[Maine-birds] Maine Bird Records Committee 12th report

The Twelfth Report of the Maine Bird Records Committee is available on our website here:
https://sites.google.com/site/mainebirdrecordscommittee/reports

Thanks again to Bird Observer for publication of the committee's report. Of interest in this year's report are formal acceptance of the Steller's Sea-Eagle and Western Marsh Harrier (aka Eastern Marsh-Harrier). The harrier account is of interest (see page 120). What was likely the same bird first seen in Maine showed up eleven weeks later and 350 miles to the south at Troy Meadows, New Jersey. Then a week after the last sighting there, an immature Western Marsh Harrier was killed in a birdstrike with an aircraft landing at Newark airport 15 miles to the southeast. Analysis of DNA and a feather recovered from the plane matched age and species. Carla Dove at the Feather Identification Lab, National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D. C., provided the analysis of this presumed unfortunate ending to the bird's journey in North America. The first New England and Maine record of Broad-tailed Hummingbird is accepted in this report. The committee also accepted White Ibis, based on last year's influx, and Brewer's Blackbird, an older record for which photographs were finally archived. Both species had been on the official state list based on historical records presumed correct but not previously reviewed.

As ever, the committee is grateful for submissions that make up the valuable historical archive maintained. Becky Marvil, who does so much for the Maine birding community, continues as our Secretary. With unanimous approval, Kyle Lima took over as Chair of the committee at our last annual meeting.

Louis Bevier
Fairfield

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