Rare Birds Research Articles

Evaluation of soil fauna biodiversity in restored farmland for protection of wetland ecology by planting different crops

Wetlands play a crucial role in oxygen production, air purification, and quality maintenance. Thus, conservation of wetland is essential in response to natural and anthropogenic damaging activities. Restored farmland, utilized to repair the southern buffer zone of Jiangsu Yancheng Wetland National Nature Reserve for Rare Birds, was used to investigate and analyze the diversity of migratory birds and soil fauna. In this study, five different crops, colza oil, mustard, Chinese cabbage, wheat, and barley, were planted in the restored plots, which were foraged by overwintering migratory birds, resulting in low crop yield. The soil fauna biodiversity and biomass in the wheat, Chinese cabbage, and colza oil plots during winter were relatively rich, which attracted many migratory birds to roost and feed. The variability and population of migratory birds significantly improved (18 species and 164231 migratory birds), which was owed to soil fauna and planted crops. Therefore, based on the results of our study, farmland restoration could significantly enrich the biodiversity of soil fauna and migratory birds, improve the ecological environment of wetlands, and attract more migratory birds as inhabitants.

Acoustic bird species classification under low SNR and small-scale dataset conditions

Bird species classification based on acoustic monitoring has attracted increasing attention. Two common methods, deep learning and feature extraction-based, are widely applied for bird sound classification. Although deep learning based methods have shown great success, they usually require an enormous amount of labeled data to train models, which could make these approaches prohibitive since collecting enough labeled samples of various species, especially rare birds, is a difficult task. On the other hand, feature extraction based methods are less dependent on the number of samples and have achieved remarkable classification performance for small-scale datasets, however they prove susceptible to signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). To address this problem, a new method is proposed for acoustic bird species classification in this work, which is well suited to low SNR and small-scale dataset conditions. Firstly, an adaptive threshold scheme based on the constant false alarm rate (CFAR) criterion is designed to more effectively detect potential bird sound segments in field recordings. Then, the local wavelet acoustic pattern (LWAP) and Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCC) features are extracted, which are further processed using improved vector of locally aggregated descriptors (VLAD) encoding. Finally, encoded LWAP and MFCC features are fused with dimensionality reduction and a classifier with weighted distance is used for classification. Corresponding feature space analysis upon feature fusion is also provided demonstrating explicit improvement in bird sounds discrimination under low SNR conditions. Experimental results on the dataset consisting of 11 bird species under low SNR and small-scale conditions reveal that the proposed method achieves considerable improvement in classification performance as compared with other feature extraction based methods. Meanwhile, our approach also outperforms state-of-the-art deep learning based methods.

Tidal Variations of Fish Larvae Measured Using a 15-Day Continuous Ichthyoplankton Survey in Subei Shoal: Management Implications for the Red-Crowned Crane (Grus japonensis) Population in Yancheng Nature Reserve.

The National Yancheng Rare Birds Nature Reserve is a vitally important staging habitat for the wild population of red-crowned cranes (Grus japonensis) in China. The population relies on local high-protein food sources, such as fish juveniles, to fuel their migratory journeys. However, little is known about the ecology of the fish larvae and juveniles that migrate to the inshore area via tidal rhythm in Subei Shoal, which is adjacent to the reserve. Therefore, we used a fixed study station (32°55'1.2″ N, 121°19'58.8″ E) to conduct a continuous 15-day ichthyoplankton survey at 2 h intervals beginning at 05:00 on 25 April and ending at 03:00 on 10 May 2019. We identified the tidal variations in the number of fish larvae and juveniles and the number at various developmental stages and assessed how they were related to environmental variables such as sea surface temperature, salinity, turbidity, and tidal height in the Dafeng Sea area of Subei Shoal. We found that the number of species and larval individuals were highest and lowest, respectively, at the highest and lowest tidal height, and they obviously increased and decreased with the rising and ebb tide, respectively. Our findings indicate that the variation in numbers of the larvae and juveniles depends on species and developmental stage. The species Acanthogobius ommaturus, Pholis fangi, Cynoglossus joyneri, Liza haematocheila, and Lateolabrax japonicus and the total number of larvae were most influenced by tidal height. These results provide a better understanding of the habitat of prey species of the red-crowned crane wild population as well as scientific data that can be applied to manage the wild population in the reserve sustainably.

