eWestern Birds
The Quarterly Journal of Western Field Ornithologists
Arizona Bird Committee Report, 2005–2009 Records
Gary H. Rosenberg, Kurt Radamaker, and Mark M. Stevenson
ABSTRACT: In this its seventh report, the Arizona Bird Committee reviews 501 records and updates the Arizona bird list through 2009, adding 12 species: the Black-vented Shearwater, (Puffinus opisthomelas), Black Turnstone (Arenaria melanocephala), Lesser Black-backed Gull (Larus fuscus), Royal Tern (Thalasseus maximus), Tufted Flycatcher (Mitrephanes phaeocercus), Couch’s Kingbird (Tyrannus couchii), Gray-collared Becard (Pachyramphus major), Brown-chested Martin (Progne tapera), Sinaloa Wren (Thryothorus sinaloa), Winter Wren (Troglodytes hiemalis), Brown-backed Solitaire (Myadestes occidentalis), and White-winged Crossbill (Loxia leucoptera). The records of the Gray-collared Becard, Sinaloa Wren, and Brown-backed Solitaire are the first accepted for the United States, and that of the Brown-chested Martin is the first for the western United States. Acceptance of the Brown-backed Solitaire in Miller Canyon, Huachuca Mountains, in 2009 prompted reevaluation and acceptance of the record of this species in Madera Canyon in 1996, in spite of the unanswered question of the birds’ origin; the Brown-backed Solitaire is popular as a cage bird in Mexico, but the individuals seen in Arizona were in the species’ mountain forest habitat and remote from plausible sources of escapees.