Earth and Space News: Puerto Rico Admission Act 2019

Showing posts with label Puerto Rico Admission Act 2019. Show all posts

Sunday, November 3, 2019

Puerto Rican Pewees Are Unassuming Puerto Rico Five-One Icons

Summary: Puerto Rican pewees avail themselves as avian candidates for Puerto Rico Five-One icons if House bill P.R. 4901 actualizes commonwealth statehood.

(lower) illustration of Lesser Antillean pewee (Contopus latirostris), subsequently recognized as three subspecies (Antillean, Puerto Rican and Saint Lucia pewees), under description's synonym Myiobius latirostris, by French engraver and painter Jean-Baptiste Huet (Oct. 15, 1745-Aug. 27, 1811), for description by French ornithologist Jules Pierre Verreaux (Aug. 24, 1807-Sept. 7, 1873); J.P. Verreaux, Nouvelles Archives du Museum D'Histoire Naturelle de Paris Bulletin, tome deuxième (1866), planche III fig. 2: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library

Puerto Rican pewees appear only on their namesake island and therefore among avian candidates as Puerto Rico Five-One icons, if House bill P.R. 4901 acquires Congressional, presidential and Puerto Rican referendum approval.

Jenniffer González-Colón, island non-voting congressional representative, brings to First-Session members of the 116th Congress the Puerto Rico Statehood Admission Act, with bipartisan support and 45 co-sponsors. It calls for a federal government-authorized, island-wide referendum Nov. 3, 2020, and, with that referendum's majority approval by island voters, presidentially proclaimed statehood within 30 months. Fifty-first statehoodship diminishes United States territories by one, down to 15, even as it draws in with other island-only wildlife insect-devouring, seed-dispersing, unassuming Puerto Rican pewees.

Caterpillar cocoons, lichen fibers and spider webs exteriorize down, feather, fiber, grass, hair-lined bud-scale, catkin, dead-leaf, flower-head, grass-head, shredded-bark, weed-stem elaborated nests of Puerto Rican pewees.

Spider webs fix the cup-shaped nests of Puerto Rican pewees to horizontal branches or level forks at perhaps 8 to 75-foot (2.44 to 22.86-meter) above-ground heights.

Female Puerto Rican pewees get their two brown-red-spotted, cream-yellow eggs from March through June breeding seasons incubated within 14 days and nestlings independent within 18 days. Dull olive-bodied young with dull buff wingbars, unlike cinnamon-buff, double, narrow-banded parents, hone different-winged (Heteroptera), membrane-winged (Hymenoptera), same-winged (Homoptera), sheath-winged (Coleoptera) and two-winged (Diptera) order-filled diets. Contopus latirostris blancoi (from Greek κοντός, "short" and πούς. "foot"; Latin lātus, "wide" and rōstris, "beak"; Francisco Manuel Blanco (Nov. 24, 1778-April 1, 1845) is day-active.

Six-inch (15.24-centimeter-) long Puerto Rican pewees perhaps juggle eastern wood-pewee-like 9.06 to 10.24-inch (23 to 26-centimeter-) long wingspans and 0.35 to 0.67-ounce (10 to 19-gram) weights.

The Puerto Rico Five-One icon knows brown-olive upper-parts and sides; black-brown tails and wings; and, unlike cinnamon-brown-red Saint Lucian and pale Lesser Antillean pewees, buff undersides.

Puerto Rican pewees look sooty black-olive in their crowns; slight-crested; dusky black-brown in maxilla ("upper jaw") and feet; and dusky-tipped white in their mandibles ("lower jaws"). The Tyrannidae (from Latin tyrannus, "tyrant" and Greek -ειδής, "-like") tyrant flycatcher family member manifests brown irises; broad, dark, flat beaks; and black-brown lower, brown-white upper-legs. Puerto Rican pewees, locally nicknamed Contopus portoricensis ("short-footed Puerto Rican") scientifically, net direct, rapid, steady, wing-beat, rapid-maneuver flights; near-ground hovers; and quivering wings on open perches.

Puerto Rican pewees observe 3.5-year life cycles on total biogeographical occurrences of 51,737.69 square miles (134,000 square kilometers) up through 2,952.76-foot (900-meter) altitudes above sea level.

Puerto Rican pewees proliferate in coffee plantations on wooded hills; and in subtropical to tropical coastal mangroves, dry forests and wet lowland, montane and upland forests.

The Puerto Rican pewee subspecies, quested scientifically by Jean Cabanis (March 8, 1816-Feb. 20, 1906, queues up in dry-wooded, semiarid-wooded, wet-wooded habitat niches on Puerto Rico. The Saint Lucia pewee nominate species, ranked scientifically by Jules Verreaux (Aug. 24, 1807-Sept. 7, 1873), requires similarly dry, semiarid, wet woody niches on Saint Lucia. The Lesser Antillean pewee subspecies, studied scientifically by George Lawrence (Oct. 20, 1806-Jan. 17, 1895), survives in same-climate, same-biogeography habitat niches on Dominica, Guadeloupe and Martinique.

Puerto Rican pewees, as bobitos ("dear little fools"), pibíes puertorriqueños and Puerto Rico Five-One icons, perhaps transmit "yes" referendum votes in their peee-ooooo peetpeetpeetpeetpeet whistled trills.

The Puerto Rican pewee (Contopus latirostris blancoi) is known locally as bobito; photo by Jessenia Marrero Negron: SOPI @Aves_PuertoRico, via Twitter March 6, 2016

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

The Puerto Rican pewee (Contopus latirostris blancoi) is known locally as bobito; photo by Jessenia Marrero Negron: SOPI @Aves_PuertoRico, via Twitter March 6, 2016, @ https://twitter.com/Aves_PuertoRico/status/706509526644580354

For further information:

Baicich, Paul J.; and Colin J.O. Harrison. 2005. Nests, Eggs, and Nestlings of North American Birds. Princeton NJ; and Oxford, England, UK: Princeton University Press, Princeton Field Guides. Second edition.