Comparison of the Gut Microbial Communities of Domestic and Wild Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) Based on High-Throughput Sequencing Technology.

Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) are currently one of the most popular species in rare bird breeding in several southern provinces of China, but there have been no studies comparing the gut microbial communities of domestic and wild mallards. In this study, 16S rRNA gene high-throughput sequencing technology was used to compare the composition and diversity of gut microbial communities in domestic and wild mallards. Alpha diversity analysis showed significant differences in gut microbial communities between the two groups of mallards, and the diversity and richness of gut microbial communities were significantly higher in wild mallards than in domestic mallards. Beta diversity analysis showed that the two groups of stool samples were mostly separated on the principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) plot. In domestic mallards, Firmicutes (68.0% ± 26.5%) was the most abundant bacterial phylum, followed by Proteobacteria (24.5% ± 22.9%), Bacteroidetes (3.1% ± 3.2%), Fusobacteria (2.2% ± 5.9%), and Actinobacteria (1.1% ± 1.8%). The dominant bacterial phyla in wild mallards were Firmicutes (79.0% ± 10.2%), Proteobacteria (12.9% ± 9.5%), Fusobacteria (3.4% ± 2.5%), and Bacteroidetes (2.8% ± 2.4%). At the genus level, a total of 10 dominant genera (Streptococcus, Enterococcus, Clostridium, Lactobacillus, Soilbacillus, Bacillus, Acinetobacter, Comamonas, Shigella, and Cetobacterium) with an average relative abundance greater than 1% were detected in the fecal samples of both groups. The average relative abundance of five potential pathogenic genera (Streptococcus, Enterococcus, Acinetobacter, Comamonas, and Shigella) was higher in domestic mallards than in wild mallards. The enrichment of pathogenic bacteria in the intestinal tract of domestic mallards should be of sufficient concern.

Species and structural diversity of flora and avifauna on the territory of urban water treatment facilities

Background. The territories of urban wastewater treatment facilities, where the natural vegetation has been radically changed to synanthropic vegetation, promote the spread of ruderal plant species, including invasive ones, but at the same time create a favourable environment for nesting and staying of many bird species, including rare and those listed in the Red Data Book of Ukraine. The aim of this study is to investigate the species and structural diversity of vegetation on the territory of urban wastewater treatment facilities in order to determine their significance for the conservation of avifauna. Materials and Methods. To analyse the state of biodiversity, an inventory of species of higher plant and avifauna in the technogenic areas of Kharkiv wastewater treatment facilities in the spring and summer of 2020–2021 was carried out using conventional methods. Results. The flora of higher vascular plants includes 90 species belonging to 78 genera, 30 families, and 2 classes of the Magnoliophyta division. The leading families are: Asteraceae (30.0 %; n = 90), Poaceae (12.2 %), Brassicaceae (6.7 %), Fabaceae and Polygonaceae (4.4 % each). Herbaceous plant species (92.0 %; n = 90) dominated according to the С. Raunkiær classification (1934), with a predominance of hemicryptophytes (54.0 %) and terophytes (37.0 %). The increased proportion of the latter, compared to the zonal flora, indicates a significant disturbance of the habitat by anthropogenic factors. This is also evidenced by the predominance of synanthropic plant species (81.1 %; n = 90), including 40 species (54.8 %; n = 73) belonging to the apophyte group, and the remaining 45.2 % are adventitious species. In relation to moisture, most plants are mesophytes (71.0%; n = 90). In terms of geographical structure, the flora has a Holarctic-European-Eurasian character with admixtures of North American, Mediterranean, Nomadic and Mediterranean-Asian geoelements. The avifauna includes 95 species belonging to 13 orders and 29 families. Birds of Passeriformes (32.6 %), Charadriiformes (24.2 %) and Anseriformes (13.7 %) predominate. The treatment facilities are important for nesting of 53 species (55.8 %; n = 95), and are also a trophic base for 23 (24.2 %) of wandering and 19 (20.0 %) of transient bird species. The nine faunal groups were dominated by boreal 26.6 % (n = 95) and tropical 13.8 %, as well as limnophilous (12.8 %) and nemoral (11.7 %) species. The nesting avifauna was formed mainly by nemoral 17.0 % (n = 53) and tropical 15.1 %, as well as alluviophilous and boreal (13.2 % each) species. The greatest bird diversity is found in the overgrown silt areas, where vegetation with a projected cover of 50–70 % is interspersed with shallow water as close as possible to natural areas. Among the identified bird species, the following breeding birds are listed in the Red Data Book of Ukraine: Himantopus himantopus, also transient and wandering species: Milvus migrans, Hieraaetus pennatus, Columba oenas. Conclusion. The established plant communities with rich avifauna, including rare bird species, and the location of the treatment facilities within their migration routes, indicate the importance of these areas for the conservation of biota.

