after speaking with luke ormond and doing a bit more reasearch (i called the gulf coast,texas, bird observatory) i found that, as far ast they know, there has been no unusual or elevated reports of kiskadee outside of the species' normal range in texas. i also found that luke reports witnessing the species 'begging' for food from humans in urban conditions in central amercia. also, i read (take it for what it's worth) wikipedia reports that the species is not known as a cagebird favorite as it requires 'live food'. this being said, that comment was posted next to a photo of the species perched eating food out of a dog food bowl ! i also checked with some of my colleagues re this species begging for food and they could not recall such behavior.
personal comments to me from experts in the past, have said that they seriously doubt that perching or land birds, may be transported by hurricanes. and it seems a hard sell to think that a kiskadee would 'sucked up' into the vortex of in hurricane irene, and get deposited into NYS. however i clearly recall finding a protho with andy's guthrie and baldelli after a hurricane in the hamptons a number of years back. makes one wonder. in the case of a great kiskadee in NYS, i tend to look to other weather or atmospheric occurrances for the cause, if it was not "The Love Boat" pulling into port into manhattan. right now there is a severe drought in the species' range. could this be the cause ? not sure. but it is food for thought. i am still very troubled by the tail wear on the subject bird. but if we are to consider hooded crow, why not kiskadee? i'd believe the kiskadee before the corvid. JPA Millbrook, NY -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