BirdLife International 2017. "Contopus latirostris (Amended Version of 2016 Assessment)." The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2017: e.T22699836A110735697. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2017-1.RLTS.T22699836A110735697.en.
Available @ https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22699836/110735697

Cabanis, Jean. 1855. "70. Contopus virens Cab." Page 479. "Dr. Gundlach's Beitrage zur Ornithologie Cuba's." Journal für Ornithologie, Dritter Jahrgang, no. 13 (Januar 1855): 465-480. Cassel [Germany]: Theodor Fischer, 1855.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/13947637

Cole, Kimberly K. "Lesser Antillean Pewee (Contopus latirostris)." Version 1.0. In: T.S. Schulenberg. (Ed.). Neotropical Birds Online. Ithaca NY: Cornell Lab of Ornithology. https://doi.org/10.2173/nb.leapew1.01
Available @ https://neotropical.birds.cornell.edu/Species-Account/nb/species/leapew1

De Juana, Eduardo; Joseph Del Hoyo; Manuel Fernández-Cruz; Xavier Ferrer; Ramón Sáez-Royuela; & Jordi Sargatal. 2004. "Nombres en Castellano de las Aves del Mundo Recomendados por la Sociedad Española de Ornitología." Ardeola 51(2): 491-499.
Available @ http://www.seo.org/wp-content/uploads/tmp/docs/vol_51_2_noveno.pdf

Eckerd, Patrick. 31 October 2019. "Bill Paving Way for Puerto Rico Statehood Referendum Introduced in US House." Jurist.
Available @ https://www.jurist.org/news/2019/10/bill-paving-way-for-puerto-rico-statehood-referendum-introduced-in-us-house/

Fernández-Campbell, Alexia. 30 October 2019. "Puerto Rico's New Push for Statehood, Explained." Vox.
Available @ https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/10/30/20939916/puerto-rico-statehood-bill-congress

"H.R.4901 - Puerto Rico Statehood Admission Act." Congress.Gov > 116th Congress (2019-2020).
Available @ https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/4901/text

"H.R. 4901: Puerto Rico Statehood Admission Act." GovTrack > Congress > Bills.
Available @ https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/116/hr4901

Lawrence, George N. (Newbold). 1877. "3. Blacicus brunneicapillus. Blacicus Blancoi, Lawr. nec Gundlach." Pages 161-162. "XVI. Descriptions of Supposed New Species of Birds From the Islands of Grenada and Dominica, West Indies." Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Late Lyceum of Natural History, vol. I, nos. 5-6 (May-September 1878): 160-163. New York NY: Published by Gregory Bros. for The Academy, 1879. Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/35448629
Available via HathiTrust @ https://hdl.handle.net/2027/hvd.hw33x8?urlappend=%3Bseq=216

Lepage, Denis. "Lesser Antillean Pewee (Lesser Antilles) Contopus latirostris brunneicapillus (Lawrence, 1878)." Avibase > Species. Available @ https://avibase.bsc-eoc.org/species.jsp?avibaseid=83D0E7F1

"Lesser Antillean Pewee Contopus latirostris." eBird > Passeriformes > Tyrannidae.
Available @ https://ebird.org/species/leapew1

Marriner, Derdriu. 24 August 2019. "Puerto Rican Lizard-Cuckoos: Puerto Rico Five-One Water Quality Icons." Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/08/puerto-rican-lizard-cuckoos-puerto-rico.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 18 August 2019. "Puerto Rican Tanagers: Puerto Rico Five-One Water Quality Icons." Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/08/puerto-rican-tanagers-puerto-rico-five.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 11 August 2019. "Puerto Rican Vireos: Puerto Rico Five-One Water Quality Icons." Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/08/puerto-rican-vireos-puerto-rico-five.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 4 August 2019. "Yellow-Shouldered Blackbirds: Puerto Rico Five-One Water Quality Icons." Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/08/yellow-shouldered-blackbirds-puerto.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 14 July 2019. "Puerto Rican Orioles: Puerto Rico Constitution and Five-One Icons." Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/07/puerto-rican-orioles-puerto-rico.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 7 July 2019. "Puerto Rican Flycatchers: Puerto Rico Constitution and Five-One Icons." Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/07/puerto-rican-flycatchers-puerto-rico.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 23 June 2019. "Elfin-Woods Warblers: Caribbean American, Puerto Rico Five-One Icons." Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/06/elfin-woods-warblers-caribbean-american.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 16 June 2019. "Adelaide's Warblers: Caribbean American and Puerto Rico Five-One Icons." Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/06/adelaides-warblers-caribbean-american.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 9 June 2019. "Puerto Rican Woodpeckers: Caribbean American, Puerto Rico Five-One Icons." Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/06/puerto-rican-woodpeckers-caribbean.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 2 June 2019. "Puerto Rican Bullfinches: Caribbean American, Puerto Rico Five-One Icons." Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/06/puerto-rican-bullfinches-caribbean.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 19 May 2019. "Puerto Rican Rain Gardens: American Wetlands and Puerto Rico Five-One." Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/05/puerto-rican-rain-gardens-american.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 12 May 2019. "Stripe-Headed Tanagers: Fitness Month 2019, Puerto Rico Five-One Icons." Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/05/stripe-headed-tanagers-fitness-month.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 5 May 2019. "Puerto Rican Parrots, Fitness Month 2019 and Puerto Rico Five-One Icons." Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/05/puerto-rican-parrots-fitness-month-2019.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 21 April 2019. "Puerto Rican Todies, Earth Month 2019 and Puerto Rico Five-One Icons." Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/04/puerto-rican-todies-earth-month-2019.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 20 April 2019. "Puerto Rican Nightjars: Earth Month 2019, Puerto Rico Five-One Icons." Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/04/puerto-rican-nightjars-earth-month-2019.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 14 April 2019. "Puerto Rican Screech-Owls Earth Month 2019, Puerto Rico Five-One Icons." Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/04/puerto-rican-screech-owls-earth-month.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 7 April 2019. "Earth Month, Puerto Rican Green Mango Hummingbirds and Sea Hibiscus." Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/04/earth-month-puerto-rican-green-mango.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 31 March 2019. "Puerto Rican Emerald Hummingbirds and Puerto Rican Statehood." Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/03/puerto-rican-emerald-hummingbirds-and.html