A review and field verification of avian diversity and habitat use in the greater Sundarbans of India, Bangladesh and their hinterland

<p>The world-famous greater Sundarbans, the largest single block of tidal halophytic mangrove forest in the world and endangered ecosystem located in the Bengal delta, is now confined to 10,277 km<sup>2</sup>conservation areas in India (4260 km<sup>2</sup>) and Bangladesh (6017 km<sup>2</sup>) over 250 odd-islands, designated as the Natural World Heritage-cum-Ramsar Sites of ornithological importance. The Sundarbans is fringed by 11,936.26 km<sup>2</sup> reclaimed agricultural fields/human settlements [‘Sundarbans Transition Zone’ (STZ), India and Ecologically Critical Areas (ECAs) plus Sundarbans Impact Zone (SIZ), Bangladesh]. This highly productive ecosystem provides diverse and abundant floral and faunal food resources, having high caloric concentrations, for the aves. A comprehensive study was conducted during 2019–2022 to bridge the knowledge-gaps of the avian diversity and habitat use through structural review of published and grey literature as well as field-based rapid assessment in the potential sites. 598 species, classified under 23 orders, 85 families and 277 genera, including seven extinct and about 40 old records, have been recorded in the study area. The terrestrial, arboreal and aquatic habitats are conveniently utilised by 32% resident and 68% migratory (summer and winter) birds for meeting their biological needs. 32.27% of them are commonly sighted and 67.73% rarely confronted. Considering the present biotic and abiotic threats, the rare birds are of high priority for future conservation actions.</p>

An active learning framework and assessment of inter-annotator agreement facilitate automated recogniser development for vocalisations of a rare species, the southern black-throated finch (Poephila cincta cincta)

The application of machine learning methods has led to major advances in the development of automated recognisers used to analyse bioacoustics data. To further improve the performance of automated call recognisers, we investigated the development of efficient data annotation strategies and how best to address uncertainty around ambiguous vocalisations. These challenges present a particular problem for species whose vocalisations are rare in field recordings, where collecting enough training data can be problematic and a species' vocalisations may be poorly documented.We provide an open access solution to address these challenges using two strategies. First, we applied an active learning framework to iteratively improve a convolutional neural network (CNN) model able to automate call identification for a target rare bird species, the southern black-throated finch (Poephila cincta cincta). We collected 9098 h of unlabelled audio recordings from a field study in the Desert Uplands Bioregion of Queensland, Australia, and used active learning to prioritise human annotation effort towards data that would best improve model fit. Second, we progressed methods for managing ambiguous vocalisations by applying machine learning methods more commonly used in medical image analysis and natural language processing. Specifically, we assessed agreement among human annotators and the CNN model (i.e. inter-annotator agreement) and used this to determine realistic performance outcomes for the CNN model and to identify areas where inter-annotator agreement may be improved. We also applied a classification approach that allowed the CNN model to classify sounds into an ‘uncertain’ category, which replicated a requirement of human-annotation and facilitated the comparison of human-model annotation performance.We found that active learning was an efficient strategy to build a CNN model where there was limited labelled training data available, and target calls were extremely rare in the unlabelled data. As few as five active learning iterations, generating a final labelled dataset of 1073 target calls and 5786 non-target sounds, were required to train a model to identify the target species with comparable performance to experts in the field.Assessment of inter-annotator agreement identified a bias in our model to align predictions most closely with those of the primary annotator and identified significant differences in inter-annotator agreement among subsets of our acoustic data. Our results highlight the use of inter-annotator agreement to understand model performance and identify areas for improvement in data annotation. We also show that excluding ambiguous vocalisations during data annotation results in an overestimation of model performance, an important consideration for datasets with inter-annotator disagreement.

