HBP Presents: Hybrid Theory Revisited

As the #7 birder in the U.S., I am a public figure. Even my nonbirder friends introduce me to others as #7, inevitably leading to wide eyes and gaping mouths. It's a ranking that should not be taken with nonchalance, and rest assured I do not take it lightly. I have no choice but to wear many hats...teacher, mentor, arbiter, birding tastemaker, identification wizard, dispenser of wisdom to all. Periodically I am compelled to call out to the dark and huddled birding masses when I can no longer bear their confusion and pain. I am nothing if not compassionate. From Mount Olympus (where the Global Birder Ranking System's Top Ten reside), I will hurl mighty thunderbolts of knowledge down to my people far below. I do it not for myself, but for them....and only when the very future of birding is at stake.

Long-time readers of BB&B are familiar with these disgruntled screeds of mine, and readers usually agree with me...if they are not blinded by rage or butthurt, which any discussion of The Bird Police tends to invoke. In fact, shortly after I admonished birderdom for overusing the cringe-inducing phase, "Birds have wings. They use them.", almost every birder in the entire world cut it from their vocabulary in a matter of months. The birder pandemic was stopped cold in its tracks. What a relief! So if you are wondering what happened with that, now you know. However, there is another topic where I have not had such success. In fact, the problem has grown steadily worse...hybrid theory.

If I posted this booby photo somewhere on the internets today and presented it as a Brown X Red-footed Booby hybrid, a lot of people would be inclined to believe me...despite this hybrid never being documented before. If this were 1996, birders would universally snort and laugh. I miss 1996. This Brown Booby was photographed at the Farallon Islands, CA.

More and more, birders rely on the poorly-constructed crutch of identifying birds as hybrids whenever they look at all atypical. For those who do not drop h-bombs to explain away anything unusual about a bird's appearance, this has become very frustrating. For some leading birders, it is considered one of the biggest problems our people face. Although I cannot speak freely of what goes on in these inner circles, I will admit that Mount Olympus is a pretty sad place to be these days. It's not the Mountain of Glory it used to be...#4 has even started calling it the Mountain of Shame. So what are we to do?

I'm not sure. There is little new to discuss...but the first step in tackling any problem of this magnitude is public awareness. Hybrid theory is here, it is happening now, and no one is safe. If all I can do is talk about it, then that is what I shall do.

The problem remains the same: birders will default to calling a bird a hybrid if it does not fit their rigidly constructed confines for how a species is allowed to appear. The problem becomes particularly pronounced in regard to examining birds in digital photos. It simply is not constructive...in fact it drags down meaningful conversation about bird identification and how a species may appear. What is new is the increasing tendency for birders to go the hybrid route; a number of birders even fixate on hybrids, mistakenly believing that mixed blood is the answer for anything and everything that can explain a mildly bizarre field mark or two. In fact, proponents of hybrid theory can often get going (get off?) just by seeing photos of a bird that feature unusual lighting or just overall poor quality. It frightens me. Is this what birding has become?

When looking at photos, a lot of birders (including good ones) often think they can land a solid ID without taking bad angles and poor lighting into account. The poor light, weird angle and mildly embarrassing photo quality you see here may render this something it is not. A hybrid theorist would perhaps say [in a very casual, lackadaisical voice, as if lounging in the sun wearing worn-in overalls and chewing a piece of straw] it could be, oh, say a Nashville X Yellow Warbler.  However, common sense calls for extraordinary claims to be backed by suitably impressive evidence, which certainly is absent from this photo and in many hybridcentric discussions. Are birders becoming divorced from common sense? This Mourning Warbler was photographed in San Francisco, CA.

