User talk:Jimfbleak

mixed-species feeding flock

Subspecies of Grayish Saltator

Everything I know about this topic is from Howell and Webb. Howell mentions two subspecies groups that are distinguishable in the field: grandis along the Atlantic slope of Mexico and both sides of Central America from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec south, and vigorsii along the Pacific coast of Mexico, isolated from the others. Grandis is darker (it's the one pictured in the article) and includes a subspecies hesperis along the Pacific slope of C. A. from the Isthmus south (he doesn't say how far south), which has a brighter blue-gray head than the Mexican subspecies in the grandis group. Nothing about Northern and Southern, but maybe "Southern" is South American, distinct from the various C. A. subspecies? Sorry I can't be more helpful. —JerryFriedman 16:42, 12 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Are you sure you're talking about the right saltator? Google indeed has no hits for "Saltator coerulescens maximus" (I tried several variations, as you probably did too), but it does have a number of hits for "Saltator maximus maximus", apparently a subspecies of the Buff-throated Saltator. —JerryFriedman 16:56, 13 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Got it. This page, which might turn out to be useful, lists 13 subspecies of S. coerulescens, unfortunately without ranges, though I can guess where yucatanensis lives. This one calls S. c. grandis the "Middle American Saltator", which is too stupid a name to mention, in my arrogant opinion, as there are two other saltator species and several other coerulescens subspecies in just northern Middle America. —JerryFriedman 17:44, 13 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Common Nighthawk (Bullbat)

I'm just curious why you reverted the edit for Common Nighthawk listing it as "sometimes called Bullbat". Was that just a style thing? Bullbat is a common American folk-name for the bird. I've heard that name from non-birders who are familiar with the bird on more than one occasion. I like seeing the folk-names for wildlife--they are often very interesting. For instance, a charming folk name for Yellow-billed Cuckoo is Rain Crow, apparently in reference to its calling on hot, humid summer days, when thunderstorms are frequent. John Terres (no Wikipedia article--I'll try to write a stub at least--has good lists in his Encyclopedia of North American Birds. How do you feel about adding that sort of thing at the end of species accounts? --Cotinis 10:38, 21 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Guess My Name Challenge

You have been invited to participate in the:

GUESS MY NAME CHALLENGE

(Try to guess my name and put it in my Talk Page under the section Guess My Name)

I think that it will be interesting to see what people think my name might be.

Challenge Ends at June 2006 Ω Anonymous anonymous Ψ: ''Have A Nice Day'' 00:11, 22 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

DYK

Did you know? has been updated. A fact from the article Red-throated Ant-Tanager, which you recently created, has been featured in that section on the Main Page. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the "Did you know?" talk page.

--Cactus.man ✍ 12:47, 22 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Baptism in the name of Jesus Christ

Hiya. There are some odd things going on over at the AfD vote page of an article named 'Baptism in the name of Jesus Christ'. I found the article yesterday, and it had been up for deletion for a week or so. Personally, I think the article is unencyclopedic (it's an argumentative essay, effectively), but notwithstanding that, there are some shocking irregularities going on with the voting, including multiple votes per user and some blatant sock puppetry. As an admin, would you mind popping over and checking it out, please? I'm not exactly sure what to do, but you seem like you do.

Page here VfD here

Thanks, Jaems 02:56, 25 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Orange People

Please check the creation date/time on articles before deleting them. I had barely created the article before you deleted it. Sfacets 06:32, 26 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Well besides the fact that it was just created, it was (albight badly) marked as a stub. It does have context, it mentions Rajneesh, and the west, so there is a protagonist and a setting.