Chinese bush warbler Locustella tacsanowskia (Swinhoe, 1871) in the Khentei-Chikoi Highlands

The article describes the expansion within the Khentei-Chikoy Highlands (Eastern Siberia and North-Eastern Mongolia) of the range of a rare bird species, the Chinese bush warbler (Locustella tacsanowskia (Swinhoe, 1871)). Based on the results of long-term observations, the characteristics of the habitats of this species are given. It is shown that the Siberian pied beetle has a fairly wide distribution in this territory within both the forest-steppe and forest zones and is a relatively flexible species in the choice of nesting habitats. It is concluded that a necessary condition for the habitat of the Siberian pied beetle is the presence of trees and shrubs with dense tall grasses, and this indicates the stability of the ecological situation within the Khentei-Chikoi Highlands.

A new locality of Alpine Accentor Prunella collaris (Scopoli, 1769) in Algeria (Aves: Prunellidae)

Alpine Accentor, Prunella collaris (Scopoli, 1769), is one of Algeria’s rare birds. During the monitoring campaign, which was run between 2020 and 2023 using direct observation, a pair of Alpine Accentor was spotted in the Tessala mountains (North of Sidi Bel Abbes, western Algeria) on November 12, 2022. This newly documented locality is important because it likely expands the currently known range of this rare species in Algeria

Post-pancreatectomy Acute Pancreatitis in Distal Pancreatectomies — a Rare Bird According to the New Definition

BackgroundPost-pancreatectomy acute pancreatitis (PPAP) is a recently identified clinical condition characterized by sustained elevated serum amylase levels for at least 48 h post-operatively, consistent radiological findings, and relevant clinical features. The purpose of this study was to determine the frequency of PPAP after DP, to investigate the rate of major complications in patients with sustained or transiently elevated serum amylase activity, and to explore the usability of CT as a prerequisite for the diagnosis of PPAP. MethodsThis retrospective single-center observational study included consecutive patients 18 years or older who underwent DP at Karolinska University Hospital between 2008 and 2020. The two serum amylase levels on post-operative days (POD) 1 and 2 were correlated with post-operative major complications by logistic regression analyses. ResultsOf the 403 patients who underwent DP, 14% (n = 58) had sustained elevated serum amylase levels according to PPAP criteria, and 31% (n = 126) had transiently elevated serum amylase levels on either POD1 or POD2. Of the patients with sustained elevated levels, 45% (n = 26) developed major complications, but less than 2% (n = 1) showed imaging findings consistent with acute pancreatitis. Of the 126 patients who exhibited only transiently elevated serum amylase on either POD1 or POD2, 38% (n = 48) developed major complications. The frequency of PPAP was 0.25% (n = 1). ConclusionThese findings indicate that PPAP after DP is rare and that computed tomography has limited usability for diagnosing PPAP. The findings also suggest that transiently elevated serum amylase may be an early indicator of acute pancreatitis, especially when peaked.

Ranging behaviour of an adult female greater spotted eagle (Clanga clanga) wintering in Sudan for 10 years, as revealed by satellite telemetry

Abstract Using global position system (GPS) technology, we tracked an adult female greater spotted eagle (Clanga clanga) on its wintering grounds in the Sudan-South Sudan borderland during 2005–2015. There were 10 909 GPS locations for this bird in the non-breeding range. Throughout the study, the eagle showed fidelity to its wintering grounds. The non-breeding season coincided with the dry season. The median arrival date was 11 October (n = 10). The median departure date (n = 10) was 4 March, and was less variable than the arrival date. The 95% kernel density estimate (KDE) for all years was 33 838 km2, and the 50% KDE encompassed 6 585 km2. The wintering range was split between two areas, west and east, with the eagle typically arriving in the western area, where it stayed for some time. It then moved about 330 km to the eastern area, where it would remain for a few weeks before departing for Europe in the spring. In both the western and eastern subareas, the annual home ranges overlapped to a variable extent (14–99%). The high degree of fidelity to the wintering grounds shown by this bird was mirrored by the behaviours of two other adult greater spotted eagles that we tracked (using >1 tracking devices) for 15 years that wintered in South Sudan and Turkey. The number of greater spotted eagles that winter in Africa is a matter of speculation, although virtually all individuals are likely to pass through a narrow corridor near Suez, Egypt. Collectively, these tracking data and the findings of other studies suggest that greater spotted eagles from the western parts of the European breeding range often move to Africa. Further, the Sudd wetlands in South Sudan are important for greater spotted eagles and other rare bird species during the non-breeding season.