Obviously (and I should not even have to say this, but I will) there are a not insignificant number of species that hybridize on the regular - large gulls, ducks, geese, sapsuckers, western flycatchers (is a lump on the horizon?), titmice, some warblers, etc...I know all this. You know all this. Hell, I've seen a Great Knot X Surfbird hybrid. How do you like that? Yet my foundation has not been shaken...not every single bird is fair game for being a hybrid. You can't apply the gull perspective of hybridization and poorly-defined species limits to every other bird. You cannot believe, for example, that Great Frigatebirds are secretly (under cover of darkness?) genetically swamping Magnificent Frigatebirds out of existence...that 10,000 Savannah Sparrows are all going to look like a "textbook" Savannah Sparrow. And if you truly find those ideas plausible...that is why you fail.

My god, look at this! Scaly-breasted Munias have finally started crossing cloacas with White-crowned Sparrows...right? No. This beautiful creature is, logically, a melanistic Song Sparrow. Photographed in Samoa, CA, by Rob Fowler.

Thankfully, cooler heads (generally with higher GBRS scores) usually prevail in these conversations. Usually. Sadly...that is not always the case. Good birders must consider all possibilities when confronted with avian weirdness...but some fall victim to the hybrid [conspiracy] theorists. Good birders can sometimes lose sight of what is realistic, even if there is an ample lack of evidence to shut down someone who is sold on promoting a rarely or never described hybrid as the solution to an ID problem.

If you have gotten this far into the post and are experiencing an unsettling combination of guilt, self-doubt and rage, then you surely have the tendencies that I am decrying above. Search your feelings, you know it to be true. But I say this to you: you can save yourself, quiet those who seek to put an end to the idea of any genetic purity in birds. Let go of your confusion, silence the voice inside you who whispers not of the wonders of natural variation, but of unrelated species conspiring to create unimaginable spawn in a corner of a dark and distant forest. Join me, and we can correct the thousands of hybrid theorists who are overthrowing common sense in a quest to rule the birding galaxy.

Come with me. It is the only way.

Of Fruit and Glory: Lifering Again In Ventura County

Brown Boobies have made their presence known in 2015 up and down the California Coast all the way north to British Columbia. You show me warm water, and I will show you boobies. All photos today are from Ventura and Santa Barbara County waters.

In October of this year, I returned to an autumnal birding battleground where I had not waged avian war since 1999: Ventura County. It was like MacArthur returning to the goddamn Phillipines. Pretty much the same thing. The place can, and has been, littered with Vague Runts in the fall, so it was great to be back at the proper time of year. I had racked up massive numbers of life and state birds in the 90's in Ventura, when I was but a young nerd, so it was refreshing to be back during the month when anything can happen. This time, I had a specific target bird in mind...not a standard rarity per se, but a tubenose that can be found offshore in the right month and the right luck of the right year. And so with comrades old and new, we lurked offshore on a big Island Packers catamaran.

The most abundant bird of the day was Black-vented Shearwater; we had obscene numbers of them in the channel near Santa Cruz Island. It was really, really gross. 

Jaegers were in abundance, which is always good news for a birder, but it also means that a birder is going to get seriously humbled. Jaeger identification is not for the faint of heart.

I reckon this is a juvenile Long-tailed. It's real dark. Look at that cute little stubby bill.

Here is another juvenile Long-tailed. It's not real dark, unlike the previous bird. It's doing a passable juvenile Western Gull impression here, which is odd.

This was an interesting bird...there was debate over dark Pomarine Jaeger vs. South Polar Skua as this bird made a single pass by the boat; despite the heavy bill, I don't think this has wings broad enough for a skua, and I would also expect to see more white visible (or any at all) on those fresh primaries growing in. It's also a deep, almost featureless dark brown on the upperparts, all of which point toward Pomarine Jaeger in my book.

Out between Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa Islands we ran into some migrant Pigeon Guillemots. These birds migrate north for the winter, which is not a trendy style of migration at all.

We had a mellow pair of young Sabine's Gull near the boat for a bit. It was a soothing experience.

Here is the second bird. Twice mellowed. By this point in the day the birding had gotten a bit slow, but finally a few Black Storm-Petrels appeared. A few minutes later, we came up on what exactly I was hoping for: rafts.