Yes, fair enough, good idea to merge for the moment, there is some content to go into this article such as figureheads etc... in a way the "Orange People" are an offshoot of the original Rajneeshis, as they continue after his death, I just don't have the time atm to do any research. Sfacets 00:17, 27 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Peregrine Falcon speed

Good point about claims for speed of the Peregrine Falcon being undocumented. I've heard those figures for years, and I read one original anecdote of how that was determined--a pilot in a dive at a certain speed (175 mph) had a Pergrine pass him. I think every statement about the Peregrine's top speed is based on that one anecdote. I did find some references on this:

web page with references
Stanford site by Paul R. Ehrlich, David S. Dobkin, and Darryl Wheye discusses Doppler radar measurements of various birds, apparently, however, not made on a Pergrine. That author quotes the 200 mph figure, but says 100 mph may be more typical, but gives no references on that statement.
Paul R. Ehrlich, David S. Dobkin, and Darryl Wheye, 1988, The Birder's Handbook, New York: Simon and Schuster, ISBN 0-671-62133-5, source of the above quote by the authors. They give some primary references in the print version.
Terres, 1980, Audubon Society Encyclopedia of North American Birs, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, ISBN 0-394-46651-9 gives a number of flight speeds--gliding and flapping (28-32; 40-60; 62; all in mph) and the famous stoop speed measurement of one passing an airplane diving at 175 mph. The original reference for this is Lawson, 1930, The stoop of a hawk. Bull. Essex (Mass.) Ornith. Club 12:79-80.
Birds of North America--this one freely available--AHA! Has an extensive discussion of speeds. Quoting and paraphrasing, for the purposes of discussion:

Stoop. Terminal velocity of 368–384 km/h (228–238 mi/h); direct measurements (airspeed indicators attached to birds, radar) recorded speeds of 111–144 km/h (66–86 mph) in less than vertical dives. Estimates made by comparison with moving aircraft range from 160 km/h (matched speed) to minimum of 280 km/h (passing aircraft; Lawson 1930--the 175 mph reference). ... They go on to quote some measurements of trained birds free-falling with skydivers at 150-200 mph.

Looks to me they can indeed dive at a typical speed of up to 90 mph. The 175 mph figure quoted by everybody is on the high end, but not impossible, IMHO, given the experience with skydivers. Perhaps you can summarize all of this in a pithy manner, if you like. Given all of this, I may be tempted to say that the fastest on the planet label given to the Peregrine may not be an urban myth. --Cotinis 17:18, 29 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Lesser Antillean Saltator

The Lesser Antillean Saltator is on the list of birds of Trinidad and Tobago; I was asked recently about the source for its inclusion by a TT birder. It appears that you added it, and I was curious about the source (or if it's an error). Thanks. Guettarda 18:53, 1 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the clarification. Guettarda 05:23, 2 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Common Poorwill

Check out Common Poorwill if you would be so kind. That was an article begging to be written. I had heard about the hibernation, but did not know the details of the discovery, made in 1946 by Dr. Edmund Jaeger. I had seen his writings, but did not know he made that particular discovery. I was especially fascinated by the peripheral role of one Wilson Hanna, an oologist from Riverside, California. He was an acquaintance of my uncle, long-time city manager of nearby Colton, and I met Hanna briefly in the 1960's, courtesy of my uncle. (Now I should go find a Poorwill, a bird I've never seen, despite living in the western United States for much of my life.) --Cotinis 04:15, 3 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Nauru Canary/Nauruan Reed Warbler

Hi, I'm wokring on the Nauru article at the moment, it turns out they have one endemic species of bird. I was hoping you might have access to some information about it, or would at least be able to point me in the direct of the right common name. Thanks.--nixie 06:03, 3 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, I will try and knock together a stub.--nixie 09:50, 3 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Sheep --> Ovis move

Can I get your opinion on whether "Sheep" should have been moved to "Ovis". Unfortunately it was done without a proper move request discussion. You can see my comment about it on Lambian's talk page. — Донама 03:00, 4 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I've moved the discussion to Talk:Ovis and replied there. Lambiam ^Talk 11:40, 4 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Procellariids