Natural remnants are refuges for rare birds in an urban area: a study from Pune city, India

AbstractThe green spaces in many urban areas are under severe threats; the area under green cover is declining, habitat quality is deteriorating due to fast urbanisation and the booming real estate market. Therefore, we investigated the avian richness of a natural remnant area and compared it with species richness data previously published in the literature about gardens, urban parks, and academic campuses in Pune, India. In two years of our survey, we recorded 65 species at the natural remnant site, 15 of which are rare considered in urban areas. Among recorded species, 17 are habitat specialists and 14 have declining population. Natural remnant patches are generally inaccessible to the general public; they have undergrowth of vegetation and aerial leaf litter, which may be the reason for the higher species richness and the occurrence of rare species. Our findings indicate that the natural remnant site in Pune has a unique and relatively rich assemblage of bird species, thus provide further support for the notion that natural remnant sites are valuable for urban biodiversity conservation. Therefore, we suggest that small, isolated patches of natural vegetation should receive more attention in conservation planning.

Hypallage is a rare bird. Not.

Hypallage, a “marginal” rhetorical trope, is defined as a combination of seemingly incompatible features and has been exploited since antiquity in poetic and narrative discourse, e.g., angry crowns of kings (Odes of Horace). Here the hypallactic incompatibility arises from the position of angry as a prenominal modifier of crowns rather than of kings. We deny that hypallage is a rare phenomenon restricted to belles-lettres; rather, we claim that hypallage is a highly entrenched mechanism in ordinary language. We demonstrate that structural and semantic parallelisms exist between prototypical hypallactic transpositions and the marked placement of constituents in clausal, morphological, and speech act constructions, as well as quantifier and adverbial placement. Hypallactic expressions constitute a violation of the Iconic Proximity Principle. Nevertheless, they are a means for a speaker to convey complex meanings at any level of grammar and discourse with a minimum of coding effort. The exploitation of hypallactic anti-iconicity by a speaker and its resolution by a hearer are made possible by shared conceptual models, the conceptual metonymies and/or metaphors operating on them, and pragmatic inferencing. We conclude that the prioritizing of figurative motivation at the expense of iconicity is a pervasive cognitive mechanism in language.

Land cover differentially affects abundance of common and rare birds.

While rare species are vulnerable to global change, large declines in common species (i.e., those with large population sizes, large geographic distributions, and/or that are habitat generalists) also are of conservation concern. Understanding if and how commonness mediates species' responses to global change, including land cover change, can help guide conservation strategies. We explored avian population responses to land cover change along a gradient from common to rare species using avian data from the North American Breeding Bird Survey and land cover data from the National Land Cover Database for the conterminous United States. Specifically, we used generalized linear mixed effects models to ask if species' commonness affected the relationship between land cover and counts, using the initial amount of and change in land cover surrounding each North American Breeding Bird Survey route from 2001 to 2016. We quantified species' commonness as a continuous metric at the national scale using the logarithm (base 10) of each species' total count across all routes in the conterminous United States in 2001. For our focal 15-year period, we found that higher proportions of initial natural land cover favored (i.e., was correlated with higher) counts of rare but not common species. We also found that commonness mediated how change in human land cover, but not natural land cover, was associated with species' counts at the end of the study period. Increases in developed lands did not favor populations of any species. Increases in agriculture and declines in pasture favored populations of common but not rare species. Our findings show a signal of commonness in how species respond to a major dimension of global change. Evaluating how and why commonness mediates species' responses to land cover change can help managers design conservation portfolios that sustain the spectrum of common to rare species.

Rare bird spotted: renal clear cell carcinoma in a pancake kidney case report

The discovery of a tumor process on a Pancake kidney allows the authors to review both the particularities of this association and the diagnostic and therapeutic difficulties. The diagnosis of Pancake kidney may be difficult, and CT Scan examination is very useful to confirm the renal anomaly, tumor situation, and to plan a surgical strategy by visualizing the vascular pedicles which are highly variable. The surgery of exeresis, adapted to the tumor location, represents the essential therapeutic time.

