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Some Supplementary Records of Birds in Baja California, Mexico

Authors
Richard C. Banks
Journal
Condor
Volume
69
Issue
3 (May-June)
Year
1967
Pages
318
Section
Short Communications
Online Text

Some Supplementary Records of Birds in Baja California, Mexico.-The records reported herein are derived from recent field work supported by National Science Foundation grant GB-2317, and from systematic examination of specimens in the San Diego Natural History Museum.

Dendrocygna bicolor helva. Fulvous Tree Duck. Grinnell (Univ. Calif. Publ. Zoijl., 32:79, 1928) recorded only three occurrences of this duck, all from the northern part of the territory, between 1885 and 1922; localities mentioned are in the delta of the Colorado River, 25 miles east of Ensenada, and Colnett. The latter locality is noted more specifically by Willett (Condor, 15:19, 1913) as “Colnett Bay, one hundred and thirty miles south of San Diego,” probably the embayment just south of Cape Colnett into which the San Telmo River flows. A male taken 12 December 1958, by W. B. McGee, at the mouth of the San Telmo River, apparently constitutes the fourth record of this species from Baja California, and the only one in the past 45 years.

Erolia melanotos. Pectoral Sandpiper. A female of this species was taken by the author on South San Lorenzo Island, in the Gulf of California, on 22 October 1964. It was moderately fat and weighed 49.7 g. This appears to be the second record for Baja California, the other being of “considerable numbers” at San JosC de1 Cabo in September and October 1887 (Grinnell, op. cit., p. 91).

Micrathene whitneyi sanfordi. Elf Owl. A male collected by L. M. Huey on 6 April 1947, at Ranch0 Uni6n, approximately 15 miles east of Calmalli, provides the first record of this subspecies in Baja California north of the Cape region. Grinnell (op. cit., p. 118) noted that there were no known occurrences of the Elf Owl north of about latitude 23” 40’; Ranch0 Uni6n is approximately at latitude 28” lo’, some 330 miles to the north.-RICHARD C. BANKS, Natural History Museum, San Diego, California. (Present address: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. National Museum, Washington, D.C.) 13 June 1966. 

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