Additions to the List of the Birds
of Louisiana

BY

GEORGE H. LOWERY, JR.

University of Kansas Publications
Museum of Natural History

Volume 1, No. 9, pp. 177-192
November 7, 1947

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
LAWRENCE
1947

University of Kansas Publications, Museum of Natural History

Editors: E. Raymond Hall, Chairman, H. H. Lane,
Edward H. Taylor

Volume 1, No. 9, pp. 177-192
Published November 7, 1947


University of Kansas
Lawrence, Kansas

PRINTED BY
FERD VOILAND, JR., STATE PRINTER
TOPEKA, KANSAS
1947

21-6959

Additions to the List of the Birds of Louisiana

By

GEORGE H. LOWERY, JR.

Oberholser's "Bird Life of Louisiana" (La. Dept. Conserv. Bull. 28, 1938), was a notable contribution to the ornithology of the Gulf Coast region and the lower Mississippi Valley, for it gave not only a complete distributional synopsis of every species and subspecies of bird then known to occur in Louisiana but also nearly every record of a Louisiana bird up to 1938. However, at the time of the appearance of this publication, one of the most active periods in Louisiana ornithology was just then beginning. The bird collection in the Louisiana State University Museum of Zoölogy had been started only the year before, and the first comprehensive field work since the time of Beyer, Kohn, Kopman, and Allison, two decades before, was still in its initial stage. Since 1938 the Museum of Zoölogy has acquired more specimens of birds from Louisiana than were collected there in all of the years prior to that time. Many parts of the state have been studied where no previous work at all had been done. Also in the last eight years some capable ornithologists have visited the state as students at Louisiana State University, and each has contributed greatly to the mass of new data now available. Despite the excellence of Oberholser's compilation of records, it is, therefore, not surprising that even at this early date twenty-four additions can be made to the list of birds known from Louisiana. Furthermore, this recently acquired information permits the emendation of the recorded status of scores of species, each previously ascribed to the state on the basis of comparatively meager data.

The plan is to publish eventually a revision of the birds of Louisiana which will incorporate all of the new information, but the projected scope of this work is such that many years may elapse before it is finished. The present paper is intended to record only the more pertinent additions, particularly records that may be significant in connection with the preparation of the fifth edition of the American Ornithologists' Union's "Check-list of North American Birds." There are numerous species for which Oberholser cited only a few records, but of which we now have many records and large series of specimens. If, in such instances, the treatment given in the fourth edition of the American Ornithologists' Union's Check-list would not be materially affected, I have omitted mention of the new material in this paper.

I am indebted to a number of ornithologists who have presented their notes on Louisiana birds to the Museum of Zoölogy and who have done much to supplement its collections. Outstanding among these are Thomas R. Howell, Robert J. Newman, Sam M. Ray, Robert E. Tucker, Harold E. Wallace, and the late Austin W. Burdick. Their efforts in behalf of the Museum have been untiring. I am grateful also to Thomas D. Burleigh and Jas. Hy. Bruns, both of whom have played an integral part in our field activities in recent years and without whose help much less would have been accomplished. John S. Campbell, Ambrose Daigre, James Nelson Gowanloch, Sara Elizabeth Hewes, E. A. McIlhenny, Edouard Morgan, and George L. Tiebout, Jr., have generously contributed notes and specimens which are duly attributed in the following text. For assistance in taxonomic problems, or for the loan of comparative material, I wish to thank John W. Aldrich, Herbert Friedmann, Howard K. Gloyd, Alden H. Miller, Harry C. Oberholser, James L. Peters, Karl P. Schmidt, George M. Sutton, J. Van Tyne, and Alexander Wetmore.

Sula sula sula (Linnaeus), Red-footed Booby

An immature individual of this species came aboard a boat of the Louisiana Department of Conservation near the mouth of Bayou Scofield, 7 miles below Buras, Plaquemines Parish, on November 1, 1940. It was captured by J. N. McConnell, who delivered it to James Nelson Gowanloch of the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. The bird was then turned over to me in the flesh for preparation and deposit in the Louisiana State University Museum of Zoölogy. It has since been examined by James L. Peters and Alexander Wetmore, who confirmed the identification. This is the first specimen of the species obtained in the United States. The only other record of its occurrence in this country is that of individuals observed near Micco, Brevard County, Florida, on February 12, 1895 (Bangs, Auk, 19, 1902: 395-396). To eliminate possible confusion in the literature, attention is called here to the fact that the above-listed specimen was erroneously recorded by an anonymous writer (La. Conserv. Rev., 10, Fall Issue, 1940: 12) as a Gannet, Morus bassanus (Linnaeus).

Butorides virescens virescens (Linnaeus), Eastern Green Heron

No winter records for the occurrence of this species were available to Oberholser in 1938, the latest date cited by him being October 27. Recently, however, it has been noted several times in winter on the coast of Louisiana. Kilby and Croker (Aud. Mag., 42, 1940: 117) observed it at the mouth of the Mississippi River, near Pilot Town, on December 25, 1939, and Burleigh and I each obtained a specimen at Cameron on December 13, 1940. Another was shot by me at the same place on February 2, 1946. The species is therefore of casual occurrence in the state in winter.

Dichromanassa rufescens (Gmelin), Reddish Egret

Although previously reported only as a casual summer visitor along the coast, the Reddish Egret is known now to occur regularly in small numbers during the winter. Since Oberholser (op. cit., 56) cited only one specific record of occurrence in the state, all additional records are listed here. On East Timbalier Island, one to three were seen daily, August 16-19, 1940, and two to five were seen daily, November 15-17, 1940. In Cameron Parish, the species has been noted as follows (Lowery, et al.): two on December 14, 1940; one on January 3, 1943; three on September 3 and two on November 4, 1944; one on April 29, 1945. Several specimens were collected.

Plegadis falcinellus falcinellus (Linnaeus), Eastern Glossy Ibis

Plegadis mexicana (Gmelin), White-faced Glossy Ibis

Considerable confusion exists concerning the specific identity of the glossy ibises inhabiting Louisiana. The fourth edition of the A. O. U. Check-list (1931: 33) stated that falcinellus "breeds rarely and locally in central Florida and probably in Louisiana." In 1932, Holt visited the marshes of Cameron Parish in southwestern Louisiana where he studied the ibises nesting in a large rookery. Later he definitely stated (Auk, 50, 1933: 351-352) that the birds seen by him were Eastern Glossy Ibises (Plegadis falcinellus). It was doubtless Holt's identification that