First Record of Chuck-Will's-Widow in California

NOTES

FIRST RECORD OF CHUCK-WILL'S-WIDOW IN CALIFORNIA

STEPHEN F. BAILEY, Department of Ornithology and Mammalogy, California Academy of Sciences,Golden Gate Park, San Francisco,California 94118

On the eveningof 16 October 1986 Mr. William Levett of 460 FairwayDrive, Half Moon Bay, San Mateo County, California,found a strangebird hoppingand fluttering in the road on his block. He took it to the wildliferehabilitation department of the PeninsulaHumane Societyin San Mateo on 17 October.There Sandi Stadlerten- tativelyidentified it as a Chuck-wilrs-widow(Caprimulgus carolinensis). That after- noon, I confirmedthe identificationand photographedthe live bird in the hand, using directsunlight and Ektachrome400 film (Figures1 and 2). This bird had a superficialbut seeminglynot seriouswound on its wing. Its health seemedto improvebut its weightdropped from 83 to 78 g, despiteforce feeding and other care. Late on 19 Octoberit looked "listless,"and it was found dead in the cage on the morning of 20 October. I obtainedthe frozen carcasson 21 October. Lise Thomsen prepared the specimen (CAS83955, California Academy of Sciences)as a studyskin plus body skeleton on 30 October.A female,the bird'sovary was 6 x 4 ram, granular, and yellowishivory. The stomachwas full of mealworms from the force feeding. The kidneysand intestineswere gray, and Lise considered their appearance to be abnormal. The bird's weights during captivity were 30.6-34.8% below the 119.6-g "normal" mean of 12 breeding-seasonbirds, and even below the 86.7-g weightof an "emaciated"bird (Rohwer and Butler 1977). The large size, dark ochraceousplumage colors, and lack of white in the wingsand tail combineto eliminateall other speciesof Caprimulgus,worldwide (Hartert 1892, Ridgway1914, Fry et al. 1988). Alsovery distinctiveare the Chuck-will's-widow'sric- tal bristles,which have lateral filamentson their basal portions (Figure 1). The neotropicalRufous Nightjar (Caprimulgus rufus) is the mostsimilar species, but it lacks these lateral filamentsand is smaller (wing 176-194 ram, Ridgway 1914). The Californiaspecimen's wing chord of 203 mm is at the small end of the range for this species(201-225 ram, Ridgway1914, Oberholser1974), but neverthelessit is long enough to eliminate all other American speciesof the genus. Among Eurasian caprimulgidsthe speciesmost likely to reach California is the Jungle Nightjar (Caprimulgusindicus), which has beenrecorded on the Aleutians(Day et al. 1979). The Jungle Nightjar is about the same length as Chuck-wilrs-widowbut has a smaller head, longer body, and shortertail. Figure 2 showsthe Chuck-wilrs-widowto have been about 28 cm long in life, with at least 50% of this lengthbeing tail and about 30% being"head," as measuredto the end of the nape feathers.In the JungleNight- jar, the male has a white bar acrossthe primariesbut the female has a subduedbuffy bar, obviousonly in the hand. No suchbar ispresent on the Half Moon Bay specimen, which instead matches the female Chuck-will's-widows in the CAS collection. The Jungle Nightjar is also grayer and lacks lateral filamentson its rictal bristles.The CaliforniaBird RecordsCommittee (CBRC) unanimouslyaccepted this record on its first circulation. Thisspecies' breeding range extends west to centralKansas, Oklahoma, and Texas (Johnsgard1979, Oberholser1974). Sutton(1967) listeda 2 September1963 record from extreme western Oklahoma. The American Ornithologists'Union Check-list (1983) includesno recordfarther west. A specimenpicked up under a telephoneline crossingthe DesertWildlife Range, Clark Co., Nevada, 12 June 1984 (Kingery1984) providedthe firstrecord for westernNorth America (DeSante and Pyle 1986). The birdreported here represents the firstrecord of Chuck-will's-widowfor California,the secondfor westernNorth America, and the westernmostfor this species. Western Birds 20: 93-95, 1989 93 NOTES

Figure1. Head of Chuck-will's-widowpicked up at Half Moon Bay, San MateoCo., California Note lateral filaments on rictal bristles Photo by Stephen F. Bailey

Figure2 Chuck-will's-widowpicked up at Half MoonBay, SanMateo Co., California. Photo by Stephen F. Bailey

94 NOTES

It is my pleasureto thankSandi Stadler and the PeninsulaHumane Society for pro- vidinga first Californiarecord specimen for the secondtime! (The first was Least Auklet.) An anonymousreviewer and the membersof the CBRC improvedthe manuscript.

LITERATURE CITED

AmericanOrnithologists' Union. 1983. Check-listof North AmericanBirds, 6th ed. Am. Omithol. Union, [Washington,D.C.]. Day, R. H., Knudtson,E. P., Woolington,D. W., and Schulmeister,R. P. 1979. Caprimulgus indicus, Eurynorhynchuspygmeus, Otus scops, and Limicola falcinellusin the AleutianIslands, Alaska. Auk 96:189-190. DeSante, D., and Pyle, P. 1986. DistributionalChecklist of North AmericanBirds, Vol. I: United Statesand Canada. ArtemisiaPress, Lee Vininõ, CA. Fry, C. H., Keith, S., and Urban, E. K., eds. 1988. The Birdsof Africa, Vol. III. Academic Press, London. Hartert, E. 1892. Catalogueof the Birdsin the BritishMuseum, Volume XVI. British Museum (NaturalHistory), London. Johnsõard,P. A. 1979. Birds of the Great Plains: Breeding Speciesand Their Distribution. Univ. of Nebraska Press, Lincoln. Kingery, H. E. 1984. The nesting season. Mountain West Region. Am. Birds 38:1044-1047. Oberholser, H. C. 1974. The Bird Life of Texas. Univ. of Texas Press, Austin. Ridgway,R. 1914. Birdsof North and Middle America,Part VI. Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus. 50. Rohwer, S., and Butler, J. 1977. Ground foraging and rapid molt in the Chuck-will's-widow. Wilson Bull. 89:165-166. Sutton, G. M. 1967. Oklahoma Birds. Univ. of Oklahoma Press, Norman.

Accepted9 April 1989