Russell and Tweeters,
Agelaius xanthomus is the name for the endangered yellow-shouldered blackbird, endemic to Puerto Rico. Mark Oberle, who many of you know is doing a book/CD on Puerto Rican birds. A sample of this work can be found at this site

http://www.mindspring.com/~oberle/puertorico-birds.htm


Mark, who has been working at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta for the past couple of years, will be returning to live in Seattle in July. For his Puerto Rico project, he is looking for locations to videotape and record belted kingfishers. If anyone can pin down locations he would appreciate it. His e-mail address is oberle at mindspring.com Oh yeah, There is a great picture of yellow-shouldered blackbird at his site.


Greg

Greg Toffic
Curator of Birds
Woodland Park Zoo
5500 Phinney Avenue N.
Seattle, WA 98103
(206)684-4836 PH
(206)233-7278 FAX
greg.toffic at zoo.org

"Metaphors be with you"

>>> Russell Rogers <rrogers at halcyon.com> 05/14 11:41 AM >>>
Hello Jim, Martin, and the rest of tweeterdom,

The 1998 AOU checklist still uses the old standard, _Xanthocephalus
xanthocephalus_ (Bonaparte). Bonaparte originally described it as
_Agelaius icterocephalus_. Martin, if you could, where did the name
_Agelaius xanthomus_ come from?

Russell Rogers
Olympia WA

On Mon, 10 May 1999, Jim Rosso wrote:

> So when did they change the scientific name of the Yellow headed Blackbird?
> I have always known it as Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus. It wears a body
> down to keep up on all of this. Especially when they change one of the few
> scientific names that I know. Knew. I used to explain to my students that
> the Yellow-headed blackbird, which is wonderful to listen to, would say its
> scientific name. I always brought this up when we were down at Salton Sea
> in a marsh with these wonderful creatures all making crazy noise.
>
> Jim Rosso
>
> At 10:03 AM 5/10/99 -0700, Martin J. Muller wrote:
> >Greetings, again,
> >
> >While walking around Green Lake around 9:30 (Monday May 10), I heard the
> >unmistakable "song" of a Yellow-headed Blackbird (Agelaius xanthomus) coming
> >from a birch tree. Sure enough, there was a male in full Alternate plumage,
> >sitting 3 m. (10') up in the tree, preening and occasionally announcing his
> >presence.
> >
>
> Jim Rosso
> Issaquah, Washington
> 425-392-8440
> jrosso at mediaseek.com
>