Category: Gruiformes

Epizootic Vacuolar Myelinopathy of the Central Nervous System of American Coots (Fulica americana) and Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)

American Coot (Fulica americana) Science Article 10 abstract Unprecedented mortality occurred in bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) at DeGray Lake, Arkansas, during the winters of 1994-1995 and 1996-1997. The first eagles were found dead during November, soon after arrival from fall migration, and deaths continued into January during both episodes. In total, 29 eagles died at […]

Paternity-parasitism trade-offs: a model and test of host-parasite cooperation in an avian conspecific brood parasite

American Coot (Fulica americana) Science Article 11 abstract Efforts to evaluate the evolutionary and ecological dynamics of conspecific brood parasitism in birds and other animals have focused on the fitness costs of parasitism to hosts and fitness benefits to parasites. However, it has been speculated recently that, in species with biparental care, host males might […]

Improving the reliability of molecular sexing of birds using a W-specific marker

American Coot (Fulica americana) Science Article 12 abstract Molecular techniques for identifying sex of birds utilize length differences between CHD-Z and CHD-W introns, but in some cases these methods can lead to sexing errors. Here we show that an additional W-specific primer can be used in conjunction with a pre-existing sexing primer pair to dramatically […]

Breeding of the Water Rail Rallus aquaticus in Cladium mariscusvegetation

Water Rail (Rallus aquaticus) Science Article 1 abstract We have studied breeding habitats of the Water Rail Rallus aquaticus in Cladium mariscus (Galingale) vegetation at Botshol (Abcoude, 51 deg 52’N;5 deg 04’E) in The Netherlands and on Oland in Sweden. Water Rails were localised by day by provoking vocal responses with a cassette recorder, using […]

NESTING SUCCESS AND SURVIVAL OF VIRGINIA RAILS AND SORAS

Sora (Porzana carolina) Science Article 1 abstract Lack of estimates of nesting success and annual survival of North American rails limits our ability to monitor rail populations, regulate harvest levels, and institute recovery programs. We here present Virginia Rail (Rallus limicola) and Sora (Porzana carolina) population trends from Breeding Bird Surveys (BBS) throughout North America

Evidence of conspecific nest parasitism and egg discrimination in the sora

Sora (Porzana carolina) Science Article 2 abstract Conspecific nest parasitism (CNP) is relatively frequent among precocial species and several hypotheses for this patter have been suggested (Rohwer and Freeman 1989, Lyon and Eadie 1991, Sorenson 1992). I report here observations made at the nest of a Sora, Porzana carolina, which suggest both the occurrence of […]