Canadian , and the Aleutians.

Central America comprises the nations on the North American Middle America comprises all of the North American mainland between Mexico and Colombia. These are , , mainland south of the United States—that is, Mexico , , , Costa Rica, and Panama. plus Central America.

10 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS AN INTRODUCTION TO NORTH AMERICA

It has already been instituted by this magazine and by the membership of the ABA. This jour- nal, North American Birds, led the way by long ago including Middle America and the Carib- bean in its regional reports. More recently, in 2016, the ABA membership voted overwhelm- ingly to update the organization’s bylaws, which no longer include the outdated and exclusionary language quoted above. Instead, they now state:

…the “ABA Area” shall be defined as the continental United States (including the District of Columbia), , Canada, St. Pierre and Miquelon, and adjacent waters…

Hawaii is included. And “exclusionary The todies of the Greater represent one of it to South America in winter, and far fewer North America” is gone. the seven bird families endemic to the West Indies. make it any further south than Colombia: Most It is my sincere hope that publishers and of these migrant never leave North authors will fully weigh these issues as they And of the 11 families endemic to North America, America. Take Wilson’s Warbler, for instance. prepare to publish the forthcoming editions of Todidae is the only one made up of nonpasserines. Except for a handful of vagrant records in Co- their field guides. And I’m very heartened to Cuban Tody (Todus multicolor). Pinar del Río, . lombia and Ecuador, it is a wholly North Amer- see that some have. For instance, the upcoming 5 February 2013. Photo © Michael L. P. Retter. ican species. Kaufman and the just-released Peterson field Next, there is the human angle. What of the guides include Hawaii. By changing the 173 million people who live in Middle Amer- of field guides to “The Birds of Canada and ica? As the recent Netflix documentaryBirders United States” we can neatly solve a host of is- and I will leave them for you to ponder. The and the successes of conservation efforts such sues and maintain a that easily rolls off the other problem with “exclusionary North as those of the Sonoran Joint Venture show, tongue. Yes, this would mean authors will need America” is its inherent ethnocentrism. A resi- we (U.S. and Canadian birders) achieve more to include coverage of Hawaii in their guides, dent of Guadalajara has just as much claim working in concert with our Middle Ameri- but surely the conservation benefits to Hawai- to being from North America as someone liv- can cousins. Now more than ever, I believe we ian birds and their would be worth ing in Winnepeg. Why do those of us from should be welcoming our southern partners the effort. At the same time, we’d no longer be the United States and Canada get to lay claim into the North America birding community. Let telling the 173 million inhabitants of Middle this moniker? Why do we get to exclude the us build bridges and open doors—not build America that they aren’t North Americans, too. Spanish-speaking Latinos living south of the walls. “But that’s impractical,” you say, “You It’s pretty close to a win-win-win. Rio Grande? What beneficial purpose does this can’t fit all of those birds in one book!” That’s a serve? And most importantly, what justification very good point, and I agree. Which leads me Acknowledgments could there possibly be in continuing to do so? to my next point. I think there is a very simple I thank Kenn Kaufman, Ted Floyd, Kevin Karl- Well, here’s another possible justification: and elegant solution to that issue, and it nicely son, David Sibley, and many others for sharing Field guide authors have understandably tai- solves two other problems at the same time. their thoughts on this topic over the years. And lored their books to cover the same area, which The first is the exclusion of Hawaii. With I again thank Ted Floyd and Kenn Kaufman they have also simply called “North America” very few exceptions, field guides meant to be for kindly looking over this manuscript before (e.g., Kaufman, National Geographic, Peterson, used in United States have not covered Ha- publication. Stokes, and many more). After all, their audi- waii. This has led to Hawaiian birders feeling ence is mainly English-speaking. There can like they don’t belong to our community, but References be little doubt that a book about “the birds of more on that later. To put it bluntly, we bird- Retter, Michael L. P. July 2009. “Listing and Twitching, North America” is a much easier sell to pub- ers as a whole have dropped the ball, both on Carbon Footprints and Eco-Tourism, and the Concept lishers than a book about “the birds of the sounding the alarm with regard to and funding of the ABA Area”. Birding 41,1: 64–73. forty-nine continental United States and Can- the protection of native Hawaiian species. As a ada”—not to mention easier to market to the result, dozens of species have gone extinct. Still While in this commentary I mentioned the public. While I understand the considerations more are hanging by a thread. But it’s very hard homogeneity across much of that have led to the promulgation of this exclu- to have concern about something you don’t Canada and the United States, I feel I should also sionary definition of North America, I believe know exists. I contend that the exclusion of mention the existence of ABA Area field guides that besides ignoring large settled geographic these species from most field guides is partly to in other . Among these are Kaufman’s definitions, it is hurting both us and the birds. blame for decades of disinterest and nescience. Guía de Campo a las Aves de Norteamérica, Le As a wise person once said, “Birds have The second issue is the clunkiness of “Field Guide Sibley des Oiseaux, and National Geo- wings.” Among the Nearctic–Neotropical mi- Guide to the Birds of the Forty-nine Continen- graphic’s Guide d’Identification des Oiseaux de grant passerines, only a small number make tal United States and Canada”. The solution? l’Amerique du Nord.

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