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North America an Introduction 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 Panama–Colombia bor- der in the Darién Gap. ing up the team at North Ameri- North America is vast and rich with bird can Birds, it seems like a won- life. Including the continent’s associated islands (e.g., the Aleutians, the West Indies, Greenland, derful opportunity to introduce the Arctic 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 mainland 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 United States ery single species I’m watching attend my bird and Canada understand it, is flawed, and that feeder is endemic to North America: Mourning it has negative consequences both for the birds Dove, Northern Cardinal, Carolina Chickadee, 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 Hawk, Tree Swallow, and ern Hemisphere has but two continents: North ABA’s 2020 Bird of the Year, Cedar Waxwing. America and South America. 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 Wrenthrush (Zeledonia coronata) is neither a wren nor a thrush. After years of being placed in the New World warbler family, Parulidae, it is now placed in its own family. With a restricted range in the Chiriquí highlands of Costa Rica and far western Panama, Zeledoniidae is one of main- land North America’s four endemic bird families. Cerro de la Muerte, Costa Rica. 14 April 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 (Wilsonia pusilla) guage. With the exception of parts of eastern [TOP], Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) [MIDDLE], Canada, shrinking enclaves of rural Louisiana 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 Alaska, 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.ebird.org) and created on 15 April 2020. confirmation, a vehicle permit, and supple- mentary car insurance—not to mention the different language 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 Mexico and able obstacles to travel across the southern bor- Central America 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 Anglo-Americans 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. rose’s Ducks, Geese, and Swans of North America Yellow-breasted Chat (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 Western Hemisphere. 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 border. Its associated islands include the West Indies, Greenland, United States and the District of Columbia. the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, 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 Belize, Guatemala, mainland south of the United States—that is, Mexico El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, 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), Hawaii, Canada, St. Pierre and Miquelon, and adjacent waters… Hawaii is included. And “exclusionary The todies of the Greater Antilles 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 passerines 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, Cuba. 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 titles 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.
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