According to the American Bird Conservancy, a rare owl, the Long-whiskered Owlet (Xenoglaux loweryi), discovered only in 1976, was just recently seen for the first time in the wild. This is one of the world’s smallest owls (you can see an indication of this in the photo of one of these birds sitting on someone’s hand). This is a Peruvian bird, so you are unlikely to see it during the upcoming Bioblitz, unless you are in Peru, of course.

You are all familiar with the difficulties over the last few years of determining if the Ivory Billed Woodpecker is actually extinct, or merely very very rare and living a cryptic life in the dense forests of the American Southeast. The Ivory Bill, spotted by the Fitzpatrick et al team and reported in 2005, may, according to a more recent report, actually be a misidentified pileated woodpecker (see this report).

We don’t know what the real story is with the Ivory Bill, but this recent activity has certainly spurred interest in looking for them, as indicated by this recent report:

Ivory-Billed Woodpecker Sought in Texas from PhysOrg.com
(AP) — Corinne Campbell stuffs her gear in waterproof sacks and stuffs them and herself into a tiny circular cutout that marks the seat in her green kayak. With a clear signal from the GPS unit clipped near her orange vest, she shoves off between large downed tree trunks. Then she propels her tiny needle-nose craft into a wide rain-swollen creek that wiggles through what’s been called the biological crossroads of North America. And so begins another daylong search for a giant bird that may not exist.

In a more mundane vein, we’ve talked here about the actual range and distribution, and likelihood of spotting, the majestic golden eagle. As you may recall (or go read the post, if you like) my family has spotted golden eagles (at least one) in the part of Minnesota that they are “known” to not exist. It is not surprising, though, that they are found here now and then. Golden eagles have enormous ranges and those not in nesting pairs probably travel very widely.

There is a group of golden eagles that are seen in the US. Northeast every year, in the fall, who appear to be migrating south from somewhere in Canada, but no one knows where in Canada they live. This implies that there is a region (and it must be a large region) in which golden eagles are distributed, probably in Quebec, that is as yet undiscovered by Bird-Science.

My daughter, the offspring of scientists, is well aware of the importance of accurate observation. She saw a bird two summers ago that she refuses to identify, but the fact remains that the only bird close to it in any field guide that we have is a Spoonbill, known as a VERY RARE accidental in these parts.

The reason I’m writing about this is because, at least up here in the cold north, the Spring Birding season is upon us. Not only is this a great time to get out because it is starting to get warm, but migratory species are making their way across both habitually used flyways and the occasional detour or shortcut. Open water on larger rivers are resting and feeding spots for waterfowl that may be hard to spot later in the year (if they nest way up north, for instance). Last spring we were able to observe the mating rituals of a pair of wood ducks right in the back yard (of the cabin), only to never see a wood duck again for the rest of the year. (And during the fall migration, last year, we spotted a flock of Tundra Swans, not terribly uncommon but rare for us.) Oh, and we think we saw a loon right near our house in the urban sprawl zone, in a puddle in the woods by the highway ramp, early in the morning, probably resting on it’s way to a more wild setting up north. So this is a good time of year to spot the normally unseen!

And to make the point that birds seem to us to be showy, loud, obvious, hard to miss, but in fact, they have two characteristics that make rarity fairly common (if I can say that…). Some birds are very much in the business of being cryptic, and most birds have wings … meaning that they can ignore those range maps found in the Peterson Guide to the Birds more easily than their grounded brethren.