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News and Notes NEWS AND NOTES by Paul Hess • Natrona Heights, Pennsylvania • [email protected] Bird’s DNA Reveals bled Murrelet. Divergence was greater from birds in other al - a First State Record cid genera: 10.1 % from Cepphus (guillemots), 11.5% from If morphology is inconclusive, and if vocalizations and be - Fratercula (puffins), and 11.8% from Synthliboramphus (other havior are not known, how might a first state record be estab - murrelets). The specimen also grouped closely with Long- lished? By DNA, for New Mexico’s first Long-billed Murrelet. billed Murrelet in a phylogenetic analysis designed to indicate The small alcid was discovered dead in a brine pool at a relative evolutionary relationships. potash mine in southern Eddy County on 12 July 2009, An intriguing possibility arises from the slight divergence preserved by salt in the water. A year later, Christopher C. from sequences in Long-billed Murrelets collected at the Sea of Witt, Matthew S. Graus, and Hira A. Walker reported ge - Okhotsk in the Russian Far East. Witt and his colleagues sug - netic evidence that established the identification and un - gest that this difference, along with the specimen’s anomalous covered an intriguing biogeographical possibility ( Western plumage and measurements, may reflect undescribed geo - Birds 41:160–167). graphic variation within the species. The bird was tentatively identified as a Long-billed Murrelet, Genetic analysis has produced a variety of outcomes in eval - but morphological characters were not entirely consistent with uations of potential first records. Sometimes it confirms other either a Long-billed or any other alcid , including Marbled factors in establishing an identification. For example, vocal - Murrelet. Several aspects of the underwing coverts, breast, and izations as well as DNA recently documented Michigan’s first tail coloration were puzzling, and a combination of wing, tail, record of Tropical Kingbird <tinyurl.com/29t5nj4 >. Along bill, and tarsus measurements was not diagnostic. with bill color, DNA was important in separating California’s The specimen’s mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequence in only Nazca Booby ( Sula granti ) from Masked Booby—although the cytochrome- b gene was compared with sequences pub - the species was placed on the state’s supplemental list because lished for other alcids to assess its divergence from other taxa. the bird was a ship-assisted visitor riding a fishing boat into the Within the genus Brachyramphus , the New Mexico bird di - U.S. from Mexican waters <tinyurl.com/2fmhq7q >. verged 0.5 % from previously reported Long-billed Murrelet Sometimes, as with Maryland’s famous Kelp Gull sequences, 8.4% from Kittlitz’s Murrelet, and 9.8 % from Mar - <tinyurl.com/46ccpsh >, molecular analysis is unsuccessful for technical reasons, and acceptance is based on other char - acters. Sometimes DNA produces irony instead of identi - fication, as happened in Great Britain with the first two supposed Brown Skuas ( Stercorarius antarcticus ) ever recorded in the North Atlantic; see Birding , December 2004, p.574 <tinyurl.com/2g3o7xv>. The authors re - tracted the published results when supplementary DNA evidence failed to confirm the species; see Birding , No - vember/December 2007, p. 12. And sometimes molecular analysis creates a puzzle, as in the case of a Maryland wood-pewee in the National Museum of Natural History. The specimen collected in 1967 is labeled as a Western Wood-Pewee but cannot be distinguished from Eastern Wood-Pewee by measure - ments. The Maryland/District of Columbia Records Com - mittee asked researchers at the museum to attempt a ge - Asia’s Long-billed Murrelet is similar enough to Marbled Murrelet netic identification. Cytochrome- b analysis showed a that the two possibilities could not be distinguished by the morpho- logical features of a dead bird found in New Mexico. DNA analysis relatively close relationship with Western Wood-Pewee determined that it was a Long-billed—the state’s first record. Dawlish, specimens from California. Yet it also showed a sequence Devon, United Kingdom; November 2006. Photo by © Stuart Elsom–VIREO. divergence of 3 % from those specimens—a previously 24 BIRDING • MARCH 2011 unknown variation roughly equivalent to divergence between 2002 ( Auk 119:695–714) as a monophyletic group separate the two wood-pewee species. The records committee tells the from all other songbirds. Not included are Olive Warbler and complete story online <tinyurl.com/25ul7jv >. Yellow-breasted Chat, which a number of previous analyses have placed outside the parulid “core.” Wood-warbler Phylogeny The 107 species are reclassified into 14 genera, each genus Taxonomic revisions based on genetic data are com - representing a phylogenetic clade—an evolutionarily