Rallidae? Landed on a ship north of the Amazon River mouth (1 Viewer)

[ZanderII]

Is that a first for South America?

Zander II will know and I see him viewing this..

cheers, a

Yes, its a Western Hemispheric first, although records from Ascension I and St Helena. Lesser Moorhen (Archipelago of São Pedro and São Paulo) and Corncrake (Fernando de Noronha) have already made it to Brazil. Squaccos probably breeding on Fernando de Noronha.

Paucus - did you speak to Vitor?

 

[ZanderII]

For an exausted bird, 240 km is a huge distance. The chances it would naturally reach land are too low to be significant. Be aware there are quite a few records of African birds in the Brazilian oceanic islands, somehow close to Brazilian mainland.

No reason why gallinules don't annually show up on the Brazilian mainland, its well within their flight capacity but the probability of detection is very small, even in places like FdN

Yet there is no record in the continent (except couple long-distance migrants). And such islands are very poorly sampled, yet they have many more records of vagrants than the continent, what suggests there is a big difference between moving to Brazilian waters and actually getting to the mainland.

No records because there are so few people looking. Just occasionally however 'miracles' do happen and a rarity not tied to mudflats gets found on the mainland

http://www.wikiaves.com.br/midias.php?tm=f&t=c&s=10350&c=2303709

 

[ramphocelus]

Ergo any natural vagrant to the 'wrong continent' should be collected [as they could introduce parasites].

Please point out any flaws in my summary of your position and the subsequent logic.

Dear Alan,

You have made the point yourself when you wrote the word "natural". If it is a natural vagrant, let it be. But this one is not a natural. Period. Anyway, I'm not going to make a fight out of this. Feel free everybody to disagree. Just please don't pretend there is no reason to avoid to release an exotic bird artificially brought to the continent.

All the best.

 

[lewis20126]

Dear Alan,

You have made the point yourself when you wrote the word "natural". If it is a natural vagrant, let it be. But this one is not a natural. Period. Anyway, I'm not going to make a fight out of this. Feel free everybody to disagree. Just please don't pretend there is no reason to avoid to release an exotic bird artificially brought to the continent.

All the best.

But surely a natural vagrant can bring parasites? If I find another Allen's Gallinule in Brazil next year, should I call the authorities so it can be destroyed, along with its parasites?

cheers, alan

 

[ramphocelus]

(...) but the probability of detection is very small, even in places like FdN

No records because there are so few people looking. Just occasionally however 'miracles' do happen and a rarity not tied to mudflats gets found on the mainland

Zander, my dear friend, we both know the number of people looking for birds in FdN is ridiculously small -- maybe a couple dozen a year, at most? And for couple days each -- especially when you compare to the hundreds sampling Brazilian mainland everyday (almost thousand pictures uploaded to wikiaves daily, as you known). Yet, there are far more records of African birds in the Brazilian islands (with this ridiculously small sampling) than there are in the continent, therefore this is a strong indicative that, for those vagrants, being in Brazilian waters does not mean reaching the continent. That was my point.

Anyway, I think we had enough of this conversation. I just thought I should warn Paucus that he should pay attention to the legislation where he plans to release it. Let's move on.

All the best.

 

[Jos Stratford]

Be aware there are quite a few records of African birds in the Brazilian oceanic islands, somehow close to Brazilian mainland. Yet there is no record in the continent (except couple long-distance migrants).

Colonization of the Americas by Cattle Egrets?

 

[ramphocelus]

But surely a natural vagrant can bring parasites? If I find another Allen's Gallinule in Brazil next year, should I call the authorities so it can be destroyed, along with its parasites?

cheers, alan

I just think we all should be very careful and extremily rigorous with the artificial introduction of exotic species. If at least some of the past English colonists could think that a single animal can actually make a difference, maybe we would have more species to see in New Zealand nowadays.