A New and Effective Method to Trace Tibetan Chicken by Amino Acid Profiling

As a "rare bird on the plateau", the Tibetan chicken is rich in nutrition and has high medicinal value. In order to quickly and effectively identify the source of food safety problems and to label fraud regarding this animal, it is necessary to identify the geographical traceability of the Tibetan chicken. In this study, Tibetan chicken samples from four different cities in Tibet, China were analyzed. The amino acid profiles of Tibetan chicken samples were characterized and further subjected to chemometric analyses, including orthogonal least squares discriminant analysis, hierarchical cluster analysis, and linear discriminant analysis. The original discrimination rate was 94.4%, and the cross-validation rate was 93.3%. Moreover, the correlation between amino acid concentrations and altitudes in Tibetan chicken was studied. With the increase in altitude, all amino acid contents showed a normal distribution. For the first time, amino acid profiling has been comprehensively applied to trace the origin of plateau animal food with satisfactory accuracy.

The functional importance of rare and dominant species in a Neotropical forest bird community

Bird communities in Tropical forests have high rate of rare species, but only recently some studies suggested their disproportional role for the overall functional diversity. We investigated data from bird communities monitored annually using point counts over ten years in Iguassu National Park, that is a large and protected area in the southern portion of the Atlantic Forest in Brazil. We aimed (1) to determine the rare and dominant species in the community based on their abundance over time; (2) to evaluate the impact of each class of rarity on the overall functional volume of the community; (3) to investigate the pattern of occupancy of the trait space filled by each dominance class, and (4) to assess the disparity in functional trait composition between classes of rarity. We defined dominant, intermediate, and rare species in communities using cluster analysis and data of relative abundance of species in five sections of 1-km in the forest interior. The number of clusters was defined in accordance with the silhouette criterion measures of cohesion and separation that range from −1 to 1, with values > 0.5 indicating high-quality clusters. Among total 138 bird species recorded, 107 were rare, 26 intermediates, and 5 dominants. Our data corroborate a functional disproportional importance of rare bird species in the community considering the functional space (FRic), but functional dispersion (FDis) was not significantly different between the rare and intermediate species. In fact, there is a large overlap of the functional volume occupied by rare in relation to dominant/intermediate species. The niche space occupied by rare species covers most of the space occupied by intermediate and dominant species. The low representativeness of functional turnover indicates that few functions are unique to the classes of higher dominance. Our data suggest the importance of rare bird species to the overall functional diversity but also highlights the potential use of dominants/intermediates species as indicators to select important forests areas for conservation, as certain forest fragments. Through these most abundant species it would be possible to assess which functions are heaviest in abundance, becoming core functions, in the context of each independent forest fragment.

Geomagnetic disturbance associated with increased vagrancy in migratory landbirds

Rare birds known as “accidentals” or “vagrants” have long captivated birdwatchers and puzzled biologists, but the drivers of these rare occurrences remain elusive. Errors in orientation or navigation are considered one potential driver: migratory birds use the Earth’s magnetic field—sensed using specialized magnetoreceptor structures—to traverse long distances over often unfamiliar terrain. Disruption to these magnetoreceptors or to the magnetic field itself could potentially cause errors leading to vagrancy. Using data from 2 million captures of 152 landbird species in North America over 60 years, we demonstrate a strong association between disruption to the Earth’s magnetic field and avian vagrancy during fall migration. Furthermore, we find that increased solar activity—a disruptor of the avian magnetoreceptor—generally counteracts this effect, potentially mitigating misorientation by disabling the ability for birds to use the magnetic field to orient. Our results link a hypothesized cause of misorientation to the phenomenon of avian vagrancy, further demonstrating the importance of magnetoreception among the orientation mechanisms of migratory birds. Geomagnetic disturbance may have important downstream ecological consequences, as vagrants may experience increased mortality rates or facilitate range expansions of avian populations and the organisms they disperse.

A new locality of Dupont’s Lark Chersophilus duponti in Algeria

Dupont’s Lark Chersophilus duponti (Vieillot, 1824), is one of Algeria’s most discreet and rare birds. During the monitoring campaign, which was run between 2015 and 2022 using the point count method, a pair of Dupont’s Larks was spotted in Aïn Dheb (South of Tiaret, Western Algeria) on July 27, 2016, with another dubious sighting of a single individual being recorded in the same locality in the second week of May 2022. This newly documented locality is important because it likely expands the currently known range of this rare species in Algeria.

Rare Birds in Arkansas: Historical Observations and New Records

Rare Birds in Arkansas: Historical Observations and New Records