Pierog, Karen. 29 October 2019. "U.S. Bill Would Provide Puerto Rico a Path to Statehood." Nasdaq > US Markets.
Available @ https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/u.s.-bill-would-provide-puerto-rico-a-path-to-statehood-2019-10-29

"Puerto Rico Statehood Admission Act of 2019." Posted 30 October 2019. Puerto Rico Report.
Available @ https://www.puertoricoreport.com/puerto-rico-statehood-admission-act-of-2019/#.Xh4P4MhKiUk

Schuyler, Tamara. "Tyrant Flycatchers." In: Michael Hutchins, Jerome A. Jackson, Walter J. Bock and Donna Olendorf, editors. Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. Volume 10, Birds III: 269-289. Farmington Hills MI: Gale Group, 2002.

SOPI ‏@Aves_PuertoRico 6 March 2016. "Crédito foto de cover mes de marzo: Jessenia Marrero Negron -- Bobito / Contopus latirostris / Lesser Antillean Pewee." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/Aves_PuertoRico/status/706509526644580354

Sociedad Ornitológica Puertorriqueña @sociedadornitologicapuertorriquena. 31 December 2019. "¡Buenos días¡ . . . . Les dejamos con esta hermosa foto del Bobito(Lesser Antillean Pewee) por Benny Díaz." Facebook.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/sociedadornitologicapuertorriquena/posts/2528104777433586

Sociedad Ornitológica Puertorriqueña @sociedadornitologicapuertorriquena. 19 January 2015. "Shared a photo." Facebook.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/sociedadornitologicapuertorriquena/posts/1556362764607797

Verreaux, Jules Pierre. 1866. "Myiobius latirostris, J. Verr. Planche III, Fig. 2." Nouvelles Archives du Museum D'Histoire Naturelle de Paris Publiées par MM. Les Professeurs-Administrateurs de Cet Établissement. Édité par I. Guérin. Tome Deuxième. Bulletin: 22-23. Paris, France: Librairie Théodore Morgand.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/13960596

"Waltz Co-Sponsors Puerto Rico Statehood Bill." Michael Waltz > News > Press Releases > Washington, DC, October 30, 2019.
Available @ https://waltz.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=98

Sunday, June 16, 2019

Adelaide's Warblers: Caribbean American and Puerto Rico Five-One Icons

Summary: That Adelaide's warblers associate with Caribbean American heritage month June 2019 and Puerto Rico Five-One icons argues for a similarly iconic acclaim.

Endemic Adelaide's warblers, elfin-woods warblers, Puerto Rican todies and Puerto Rican vireos act amicably with one another and arguably as Caribbean American heritage month June 2019 and Puerto Rico Five-One statehood icons.

Puerto Rico, la isla del encanto ("the island of enchantment"), and Vieques, the Commonwealth's isla nena ("little girl island"), boast the world's only Adelaide's warbler populations. Adelaide's warblers, commemorative of conchologist, merchant, ornithologist Robert Swift's (1796-May 5/6, 1872) only daughter, claims habitat niches below 1,640.42-foot (500-meter) elevations and other than the east. They divulge mixed-species flocking for foraging from succulent and woody plant bases through 32.81-plus-foot (10-plus-meter) heights above brushy, forested, scrubby, woodland floors and for territorial defense.

The Parulidae (from Latin parus, "chickadee" and -ula, "little" and Greek -ειδής, "-like") New World and wood warbler family member enjoys insect larval and pupal prey.

Physically and sexually mature Adelaide's warblers, as year-round couples, fit annual breeding seasons from January, February or March through June or July into 10-plus-year life cycles.

Physically and sexually mature female Adelaide's warblers each gestate one two- to four-egg seasonal brood for bromeliad- or moss-covered, cuplike, feather-, hair- and stalk-lined, woven-grass nests. Succulent branch or woody branch and twig forks at 0.49- to 22.96-foot (0.15- to 7-meter) heights above respective cactus or tree bases hold Adelaide's warbler nests. Each breeding season impels Adelaide's warbler mothers-to-be to install 2.01- to 2.24-inch- (5.1- to 5.7-centimeter-) deep nests with 2.09- to 2.52-inch (5.3- to 6.4-centimeter) outer diameters.

Warbler mothers-to-be juggle chocolate-spotted, red-brown-flecked green-white to white eggs into 1.42- to 1.49-inch- (3.6- to 3.8-centimeter-) deep, 1.49- to 1.77-inch (3.8- to 4.5-centimeter) diameter nest interiors.

Adelaide's warbler mothers-to-be keep their 0.18- to 0.64-inch (4.5- to 16.3-millimeter) by 0.43- to 0.47-inch (11 to 12-millimeter) eggs incubated 15 days before co-parentally brooding hatchlings.