Rafts of storm-petrels, of course. Storm-petrels are not for dilettantes. These are not birds meant for casual enjoyment. They certainly don't belong anywhere near stringers, because the devoted stringer can transform a storm-petrel into any number of species with little effort. Storm-petrels, by their very frustrating and subtle nature, can make you want to bash your head into a wall...or they can yield sweet, nectary storm-petrel fruit.

Ah, there is nothing so refreshing as a big raft of storm-petrels. There were lots of Blacks, the expected species, but it was quickly apparent there were much smaller birds in with them. Were the rafts bearing fruit???  See top rightish above.

And there they were...Least Storm-Petrels (front right and back). Finally. This was a life bird. The wait was finally over. The fruit had been bore.

This was the bird that had lured me down...it was time we became acquainted, and it was indeed a pleasure. Leasts are very small, very dark (note lack of any noticeable upperwing markings on the bird above), and have tiny, wedge-shaped tails. They really do resemble little bats in shape, if not in flight style. Majestic? No. Glorious? Yes.

After getting past the Least and Black Storm-Petrels (and getting some bonus Ashy Storm-Petrels), we came upon a pair of murrelets. Luckily, they were Craveri's Murrelets, which I'd only seen once before. These were good birds, damn good birds, especially on top of a long-awaited lifer. Aren't Mexican birds great?

You can see their distinctive dark underwings, which Guadalupe and Scripps's lack.

Finally, it was time to visit the famed booby roost at Santa Barbara Island. Brown Boobies began to appear more and more frequently, and everyone was hoping an additional Sulid would be lurking at the roost.

Eager birders frothed at the mouth and smacked their lips lustily. They wanted boobies something fierce.

Good lord, there were a lot of boobies on that rock...85! Here is a chunk of the boob roost.

At the end of the day, it was a great trip, and a nice change of pace from the waters I typically lurk in. Thanks to Dave Pereksta for organizing it and Joel Barrett for encouraging me to come down. A couple days later, with one Gareth Jones and Officer Searcy (the notorious Bird Policeman), I found my nemesis Ventura County bird trodding upon the sod...a Red-throated Pipit. They have been a dime a dozen a recent years, but for whatever reason that was not the case in the 90's, when it was my turn to flog the sod. Despite the lack of photos, I assure you that it was a succulent (and Siberian) county bird.

Between the nostalgia and quality birds, my time down there was Great Success. Luckily, I did not have to wait much longer to catch the next Siberian Express...you know what I'm saying?

Jaegers Compiled..Boobs And Tubes...A Nemesis Named

So long Black-footed Albatross, I will see you next year. Please bring along some of your Short-tailed buddies to our waters next fall, thanks. Photographed off of Half Moon Bay, CA.

It was a weird year offshore here in the bay area...for me, rough waters and a moderate amount of seabird activity. Lots of humpbacks, but no blues. I will say right off the bat that I did NOT see any of the rare petrels, which pains me greatly, especially with that cooperative White-chinned Petrel that just sat next to the boat like a goddamn fulmar for an unacceptably long amount of time. But that is the gamble you take as a pelagic junkie...you just roll the dice over and over again and eventually you will get played a hand of lifers. Here is a quick photo summary of the last trips I led for Shearwater Journeys this year, out of Half Moon Bay, Bodega Bay, and Sausalito, respectively.

The more I bird, the more comfortable I am with jaegers. That is, comfortable with the fact that identifying jaegers is hard. This juvenile putative year-old Pomarine was easy enough to identify by species, but Tom Johnson had no choice but to step in and question (correctly, I think) what I thought of the bird's age. He is a bird wizard, after all. Photographed off Half Moon Bay, CA.

Look at those broad wings, that big bill. It almost looks like a goddamn skua. Aside from the birds's build, the strongly barred rump/uppertail coverts and large number of white primary shafts help identify it as a Pomarine.

