🚀 go-pugleaf

>> I have an immature myrtle warbler in my garden. I noticed her
>> eating bayberry berries this morning. Since central Jersey seems to be
>> the northern most part of themyrtle warbler's winter range I wonder-
>> ed if I should put out some food that the little warbler would like
>> to eat since the bayberries in my yard are going to run out soon. I
>>
>> Thanks for any advice,
>> Sharon Badian
>
> A few points:
>
> 1. Don't worry about it; there is actually plenty of food
> for this bird in the area. It will not starve.
>
> 2. Based on your comments, I assume you are using the
> Golden guide "Birds of North America" by Robbins, et
> al, with the buff cover. You would be better off to
> get a current edition of Petersen's eastern field
> guide with updated species names and more detailed
> range maps.
>
> 3. The myrtle warbler is now considered conspecific with
> the western Audubon's warbler; they are called
> collectively "yellow-rumped warbler."
>
> Rich Ditch

Point 1. Agreed. The bird will not starve. But the reason most people have
         bird feeders is not to keep birds from starving but to provide them
with a food source so easy to access that they preferentially
visit your yard.  Feeders = birds in the yard.  If you provide
food for a bird you find interesting (because the current source
such as a tree of berries is running low) in hopes of it sticking
around a bit longer, great.  Maybe the bird will.

Point 2. I DO like Peterson more than Golden, for the drawings and the range
         maps (which are fairly up to date for most species).  But I do
not agree with getting the book just for "updated" species names.
The new Golden has new names too...

The lumping of species is a typically subjective judgement call
made by a particular taxonomist: not all of us agree to any one of
particular one of these `lumpings'.  There are many avain taxomomists
who do not recognize the lumpings done to Myrtles, or Juncos,
or Baltimore Orioles (to name just three).  For us, they are
Myrtles.  That there is a narrow hybrid zone does not change that.
(If you feel it does, please note that the name changing has
not been uniform or consistent: among others, Herring and
Glaucous gulls freely hybridize in Iceland, and, by the same criteria
they should be `lumped' into one species (take yet another species off your
life list, please).  The Myrtle Warbler may again regain its `official'
status... as may the Baltimore Oriole and so on.
-- 
Name:   Richard Snell
Mail:   Dept. Zoology, Univ. Toronto
        Toronto, Ontario, Canada    M5S 1A1
UUCP:   {allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!snell