Adelaide's warblers look downy as hatchlings, sighted as three- to five-day-olds and feathered as six- to eight-day-olds and locate nearby as dependent 10- to 70-day-old fledglings. Mature females versus immature female and males respectively manifest dull, male-like, narrow-striped colors versus brown-, gray-, olive-edged feathers, brown-gray to olive-washed, stripeless upperparts and white-yellow underparts. The 0.19- to 0.35-ounce (5.3- to 10-gram) Setophaga adelaidae (from Greek σής, "moth" and φάγος, "glutton") nets mature 4.72- to 5.32-inch (12- to 13.5-centimeter) bill-tail lengths.

Mature Adelaide's warblers, observed by Spencer Baird (March 31, 1823-Aug. 19, 1887), offer black-brown irises, pale-edged black bills and black-gray, brown-gray or white-yellow feet and legs.

Gray-bodied mature males present black-striped crowns; yellow eyebrows and underparts; crescent-marked, gray-patched cheeks; white paired wingbars; white underwing and undertail coverts; and brown-gray-olive-edged tails and wings.

Adelaide's warblers quest ant, aphid, beetle, caterpillar, fly, insect egg, lanternfly, leafhopper and spider prey at 492.13- to 1,541.99-foot (150- to 470-meter) altitudes above sea level. Bill-snapped, chip-called, pip-sung, twittered communications release high-pitched alarms about American redstarts, mongeese, northern parulas, pearly-eyed thrashers, prairie warblers, Puerto Rican screech-owls, roof rats and shiny cowbirds. Adelaide's warblers survive with black-whiskered vireos, elfin-woods warblers, lesser Antillean pewees and Puerto Rican todies in citrus groves; limestone, scrub, second-growth forests; and shaded coffee plantations.

Adelaide's warblers, as Caribbean American heritage and Puerto Rico Five-One icons and reinitas mariposeras ("butterfly-eating little queens"), thrive around mesquite (Prosopis) and tamarind (Tamarindus) host trees.

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Adelaide's warbler (Dendroica adelaidae); Vieques Island (Isla de Vieques), off southeastern coast of Puerto Rico; Monday, April 21, 2008, 11:49: Jaro Nemčok, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dendroica_adelaidae_2.jpg; via The Nemčoks' Family Website @ https://nemcok.sk/?pic=16811

Adelaide's warbler (Dendroica adelaidae); Vieques Island (Isla de Vieques), off southeastern coast of Puerto Rico; Monday, April 21, 2008, 11:49: Jaro Nemčok, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dendroica_adelaidae.jpg; via The Nemčoks' Family Website @ https://nemcok.sk/?pic=16812

For further information:

Baird, S. F. (Spencer Fullerton). 1865. "Dendroica adelaidæ." Review of American Birds, in the Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, part I North and Middle America: 212-213. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 181. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1865.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/7283462

BirdLife International 2016. "Setophaga adelaidae." The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T22721711A94725147. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22721711A94725147.en.
Available @ https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22721711/94725147

Clench, W. J. April 1938. "Robert Swift." The Nautilus, vol. 51, no. 4: 142-143. Lancaster PA: The Science Press Printing Co.
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/nautilus51amer/page/142

Mertz, Leslie Ann. "New World Warblers (Parulidae)." In: Michael Hutchins, Jerome A. Jackson, Walter J. Bock and Donna Olendorf, editors. Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. Second edition. Volume 11, Birds IV: 285-291. Farmington Hills MI: Gale Group, 2002.

Moore, Arthur Allen, III. "Robert Swift." Find A Grave > Memorials. Nov. 2, 2008.
Available @ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/31074044

Mowbray, Alan. "Adelaide's Warbler." United States Department of Agriculture > Forest Service > Find a Forest or Grassland > Select a State > Puerto Rico > Select a Forest or Grassland > El Yunque National Forest > Learning Center > Nature & Science > Comprehensive Wildlife Lists > Comprehensive Wildlife Facts List by Type/Year in Alphabetical Order > Birds.
Available @ https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/elyunque/learning/nature-science/?cid=fsbdev3_043045

Raffaele, Herbert A. 1989. A Guide to the Birds of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands: Revised Edition. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press.

"Robert Swift." Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography VI: 12. Edited by James Grant Wilson and John Fiske. Volume VI Sunderland-Zutita. With Supplement and Analytical Index. New York NY: D. Appleton and Company, 1889.
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/AppletonsCyclopediaOfAmericanBiographyVol.6/page/n22

Toms, Judith D. 2010. "Adelaide's Warbler (Setophaga adelaidae)." Version 1.0. In: Neotropical Birds Online (T. S. Schulenberg, Editor). Ithaca NY: Cornell Lab of Ornithology. https:doi.org/10.2173/nb.adewar1.01.
Available @ https://neotropical.birds.cornell.edu/Species-Account/nb/p_p_spp/overview?p_p_spp=567756

Vuilleumier, François, editor-in-chief; and Paul Sweet, consultant. 2016. American Museum of Natural History Birds of North America. Revised edition. New York NY: DK Publishing.

Sunday, June 9, 2019

Puerto Rican Woodpeckers: Caribbean American, Puerto Rico Five-One Icons

Summary: Puerto Rican woodpeckers are Caribbean American heritage month June 2019 and Puerto Rico Five-One Statehood icons.

Puerto Rican woodpecker (Melanerpes portoricensis), near Coamo, south central Puerto Rico; Friday, Jan. 18, 2008: Ryan Douglas, CC BY 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

That Puerto Rican woodpeckers account for the only woodpecker species in their only homeland, the Commonwealth, argues for their association with Caribbean American heritage month June 2019 and Puerto Rico Five-One icons.

