Does anyone know what factors determine the
distribution of chickadees, robins, catbirds,
mockingbirds, and cardinals? I lived near Washington
DC and now live on the Oregon Coast near Nehalem, OR.
One of the things that feels strange are the missing
catbirds, mockingbirds, and cardinals? On the other
hand I was delighted to find two species of chickadee,
many more species of hummingbirds, lots of robins, and
all the new west coast birds.

I wondered if type of availablility of particular
foods, holly berries, particular types of shrubs etc
made much difference.

Hope Stanton
Nehalem OR

--- Mike Patterson <celata at pacifier.com> wrote:

> RE: What happens to 'lost' birds?
>
> My father used to say, when we were in the middle of
> nowhere.
> "We're not lost, we're just a bit confused". Lost
> is a matter of
> definition.
>
> Those hoping for definitive data based on banding
> studies are
> likely to be disappointed. The probability of
> recapturing any
> migrant in a different spot is astonishingly low.
> I've been
> banding for 20 years or so and have never caught
> anybody else's
> birds and have only had two of mine recovered (both
> dead). I
> recapture birds I've banded routinely. however,
> rates for Song
> Sparrows and chickadees run at about 12% and rates
> for Swainson's
> Thrushes run about 8%.
>
> It's hard to say whether out of place birds get back
> to their
> point of origin. Survival rates among most bird
> species run at
> about 80% mortality in the first year. A vagrant
> bird is most
> probably part of a much larger statistical group of
> individuals
> lost from the gene pool. Even if a bird survives in
> an out of
> range spot, if it fails to find a mate, it remains
> permanently
> lost in the genetic sense. There are plenty of
> vagrancy success
> stories, though, from Cattle Egrets to Darwin's
> Finches.
>
> There are probably one or two specific data points
> out there that
> tell the story of a vagrant or two banded and
> recovered. RUFOUS,
> ALLEN'S and CALLIOPE HUMMINGBIRDS have been
> recaptured in multiple
> years in Louisiana and Alabama. These records
> definitely speak to
> winter site fidelity, but it's hard to say whether
> they represent
> geniune vagrant success stories or something else
> since there is
> data from the other end of their migrant cycle.
>
> I can only offer anecdotal testimony on other
> species. A NORTHERN
> MOCKINGBIRD seems to have returned to the same holly
> bush three
> winters running in Hammond. It was unbanded so it
> might have been
> three different mockingbirds finding the same holly
> tree in three
> consecutive years....
>
> The same neighborhood in Seaside always seems to get
> 2 or 3
> TROPICAL KINGBIRDS every year, usually an adult and
> a couple
> hatch-years. Again, no bands, just circumstance.
>
> In 2003, a 1st-winter male BULLOCK'S ORIOLE spent
> the winter at a
> suet feeder a couple blocks from my house. Last
> winter a 2nd-
> winter male BULLOCK'S ORIOLE spent the winter at the
> same feeder.
>
> --
> Mike Patterson
> Astoria, OR
> celata at pacifier.com
>
> And now for something completely different...
> Salamanders
>
http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/archives/002899.html
> _______________________________________________
> Tweeters mailing list
> Tweeters at u.washington.edu
>
http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters
>




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