Murrelet
Present since 12 Nov. 1996, this bird was viewed by some 300 people through the 18th Nov. It fed on fish and appeared strong and healthy throughout its stay. - V.W.F.III {
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A Long-billed Murrelet
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| 300 dpi jpg / 150% scaling | 300 dpi gif / 150% scaling | Long-billed Murrelet Present since 12 Nov. 1996, this bird was viewed by some 300 people through the 18th Nov. It fed on fish and appeared strong and healthy throughout its stay. - V.W.F.III { |
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| 13th Nov. 1996 / Beaver Creek Reservoir, Seneca Co., OH | 400 ISO Fuji Sensia / Canon T90 Canon 500 mirror w/1.4x teleconverter / f 11 1/250 | ||
A preliminary description and appraisal of a few putative perdix / marmoratus characters as exhibited by the recent Ohio bird from my field notes. Although this review as yet does not benefit from my examination of Bruce DiLabio's "Ontario Birds" article or the 1995 "Western Birds" article, Jean Iron (Ont.) and Bruce Webb (Cal.) have provided substantial and meaningful excerpts which I reproduced below.
| A:Back color; charcoal - darker in direct in sunlight but not matching the jet black wings. Grades to sooty-gray on rump, even bluish in shadow/overcast conditions. Something similar may be seen in a comparison between what appear to be different exposures of the same individual of the nominate race photographed by W.E. Harper in Harrison (p. 168, 1987) and Stokes and Stokes (p. 215, 1996). Overall the Ohio bird always exhibited a contrasting browner hindneck and head which appeared dark chocolate in shadow/overcast to coffee in warm low angle sunlight. | |
| B: Nape patches; Sibley (1993) wrote "at a distance this pale area combined with the straight border between dark and light on the sides of the neck - creates a Pacific Loon-like Gavia pacifica appearance". I could not agree more. This is a prominent field mark (in direct sunlight) notable in bins (8X42) from 100 meters (cloudy conditions diminish effect). Check out the nice example photographed by T. Cardamone on Hallam L., Aspen, CO Sep. 1982 (p. 206 Kingery 1983). | |
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C: Eye-arcs; clearly evident in life, however, not the prominence of Sibley's (1993) Cornwall rendering. An apparent marmoratus in Farrand (1988) pg. 62, exhibits eye-arcs appx. equal to that of the Ohio bird. D: Structural bulge of the fore-skull; clearly seen in life within 30 meters with bins (8X42). Not rendered by Sibley (1993) in the Cornwall bird. Not evident in any marmoratus photo (5) or drawing (10) I have seen. This distinctive feature is noted in a drawing on p. 156. of Sealy et al. (1991) as a dichotomy between the two races. However, in the photos I have seen (2) of other perdix this feature is not in evidence. E: Gonydeal process; barely evident in the slide yet readily seen at close distances (or Questar® views at 40 meters) - even remarked upon by some novice observers ( I must confess I looked past it the 1st couple of days). Again this feature is prominently distinguished in Sealy et al. (1991) but not elsewhere to my knowledge. |
| F: Loral area; completely dark in keeping with Sibley's (1993) remarks "perdix being entirely dark above the gape". The Cornwall bird was intermediate in this character while the Humboldt Bay (Dec 1995, CA) perdix was "very limited" (Bailey and Singer 1996). However, that can also be said of the apparent marmoratus in Farrand (p.116 1983, and p. 62 1988). Indeed, this simply does not appear to be a perdix character; see Tim Zurowski's photo p. 308 for apparent nominate birds in winter plumage - a dark-lored and white-lored individual side-by-side. Also view the fledgling on p. 310. (all in Campbell et al. 1990). Furthermore, the 1982 immature perdix from CO. exhibits an obvious pale loral area (p. 206 Kingery 1983). An example on the Web of a dark-lored nominate. | |
| G: Limited color below eye; in keeping with the Cornwall bird, the Humboldt Bay bird, and the Aspen CO immature in contrast with the Farrand marmoratus and that in Stokes and Stokes (p. 215 1996) and both individuals in Campbell et al. (1990) where much of the cheek is dark. Further supported as a perdix character by Erickson et al. (1995) and DiLabio (1996). | |
| H: Immaculate white underparts/no spur of color off neck to breast; the latter character appears highly variable. A spur may be prominent in marmoratus (Stokes and Stokes 1996), barely evident (Farrand 1983), or absent (Farrand 1988). | |
| I: Well marked sides; contradicts comments on Cornwall bird (Sibley 1993) and Humboldt Bay bird (Bailey and Singer 1996) and those excerpted from Erickson et al. (1995) as a perdix character. | |
| J:Prominent white patches either side of the rump; visible from great distances. Present in either form. Curious that it is not depicted in the various field guides, Peterson (1990), Scott (1987), Harrison (1983), Robbins (1983), Sonobe and Robinson (1982), Tuck and Heinzel (1980) {One notable exception Godfrey 1986. Plate 40.} ; but then the apparent confusion over the features of perdix and marmoratus have led to artist renderings that are an amalgam of characters. More on that another time. | |
| K:Broad hindneck color. Next to the white scapulars and the white rump patches this is one of the more immediate impressions left by the sight of this bird; as such perhaps the best distance character for perdix. | |
Literature Cited
from Erickson et al.(1995)
In basic plumage the the two subspecies of the Marbled Murrelet, Brachyramphus m. perdix and B. m. marmoratus, differ as follows: perdix has an entirely dark hindneck, a narrow band of black below the eye, and limited black on the sides of the breast; marmoratus has an nearly complete white nuchal collar, more black below the eye, and extensive black on the sides of the breast. Other plumage characteristics are inconsistent or are average differences only.
from DiLabio (1996)
Sibley (1993) suggested some other distinctions between the two subspecies in basic plumage. He found a clear difference in loral pattern in the two specimens in the collection of the California Academy of Sciences - 'perdix being entirely dark above the gape, while marmoratus showed a broad pale stripe above the gape' (page 276), but found that the Cornwall bird approached the marmoratus specimen in this character and, therefore, he suggested further study of this feature. We examined several specimens in the Canadian Museum of Nature and found that the lores of basic-plumaged marmoratus varied from white to dark brown. Consequently, this trait is not consistently useful for subspecific identification. The black "spur" extending forward from the shoulder area is longer and thinner on the B.m.marmoratus in Sibley's sketch. However, this does not appear to be a consistent difference, as shown in Farrand (1983), for example. In summary, the pattern of dark brown and white on the face, neck and scapulars enabled the identification of the Cornwall bird as a basic-plumaged Marbled Murrelet. Finer details of neck pattern, and the presence of prominent white eye-arcs, and the thinner black line below the eye distinguish this bird as the Asian race- B.m. perdix.
There appear to be two clear perdix characters for identification from marmoratus.
Features of lores and color spurs off the shoulder appear . . . spurious.
I remain skeptical of the limited side markings and prominent eye-arcs as good field marks for perdix
Pale nape patches and the foreskull bulge warrant further study.
