Vagrancy in Birds

Discusions on the Frontiers of Field Identification (aka ID-Frontiers) listserv ordinarily revolve around obscure field characters for separating similar species, the identification of supspecies, and so forth, with gulls and shorebirds being frequent subjects. Recently, discussions about a wayward Glaucous-winged Gull morphed into several threads discussing vagrancy in birds. In the following paragraphs, individual posts are listed in approximate chronological order, from oldest to most recent. The major theme deriving from these discussions is that vagrancy, far from being a "dead-end" journey for the individual(s) involved, may in fact be genetically beneficial at the species level.

Causes of extreme vagrancy (January 5-10, 2007)

Wayne C. Weber
Matt Sharp
Tony Leukering
Kenn Kaufman
Floyd Hayes
Kevin McGowan
Shai Mitra
Kevin Karlson
Harry Lehto
Alvaro Jaramillo
Wayne C. Weber
Jamie Chavez
Martin Reid
Wayne C. Weber

"Vagrancy" and other confusing terminology (January 9, 2007)

Alan Wormington

A recent "vagrant" to ponder (January 10, 2007)

Alan Wormington

Vagrants (January 10, 2007)

Christopher E. Hill

Vagrants as colonists (?) in MA (January 10, 2007)

James M. Barton

Vagrancy (January 10, 2007)

Michael Smith
Jim Pike

Vagrancy and juv dispersal (January 10, 2007)

John Idzikowski

On vagrancy (January 10-11)

Ian A. McLaren
Nick Lethaby
Matt Sharp
Alan Contreras
Norman D. van Swelm
Laurent Raty
Robert Wallace
David Muth
Bruce Mactavish
Shaibal Mitra
Alexander C. Lees
Norman D. van Swelm

On Broad-billed Hummingbird Vagrancy (January 11, 2007)

David Muth