Darren P. Soto, United States Democratic Representative from Florida's 9th district, brought H.R. 1965, the Puerto Rico Admission Act, March 28, 2019, before the 116th Congress. The Puerto Rico Five-One statehood bill, if considered favorably by the United States House of Representatives and Senate, conveys condition-free admission 90 days after presidential approval. Caribbean American heritage month June 2019 denotes Caribbean American deeds before, during and after Caribbean America's discovery Oct. 12, 1492, by Christopher Columbus (1451-May 20, 1506).

About 4,169.9 square miles (10,800 square kilometers) entertain Puerto Rican woodpeckers, Caribbean American heritage month June 2019 and Puerto Rico Five-One icons as Puerto Rico exclusives.

Five-year Puerto Rican woodpecker life cycles feature arriving at nest-friendly trees in January, breeding March through April, nesting April through June and parenting May through August.

Mature female Puerto Rican woodpeckers each gestate one one- to six-egg seasonal brood for 3.28- to 19.69-foot- (1- to 6-meter-) high cavities drilled by their mates. White 0.16-ounce (4.4-gram), 0.82- to 0.97-inch- (20.9- to 24.6-millimeter-) long, 0.64- to 0.75-inch- (16.2- to 19.1-millimeter-) wide, 0.0047-inch- (0.12-millimeter-) thick eggs herald 11- to 14-day incubations. Altricial (helpless, from Latin altrīx, "nourisher"), naked hatchlings within hard-surfaced cavities initiate movement and rest on hard, rough pads on the backs of their leg joints.

Puerto Rican woodpeckers journey as Puerto Rico Five-One icons into Caribbean American heritage month June 2019 as parents, one month each, of nestlings and of fledglings.

Female and male juvenile Puerto Rican woodpeckers know soft-textured plumage and respective black-gray, red-tinged underparts; and black-gray flanks and sides, red underparts and red-dipped crown feathers.

Mature females log white-edged eyes, rumps and wings; red-tinged brown-gray chins and throats; red underparts; and, like males, barbed, long, sticky tongues and wavy flight patterns. Mature males manifest black-blue bodies; white eye-patches, foreheads, rumps and underwing and uppertail coverts; red chests and throats; and brown-gray flanks, sides, underparts and undertail coverts. Mature 1.59- to 2.54-ounce (45- to 72-gram), 9.06- to 10.63-inch (23- to 27-centimeter) Puerto Rican woodpeckers net red-brown irises; black bills; and brown-gray feet and legs.

François Daudin's (Aug. 29, 1776-Nov. 30, 1803) Melanerpes portoricensis (from Greek μέλᾱς, "black" and έρπω, "creeper) occurs with flycatchers (Myiarchus antillarum) and yellow-shouldered blackbirds (Agelaius xanthomus).

Puerto Rican woodpeckers prey upon ants, beetles, dragonflies, earwigs, frogs, grasshoppers, lizards, spiders, worms and figs (Ficus) and matchwood (Schefflera morototonii) and snakewood (Cecropia peltala) fruits.

Chur-chur-chur-chur-chur-chur-chur-chur-chur-chur-chur-chur-chur-chur-chur-chur-chur-chur-chur-chur, kuk, mew, pep-pep-pep, preep and wek-wek-wek-wek-wek calls; rat-a-tat-tat sounds; soft drumming; and wing-rattling qualify as communication among sociable non-breeding flocks and territorial breeding, nesting parents. Caribbean American heritage month, Picidae (from Latin pīcus, "woodpecker" and Greek ειδής, "-like") family and Puerto Rico Five-One icons reach 3,280.84-foot (1,000-meter) altitudes above sea level. They survive in almond, coconut, coffee, Honduran pine (Pinus caribaea) and shaded coffee plantations; dry and wet forests; mangroves; palm groves; and wooded gardens and parks.

Carpinteros puertorriqueños en la isla del encanto ("Puerto Rican woodpeckers on the enchanted isle") turn out for early morning sunbaths on exposed, higher branches and snags.

pic de portorico (Puerto Rican woodpecker) by French botanical and zoological illustrator Jacques Barraband (Aug. 31, 1767-Oct. 1, 1809) for French zoologist François Marie Daudin's 1803 description; F.M. Daudin, Annales du Muséum, tome II (1803), Plate LI, opposite page 285: Not in copyright, via Biodiversity Heritage Library

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Puerto Rican woodpecker (Melanerpes portoricensis), near Coamo, south central Puerto Rico; Friday, Jan. 18, 2008, 16:31: Ryan Douglas, CC BY 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Puerto_Rican_Woodpecker_(Melanerpes_portoricensis).jpg

BirdLife International 2016. "Melanerpes portoricensis." The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T22680807A92879627. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22680807A92879627.en.
Available @ https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22680807/92879627

Daudin, F. M. (François Marie). "Description d'une nouvelle espèce de Pic trouvée á Porto-Rico."Annales du Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, tome second: 285-287. Paris, France: Les Frères Levrault, An XI (1803).
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/3496615

Jackson, Jerome A. "Woodpeckers, Wrynecks, and Piculets (Picidae)." In: Michael Hutchins, Jerome A. Jackson, Walter J. Bock and Donna Olendorf, editors. Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. Second edition. Volume 10, Birds III: 147-168. Farmington Hills MI: Gale Group, 2002.

Mowbray, Alan. "Puerto Rican Woodpecker." United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service > Find a Forest or Grassland > Select a State > Puerto Rico > Select a Forest or Grassland > El Yunque National Forest > Learning Center > Nature & Science > Comprehensive Wildlife Lists > Comprehensive Wildlife Facts List by Type/Year in Alphabetical Order > Birds.
Available @ https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/elyunque/learning/nature-science/?cid=fsbdev3_042933

Raffaele, Herbert A. 1989. A Guide to the Birds of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands: Revised Edition. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press.