Thanks for cleaning up the intro to Procellariidae - but just a heads up, the four natural groups are slightly controversial and are used for convinience rather than strict taxonomic reasons. I'd continue working on the article myself but I'm back in the field again in a week for four months, so it will have to keep till Sptember. Sabine's Sunbird talk 15:35, 4 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Pigeons

Feral pigeons can be considered "free lunch" for anyone can eat them without paying anything but they can cause diseases. This is pretty much the free lunch concept. Cuzandor 17:24, 11 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Smile

Anonymous_anonymous_Have a Nice Day has smiled at you! Smiles promote WikiLove and hopefully this one has made your day better. Spread the WikiLove by smiling to someone else, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past or a good friend. Smile to others by adding {{subst:smile}} or {{subst:smile2}} to their talk pages. Happy editing!

Zonta International

On March 25th, you Speedied Zonta International as gibberish (it's a real organization, [1]), which I didn't notice until today. This is questionable, since it wasn't a leaf stub article, and is a real organization.

Is there any way to retrieve the article, or do I need to create a new one? -- Kaszeta 14:08, 17 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I found an offsite cache of the article, and recreated it. Please don't speedy-delete something as "gibberish" without doing basic research. -- Kaszeta 14:15, 17 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Tanagers

I've done George Kruck Cherrie, but I'm not finding much on Signor Passerini. I'll keep looking. Smallweed 08:04, 19 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

coua

why the lack of interest in noting distribution info on the couas in this article? regards Anlace 05:24, 22 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

thanks for your swift reply. i still think some info on distribution may be valuable in the broad articles, but i agree it's lopsided coverage without some corresponding data on other species cited in these articles, so ill abide by your opinion for now. the coua and wagtail these articles you mention are on my "to do" list :) Anlace 05:51, 22 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Ben West Addition

I was there, and would like to ad more but have limited time you see. A tad instant about deletion.

--G-Spot 15:19, 28 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Problem user help, not a vandal per se, not sure what to do

Hi. I thought maybe you'd be able to help resolve a problem user issue. I'm coming to you as the user (Ian Chattan) is the creator of Saqqara Bird which you deleted yesterday after I placed db-nonsense on it (having just looked at the deletion log, I should have placed db-repost, as it has been created and deleted 5 times and should likely by recreated, tagged with {{deletedpage}} and protected). The user is not exactly a vandal—he appears to be writing in earnest— but his edits and articles created are well..insane...word salad type stuff. In the last two days he has been very active and has spammed multiple talk pages with long rambling nonsense screeds and created other nonsense articles. I am not sanguine about reverting talk page edits, nor do I wish to look like I am targeting this user when his edits are not exactly those where a test or verror 1, 2, 3, 4 series would seem appropriate. I thought about various places to list him such as WP:AIAV, noticeboard etc., but none seemed right under the circumstances, so I checked the deletion log and here we are. Any suggestions? Thanks. --Fuhghettaboutit 15:54, 28 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. I'm wondering though if the massive, nonsense talk page edits should be reverted.--Fuhghettaboutit 16:28, 28 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

WikiLove!

Here's a pizza for you! Pizzas promote WikiLove and hopefully this one has made your day better. Spread the WikiLove by giving something friendly to someone else, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past or a good friend. Make your own message to spread WikiLove to others using Template:smile! Happy editing! LINUX ERIST@ ~~~~~

Talk:Moa (bird)

Aloha. It looks like someone forgot to move Talk:Moa (bird) back to Talk:Moa. It looks like an admin may need to do it since User talk:Joelr31 moved it again. —Viriditas | Talk 01:41, 29 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Muscovy Ducks

No idea why facts about Muscovy Ducks were removed. These ducks are a nuisance and are considered invasive in Florida. If you lived in a neighborhood where they drop their 1/3 pound of dung per day you might also consider than invasive. I have witnessed the fact that the male actually "rapes" his mate, which I find quite repulsive! Any in depth research will prove these to be facts.......sorry! Like the writeup says, "if you don't like your entry to be edited, don't submit it!"