Date: 11/22/24 9:26 pm From: Philip Unitt via groups.io <unitt...> Subject: [SanDiegoRegionBirding] American Woodcock and Yellow-green Vireo
Dear friends,
The American Woodcock found injured in Coronado on 16 November did not survive. It was transferred from Project Wildlife to Sea World, from which I picked the specimen up this morning. This afternoon I prepared it as a study skin and partial skeleton (SDNHM 58026). It underwent a necropsy at Sea World, but I haven't got the necropsy report yet. Nevertheless, I think it's obvious what happened. The bird was missing a patch of feathers on the throat, the telltale sign of a collision with a wire or window. Plus the furcula (wishbone) was broken near the symphysis. So we can imagine that after the collision the bird crashed on the ground, breast first.
In hand, the woodcock's inherent peculiarities were obvious. The three outermost primaries were very narrow, an adaptation for producing the sound accompanying the display flight. No surprise, the skull was shaped bizarrely. But the specimen was a very difficult preparation because the skin, especially over the rump, was very thin and fragile, almost like wet toilet paper. I think it was even more delicate than in the Mourning Dove, which I have long considered the most difficult of California's birds to skin. During the necropsy some of the feathers of the lower belly got stained with blood, and under normal conditions I would have wanted to wash the skin to clean that up. But with the skin so fragile I was afraid the specimen might fall apart in washing, so I decided to forgo that process and live with a little blood stain on the belly.
Another notable specimen I should report is a Yellow-green Vireo, which I received from Project Wildlife yesterday. It hit a window of a house in Carlsbad adjacent to the south side of Buena Vista Lagoon on 30 October 2024. Yesterday afternoon I prepared it as SDNHM 58024. The iris was dark and the ovary was filmy, implying the bird was immature, even though the skull was completely pneumatized.
Thanks very much to Maria Gonzalez of Project Wildlife and Jeni Smith of Sea World for their alerting me to the woodcock, and thanks very much to Linda King for so kindly helping as the museum's liaison with Project Wildlife. Without this cooperation we could not maintain this physical record of our natural environment that the San Diego Natural History Museum's collections have represented through 150 years.
Good birding,
Philip UnittSan Diego
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