Toms, Judith D. 2010. "Puerto Rican Woodpecker (Melanerpes portoricensis)." Version 1.0. In: Neotropical Birds Online (T. S. Schulenberg, Editor). Ithaca NY: Cornell Lab of Ornithology. https://doi.org/10.2173/nb.purwoo1.01.
Available @ https://neotropical.birds.cornell.edu/Species-Account/nb/species/purwoo1/overview

Vuilleumier, François, editor-in-chief; and Paul Sweet, consultant. 2016. American Museum of Natural History Birds of North America. Revised edition. New York NY: DK Publishing.

Sunday, May 19, 2019

Puerto Rican Rain Gardens: American Wetlands and Puerto Rico Five-One

Summary: Puerto Rican rain gardens act against surface runoff and as appropriate icons for American wetlands month May 2019 and Puerto Rico Five-One statehood.

Enthusiastic commitment to Puerto Rican gardens by Wilma Pastrana Jiménez, 13th First Lady of Puerto Rico (Jan. 2, 2013-Jan. 2, 2017), led to official People's Gardens recognition Dec. 14, 2013, by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service Caribbean Area Office for her home garden at La Fortaleza, the official residence of the Governor of Puerto Rico: Wilma Pastrana Jiménez @WilmaPastranaOficial, via Facebook Aug. 22, 2014

Puerto Rican rain gardens are American wetlands month May 2019 and Puerto Rico Five-One statehood icons because they attract American tourists to, and surface runoff from, Caribbean and North American Plate-affected beaches.

American wetlands month May 2019 beckons to boggy, swampy wetlands for being atmospheric carbon capturers, climate mitigators, storm buffers, water absorbers and filters, and wildlife-friendly habitats. It considers rain gardens created wetlands that capture the first 0.5 to 1.0 inches (13 to 26 millimeters) of rainfall events and cater to water cycles. José Juan Terrasa-Soler of Marvel & Marchand Architects, San Juan, Puerto Rico designs plant palettes from United States Army Corps of Engineers-detailed Caribbean wetland plant lists.

The Terrasa-Soler publication from Jan. 26, 2016, enlists 87 species that embrace the non-woody ferns, forbs, grasses and sedges and woody palms, shrubs, trees and vines.

Puerto Rican rain gardens feature native wetland Boston swordferns (helecho espada locally, Nephrolepis exaltata scientifically), with 2- by 3-foot (0.61- by 0.91-meter) evergreen heights and spreads.

Puerto Rico rain gardens get Caribbean canna (maraca de bosque, Canna jaegeriana) and climbing (cohítre, Commelina diffusa) and white-mouth (cohítre azul, Commelina erecta) dayflower native forbs. They have Clifford's lobelia (cardenala azul, Lobelia cliffortiana), coastal-beach (lechecillo costero, Euphorbia mesembrianthemifolia) and prostrate (lechecillo prostrado, Euphorbia prostrata) sandmat and Mexican-tea (apazote, Dysphania ambrosioides) forbs. Puerto Rican rain gardens include among native wetland forbs American black nightshade (yerba mora, Solanum americanum), narrow-leaved pitcairnia (piña cortadora, Pitcairnia angustifollia) and Puerto Rican clearweed (Piilea leptophylla).

Surface runoff journeys, away from community gardens, into Puerto Rican rain gardens because of the latters' air- and water-porous, downward-sloping rims and sides with permeable soils.

Coastal-plain creeping-oxeye (margarita de las rocas, Wedelia fruticosa) knows lower- and upper-ranging heights and spreads as native wetland forbs and shrubs in Puerto Rican rain gardens.

Puerto Rican rain gardens, as American wetlands month 2019 and Puerto Rico Five-One statehood icons, lodge West Indian foxtail grass (barbas de indio, Andropogon bicornis) graminoids. They maintain Baldwin's (Cyperus croceus), mangrove (junco de agua, Cyperus ligularis) and roadside (Cyperus sphacelatus) flat sedge and hairy grass (arrocillo, Paspalum paniculatum) native wetland graminoids. Tropical whitetop (yerba de estrella, Rhynchospora radicans) nestles alongside ferns, forbs, other native wetland graminoids, shrubs, trees and vines as American wetlands month May 2019 icons.

Puerto Rico royal palm trees (palma real, Roystonea borinquena) occur as Puerto Rico Five-One statehood icons and the only palm species in Puerto Rican rain gardens.

Puerto Rican rain gardens present coco-plum (icaco, Chrysobalanus icaco), firebush (balsamillo, Hamelia axillaris) and scarletbush (bálsamo, Hamelia patens) native shrubs as Puerto Rico Five-One statehood icons.

Lower- and upper-ranging heights and spreads qualify mountain oak (roble de sierra, Tabebuia rigida) and red rodwood (hoja menuda, Myrcia citrifolia) as native shrubs or trees. Matchwood (yagrumo macho, Schefflera morototonii), West Indian laurel (palo María, Calophyllum antillanum) and yucca plum-pine (caobilla, Podocarpus coriaceus) represent native trees as Puerto Rico Five-One icons. Jardines pluviales en Borinquén (rain gardens in the Brave People's Land) support bayhops (bejuco de playa, Ipomoea pes-caprae) and giant philodendron (yautía cimarrona, Philodendron giganteum) vines.

Native plants in jardines de lluvia en Puerto Rico ("Puerto Rican rain gardens"), as American wetlands month icons, turn surface runoff into atmospheric and soil moisture.