There was no shortage of smallish terns offshore this fall, but every single one I got a good look at was a Common, like this bird. I prefer Arctics, but its not like Common is an easy bird to get from shore around here, so I will take them. Photographed off Half Moon Bay, CA.

There was a massive flock of Sooty Shearwaters hanging out in Half Moon Bay for several weeks this fall; behold the masses.

Here it is, everyone's third favorite gull! I won't even speak of the two that come first, for I have never seen them. Photographed off Bodega Bay, CA.

My, what a wing pattern you have Sabine's Gull. Thank you for making it so bloody easy to identify you in flight from great distances, and being so aesthetically pleasing from short distances.

Buller's Shearwaters were lacking this fall. I demand more Buller's Shearwaters. That's two years in a row where these birds were a pain in the ass to find offshore. Photographed off Bodega Bay, CA.

What was that? You want to see more COMMON TERNS??? Well, I'm kind of surprised. This is indeed a common bird in some places, one you need not venture offshore for. I would have thought you wanted to see a different species, but I won't deny you, dear reader. This is a wonderfully typical HY Common Tern. Photographed off Bodega Bay, CA.

Eh, not a crush, but it's always nice to get seabird shots backed by the horizon.

Speaking of goddamn skuas, here is a South Polar Skua...a bird that is not unusual here, but one that always commands attention. I hope I get to see them on their breeding grounds someday, where they are a decidedly different beast...which is a penguin-slayer, for the uninitiated. Photographed off Bodega Bay, CA.

While I didn't enjoy much luck with tubenoses this fall, I did get to briefly enjoy this totally uncooperative but pleasantly rare Guadalupe Murrelet, only the second I've ever seen. I'm not sure if I could have identified this bird without the help of have a DSLR; talk about a clutch birding tool. Photographed off Bodega Bay, CA.

Jaegers are exceptional-looking birds when they have their flamboyant tails attached. This soothing Parasitic Jaeger made a close pass by the boat off Bodega Bay, CA.

Long-tailed Jaegers are one of my favored seabirds, and I still feel strongly about this one although it does not fall in the "flamboyant" category. Also, it's always good to get a full "jaeger slam" into a single post. Photographed off Bodega Bay, CA.

My last boat of the year did a couple laps around Southeast Farallon Island (SEFI), the epic seabird colony and vagrant trap that sits about 18 miles off the coast. While waiting for boobies I saw some nerds up by the hideous choade-like lighthouse.

Look at this place! Fuck.

With El Nino raging, it has been a banner year for boobies off the California coast. SEFI has supported a healthy roost of Brown Boobies for the entire year. This was a very rare bird just a few short years ago, but things are changing.

Here is a female, almost in adult plumage. She still has to lose some of that mottling on the belly and maybe some brown in the wing linings.

The Brown Booby roost has also been home to this adult Blue-footed Booby (on the right, obvi) for some time now. There has been little follow-up to the massive Blue-footed Booby invasion California experienced two years ago, despite high sea surface temperatures continuing seemingly just about everywhere. Of course, California birders will be wondering about the Northern Gannet that has been here for years now...well, we missed it! Was it seen the day before? Yes. Was it seen that day? Yes. Was it seen the next day? Of course.  Why does this matter?  Well, I have never seen it! Can I tell you how sick I am of missing that bird over and over again? Year after godforsaken year? UGGGGGGHHHHHHH. The gannet hates me. I, in turn, hate the gannet. It is officially my California Nemesis Bird. Have you ever had a Nemesis Bird that was actually a single individual bird? Christ, I am being driven into a manic rage just thinking about it. Hopefully it will start showing up on Alcatraz again next spring so I can continue dipping on it from shore. So no luck with the gannet, but I did manage a life bird the previous day...and the previous weekend...more on that to come.