distinct forting when they affirm traditional beliefs and jarring when group whose members are more closely related to one anoth - they do not. A major revision within the wood-warbler fami - er than to any other birds. ly Parulidae published in 2010 triggers both responses. In a taxonomic order reflecting the new findings, the genera Irby J. Lovette at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and 11 col - are Seiurus , Helmitheros , Mniotilta , Limnothlypis , Protonotaria , leagues from the U.S., Central America, and South America Parkesia , Vermivora , Oreothlypis , Geothlypis , Setophaga , have produced the most comprehensive genetically based fam - Myioborus , Cardellina , Basileuterus , and Myiothlypis . The Oven - ily tree yet attempted for the New World warblers ( Molecular bird, now alone in the genus Seiurus , is separated as an “out - Phylogenetics and Evolution 57:753–770). Using a large suite of group ” anciently divergent from the lineage that led to all oth - mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences, the study reveals er wood-warblers . All of those genera except Myiothlypis are evolutionary relationships among 107 North American, Mid - represented in the ABA Checklist . dle American, Caribbean, and South American species. Conspicuously absent are our long-familiar genus names The authors regard these species as members of a “core Parula , Dendroica , Oporornis , and Wilsonia . These are sub - Parulidae” defined by Lovette and Eldridge Bermingham in sumed under other names assigned to the reorganized genera by rules of priority in scientific nomenclature. A particularly fascinating case involves Den - droica , currently the largest ABA area genus of parulids, whose list spans 21 species from Yel - low Warbler to Cerulean Warbler. In the new phylogeny , its clade includes Northern Parula, Tropical Parula, American Redstart—and, amaz - ingly, Hooded Warbler. All of those are united in Setophaga , which is named by priority for the American Redstart’s genus. Surprisingly, the Hooded Warbler is genetically nested well with - in this group, far divergent from its traditional companions in the genus Wilsonia , the Wilson’s Galveston County, Texas; April 2003. Photo by © Brian E. Small. Galveston In a recent phylogenetic study County, Texas; of the wood-warbler family, April 2010. Photo by one analytical method produced © Brian E. Small. the surprising result that the American Redstart (right) and Hooded Warbler (above ) are “sister species,” more closely related to each other than to any other species. WWW.ABA.ORG 25 NEWS AND NOTES Warbler and the Canada Warbler. Lovette and his colleagues emphasize that the new phy - What of Wilsonia ? The new system places Wilson’s and logeny is hypothetical and awaits further study, but they be - Canada together with Red-faced Warbler, Red Warbler ( Er - lieve their basic conclusions about ecological and evolutionary gaticus ruber ) of Mexico, and Pink-headed Warbler ( E. versi - variations within the core Parulidae are strongly supported by color ) of southern Mexico and Guatemala. These species— the data. Lovette plans to propose the revisions formally to some yellow, some red—are placed in Cardellina , named by AOU classification committees for North and Middle America priority for the Red-faced Warbler’s genus. and for South America. And whither Oporornis ? Its Kentucky, Connecticut, Mourn - A WebExtra to this “News and Notes” column contains ad - ing, and MacGillivray’s warblers are placed in a revised genus ditional commentary by Lovette in response to questions from Geothlypis together with Common Yellowthroat, Gray-crowned other ornithologists about his suggested nomenclature for the Yellowthroat, and seven other yellowthroat species in Mexico, genera. Also included is one of several phylogenetic trees pro - Middle America, and The Bahamas. In mind-boggling fashion, duced by the authors to illustrate their interpretations of the clade also includes Semper’s Warbler ( Leucopeza semperi ), wood-warblers’ evolutionary lineages and relationships. a probably extinct endemic on the island of St. Lucia in the Lesser Antilles. Entirely dull grayish and whitish, it is appar - Gulls and Garbage ently the sister species of Connecticut Warbler! For Glaucous Gulls, garbage dumps may mean more than an Those changes are the major surprises primarily involv - easy meal. A recent study on Alaska’s arctic coastal plain sug - ing ABA Area species. The new phylogeny retains all other gests that a diet high in proportion of garbage to natural food ABA Checklist parulids in their currently recognized genera, may also offer a breeding advantage. which include revisions adopted in 2010 in the 51st Sup - Emily L. Weiser and Abby N. Powell at the University of plement to the American Ornithologists’
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