Students demonstrate their inventions for studying marine life and protecting water quality for Wilma Pastrana Jiménez, 13th First Lady of Puerto Rico, at Jardín Hundido Doña Inés María Mendoza de La Fortaleza de Puerto Rico: Wilma Pastrana Jiménez @WilmaPastranaOficial, via Facebook Aug. 4, 2014

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro; and Mark T. Strong. "Monocots and Gymnosperms of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands." Smithsonian Institution Contributions from the United States National Herbarium, volume 52. Washington, DC: National Museum of Natural History, Department of Botany.
Available @ https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/004a/986d74b6583f4b5520161c08946033b0455f.pdf

Gann, George D.; J. Carlos Trejo-Torres; and C.G. Stocking. 2015-2018. "Plantas de la Isla de Puerto Rico / Plants of the Island of Puerto Rico." The Institute for Regional Conservation > Online Resources.
Available @ https://www.regionalconservation.org/ircs/database/plants/ByElevationPR.asp?Elevation=3

Lichvar, Robert W. 17 July 2013. "The National Wetland Plant List: 2013 Wetland Ratings." Phytoneuron 2013-49: 1-241.
Available @ http://www.phytoneuron.net/2013Phytoneuron/49PhytoN-2013NWPL.pdf

Liogier, Henri Alain.; and Luis F. Martorell. 2000. Flora of Puerto Rico and Adjacent Islands: A Systematic Synopsis. Second Edition corrected and revised by Henri Alain Liogier. San Juan PR: Editorial de la Universidad de Puerto Rico.

"Lista de Flora de Culebra." Villa Mi Terruña > Flora Culebra > Base de datos de Flora de Culebra.
Available @ http://www.villamiterruno.com/floradatabase.php

Terrasa-Soler, José Juan. 26 January 2016. "Recommended Species for Rain Gardens, Bioswales, and Bioretention Cells in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean Islands." San Juan PR: The Office of Marvel & Marchand Architects.
Available @ https://jterrasa.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/recommended-species-for-rain-gardens-bioswales-bioretention-cells-in-puerto-rico-and-caribbean-islands_jose-j-terrasa-soler_2016.pdf

USDA-NRCS [United States Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service]; St. Croix Environmental Association (SEA); and Horsley Witten Group, Inc. 27 October 2012. Rain Garden Plants. Hato Rey PR: USDA-NRCS Caribbean Area.
Available @ https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb1166757.pdf

Wilma Pastrana Jiménez @WilmaPastranaOficial. 4 August 2014. "La primera dama, Wilma Pastrana Jiménez, comparte con varios de los estudiantes, quienes le mostraron sus creaciones para ayudar al estudio de la vida submarina y de igual forma contribuir a proteger la calidad del agua. #ProyectosdeVida." Facebook.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/WilmaPastranaOficial/photos/a.436065933203270/436066283203235/

Wilma Pastrana Jiménez @WilmaPastranaOficial. 22 August 2014. "Shared a link." Facebook.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/WilmaPastranaOficial/posts/443591109117419

Sunday, March 31, 2019

Puerto Rican Emerald Hummingbirds and Puerto Rican Statehood

Summary: The Puerto Rico Admission Act of 2019 advances Puerto Rican statehood and, by extension, Puerto Rican emerald hummingbirds as United States wildlife.

The Puerto Rico Admission Act of 2019 abolishes the 120-year colonial status of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and, by extension, of Puerto Rican emerald hummingbirds, and advances automatic Puerto Rican statehood.

The Puerto Rico Admission Act of 2019, introduced March 28, 2019, by Florida Democratic Representative Darren Soto, bears Puerto Rico 51st statehood without conditions or referendums. It conveys economic benefits and voting rights upon the Caribbean island's citizens and celebration of Caribbean island fauna and flora into United States state-by-state wildlife guidebooks. Hummingbirds dwell in the Americas, with Allen's, Anna's, black-chinned, blue-throated, broad-billed, broad-tailed, buff-bellied, Calliope, Costa's, Lucifer, magnificent, ruby-throated, rufous, violet-crowned and white-eared discerned as North American.

Authoritative publications such as those by the American Museum of Natural History enter berylline hummingbirds from Mexico for summer encounters in southeastern Arizona and western Texas.

Puerto Rican coquí tree frogs (Eleutherodactylus coqui), hibiscus (Thespesia grandiflora), silk-cotton trees (Ceiba pentandra) and stripe-headed tanagers (Spindalis zena) sometimes function as emblematic, quintessential, symbolic icons.

Puerto Rican statehood to a Caribbean island within the North American continental shelf gives the United States another of the 320-plus-specied crown jewels of the air. Four-plus-year life cycles herald mating seasons February through May and 14- to 16-day incubations of two non-glossy, smooth, white 0.52- by 0.32-plus-inch (13- by 8-millimeter) eggs. Altricial, naked hatchlings inhabit cup-like, fern-scale and lichen, plant down- and wild cotton-lined, 1-plus-inch (2.54-plus-centimeter) outer-diameter, 1-plus-inch- (2.54-plus-centimeter-) high, 0.75-plus-inch (1.91-plus-centimeter) inner-diameter, 1-plus-inch- (2.54-plus-centimeter-) deep nests.

Mother-tended Puerto Rican emerald hummingbirds juggle gray undersides and dark upper-sides when they journey as 20- to 22-day-old fledglings from mother-built, mother-maintained nests to independent nesting.

Mature females know 2.95- to 3.35-inch (7.5- to 8.5-centimeter) head-tail lengths, 3.94- to 4.33-inch (10- to 11-centimeter) wingspans and 0.12- to 0.13-ounce (3.4- to 3.8-gram) weights.

