1987-1988 - American Birding Association

Photo: H Brokawtheir own, without human transport,and thus are wild in thatsense.The only question I would haveis, does the nest box programconstitute some sort of humanagency that would disqualifythese records? After some consideration,I have decided that therecords should be accepted. Fromwhat I can discover, no birds wereintroduced, which would haveconstituted a reintroduction andperhaps provided a valid argumentagainst acceptance at thistime (a reintroduction would haveto become established over a periodof time; e.g., the White-tailedPtarmigan in California). Instead,man has simply provided the necessaryhabitat (admittedly boxes,not trees) and the birds havespread on their own into thisnewly created "habitat" Had wemanaged to provide large treeswith holes, as existed in the past,the result would have been thesame."Nevertheless, I am open tonegative arguments of this sort,and I think the Committee needsto address this problem. Certainlyman has played an important rolein the occurrence of Muscovy inTexas. "Motion to add:GillIKaufmanDissenting Opinions:"The evidence in favor of consideringthe Starr Co. Muscovy Duckrecords as pertaining to wildbirds is strong, but not 100% convincing.. . and I have to be 100%convinced to vote for addition of aspecies to the North Americanlist The reason that I am not convincedis that the records couldall pertain to a pair of feral birdsthat act like truly wild birds andVolume XX, Number 2