The Homely Shearwater, Enhanced Seabirds, A Single Boob

Another season of pelagics is in the can. What to say about this year? Well, things got interesting quick with the Salvin's Albatross (BINGO) and Craveri's Murrelets in July, but in August the murrelets kind of disappeared. Hawaiian Petrels made appearances in Monterey Bay and Half Moon Bay, neither of which I saw, so I will have to wait at least another year to meet that bird, which is totally fucked. Brown, Blue-footed and Masked Boobies all put in appearances around these parts, and the infamous Northern Gannet still roosts on the Farallones, which is infuriating. A Guadalupe Murrelet in September off Bodega Bay was an excellent bird, and a boat trip I did not attend off Half Moon Bay also had a Guadalupe and Red-billed Tropicbird. A Cory's Shearwater off Fort Bragg that I would have liked to have seen was a state ***MEGA***, the only "nearshore" pelagic bird that came close to the Salvin's in magnitude of rarity. Some really good shit was found waaaaayyyyyyy offshore, but unless you are a seabird observer on a NOAA boat, you aren't going to see what lurks that far beyond the horizon.

Right. Three pelagic lifers for me this year, which is more than I could have hoped for. Here is some coverage of my last boats of the season, one out of Monterey and one out of Half Moon Bay.

With the huge mass of warm water that was up here for a couple months, there were thousands of Black-vented Shearwaters in Monterey this fall. Some were seen all the way up in Humboldt the other day, which is cray cray.

I'm just going to say it...I have difficulty talking about Black-vented Shearwaters. Out of all the tubenoses that occur off California, this is often the easiest one to see from shore. They are afraid of deep water. They like warm water, are small, and breed in Mexico. What else is there to say? They are the most slovenly-adorned shearwater I have ever seen so I'm not exactly brimming with compliments for them. For the record, I do like them and I wish them the best, it's just not a bird anyone seems to be equipped to expound upon.

Ok, I've got something. This isn't unique to the species, but Black-vents have pretty awesome feet, with the upper side of the foot and "ankle" pinkish-blue, the bottom side black. I don't understand the significance of this two-tone but it pleases me.

See that crazy white-headed thing on the bottom left? That too is a Black-vented Shearwater, albeit an enhanced one.

Speaking of enhanced birds, check out the wing pattern on this South Polar Skua. Do you see something that shouldn't be there?

It might as well be a fucking Willet. Anyone care to explain the white wing bar?

This pair of mellow Sabine's Gulls were a stone's throw from the Monterey Harbor. Hella cooperative, some of the most confiding members of their species I have come across.

So neat and dainty. Some folks were having a hard time keeping it together. Too bad the lighting wasn't more conducive to crushing, but whatever.

Can't complain about getting looks like these.

Black-footed Albatross. Pretty sick molt pattern if you ask me. Lots of new goodness coming in on the head.

A couple of Humpback Whales (the lump on the left is whale #2) with attendant murres and barnacles. I think it's weird how many people are out there who have never seen a whale up close. Y'all are missing out.

This is one of my favorite photos I took this fall. To my eye, Harbor Seal looks uncannily human, somehow.

Last year, nearshore waters were saturated with Buller's Shearwaters. They were thick, and it was glorious. This year? I think I saw less than ten. Total bullshit. It seems the warm water that washed in the Black-vents and Black Storm-Petrels washed out the Buller's and Ashy Storm-Petrels.

Like last year, I managed to see exactly one booby offshore this year (I THOUGHT I WOULD SEE TWO!!!!!!). This is it. A Brown Booby. This Brown Booby puts the "brown" in Brown Booby.

Also like last year, the boob was getting harangued by gulls. Poor beleaguered booby.

The booby was on the infamous weather buoy in San Mateo County waters, right where the continental shelf starts to drop off quickly. There are always seems to be good birding by the weather buoy.

And representing the alcids, here is a Tufted Puffin. Puffins can look very dull this time of year, but you can spot that big glowing bill from a long ways away.

What happens to people who disappear at sea? I would wager MOLA MOLA happens. Doesn't this look like something that gobbles lost souls?