Black-billed, gray-throated juveniles and mature females log gray-green crowns and foreheads; grass-green upper-parts and upper-tail coverts; gray undersides; tails less forked than males; and blue-brown-green-white steering-feathers. Mature males manifest 3.35- to 3.74-inch (8.5- to 9.5-centimeter) head-tail lengths, 4.33- to 4.72-inch (11- to 12-centimeter) wingspans and 0.12- to 0.13-ounce (3.4- to 3.8-gram) weights. They net dark, short, straight bills; dark upper and dark-tipped red lower mandibles; glossy-green crowns and foreheads; iridescent blue-green throats; and black-green upper-parts and upper-tail coverts.

Blue-tailed mature males, observed by Jean Audebert (March 2, 1759-Dec. 5, 1800) and Louis Vieillot (May 10, 1748-Aug. 24, 1830), obtain glossy-green underparts and under-tail coverts.

Puerto Rico's Chlorostilbon maugaeus (from Greek χλωρός, "green" and στίλβω, "gleaming," for René Maugé, 1761?-Feb. 21, 1802) performs backward, downward, forward, upward 50-beat per second flights.

Puerto Rican emerald hummingbirds quicken to coastal, coffee plantation, forest and woodland habitats in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands at sea-level through 2,624.67-foot (800-meter) altitudes. They require air- or branch-borne insects; arachnids; and bromeliad (Hohenbergia, Vriesea), coral-tree (Erythrina), false-petunia (Ruellia), ginger-lily (Hedychium), orchid (Dilomilis, Epidendrum), pitch-apple (Clusia) and water-willow (Justicia) nectars. Their strong tic notes sound at various speeds, until they stop on high-pitched, rapid buzzes and trills, from 3.28- to 19.68-foot- (1- to 6-meter-) tall shrubs.

Puerto Rican statehood touches Puerto Rican emerald hummingbirds, zumbadorcitos boriqueños de la reserva de la biosfera de Guánica (Puerto Rican hummers of the Guánica Biosphere Reserve).

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

female Puerto Rican emerald hummingbird (Chlorostilbon maugaeus), illustrated by French naturalist and illustrator Jean Baptiste Audebert (March 2, 1759-Dec. 5, 1800); J.B. Audebert and L.J.P. Vieillot's Oiseaux Dorés (Histoire Naturelle) (1802), tome premier, Planche XXXVIII, opposite page 96: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/35131961; Biodiversity Heritage Library (BioDivLibrary), Public Domain, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/biodivlibrary/51024828888/

male Puerto Rican emerald hummingbird (Chlorostilbon maugaeus), illustrated by French naturalist and illustrator Jean Baptiste Audebert (March 2, 1759-Dec. 5, 1800); J.B. Audebert and L.J.P. Vieillot's Oiseaux Dorés (Histoire Naturelle) (1802), tome premier, Planche XXXVII, opposite page 93: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/35131956; Biodiversity Heritage Library (BioDivLibrary), Public Domain, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/biodivlibrary/51025657042/

For further information:

Audebert, J.B.; and L.J.P. Vieillot. 1802. "L'Oiseau-mouche maugé femelle. Planche XXXVIII." Histoire Naturelle et Générale des Colibris, Oiseaux-Mouches, Jacamars et Promerops: Oiseaux Dorés, ou à Reflets Métalliques, tome premier: 96. Paris, France: Desray, An XI.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/35131960

Audebert, J.B.; and L.J.P. Vieillot. 1802. "L'Oiseau-mouche maugé femelle. Pl. 58." Histoire Naturelle et Générale des Colibris, Oiseaux-Mouches, Jacamars et Promerops: Oiseaux Dorés, ou à Reflets Métalliques, tome premier: opposite page 96. Paris, France: Desray, An XI.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/35131961

Audebert, J.B.; and L.J.P. Vieillot. 1802. "L'Oiseau-mouche maugé mâle." Histoire Naturelle et Générale des Colibris, Oiseaux-Mouches, Jacamars et Promerops: Oiseaux Dorés, ou à Reflets Métalliques, tome premier: 93-95. Paris, France: Desray, An XI.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/35131957

Audebert, J.B.; and L.J.P. Vieillot. 1802. "L'Oiseau-mouche maugé mâle. Pl. 57." Histoire Naturelle et Générale des Colibris, Oiseaux-Mouches, Jacamars et Promerops: Oiseaux Dorés, ou à Reflets Métalliques, tome premier: opposite page 93. Paris, France: Desray, An XI.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/35131956

Baicich, Paul J.; and Colin J.O. Harrison. 2015. Nests, Eggs, and Nestlings of North American Birds. Princeton Field Guides. Second edition. Princeton NJ; and Woodstock, Oxfordshire, UK: Princeton University Press.

"Guanica." United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization > Natural Sciences > Environment > Ecological Sciences for Sustainable Development > Biosphere Reserves > 292 sites in 37 countries in Europe and North America > United States of America.
Available @ http://www.unesco.org/mabdb/br/brdir/directory/biores.asp?code=USA+35&mode=all

Jativa, Daniel. 28 March 2019. "Bipartisan Pair Introduces Puerto Rico Statehood Bill in Congress." Washington Examiner > News.
Available @ https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/bipartisan-group-introduced-puerto-rico-statehood-bill-in-congress

Schuchman, Karl-L. "Puerto Rican Emerald Chlorotilbon maugaeus." In: Michael Hutchins, Jerome A. Jackson, Walter J. Bock and Donna Olendorf, editors. Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. Second edition. Volume 9, Birds II: 464. Farmington Hills MI: Gale Group, 2002.

Vuilleumier, François, editor-in-chief; and Paul Sweet, consultant. American Museum of Natural History Birds of North America. Revised edition. New York NY: DK Publishing, 2016.