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Posted by Bill Pranty on 23:56:33 10/24/07
In Reply to: Re: RFI - Superb Starling posted by Holly
Good evening,
I'd like to interject a bit of discussion that I held back mentioning when the bishop was being seen on 26 July 2007 (http://www.tropicalaudubon.org/tasboard/messages/16735.html).
The bishop was described as "a female orange bishop." Since the sexes of _Euplectes_ species are similar (identical?) in basic plumage, I think it might have been better to say that the bird was in female plumage (I doubt that we know enough about plumage timing in bishops in Florida to say for certain that it had to have been a female, since males would be in alternate plumage in June -- quite possibly so, but I'm not certain -- and couldn't it have been a juvenile?).
The point that I'm making is that bishops that are NOT adult males in alternate plumage CANNOT be identified specifically. Since all bishops in Florida are local escapees -- there are no breeding observations anywhere -- then it's wrong to presume that the bird was an Orange Bishop; it's quite possible that the bird could have been a Red Bishop, a Yellow-crowned Bishop, or any of several other species of bishops.
(I'm aware that all male bishops in alternate plumage that have been photographed in Florida have proven to be Orange Bishops, but that doesn't mean that we can't have other species).
Granted, we have the Sibley and National Geographic field guides to "blame" for the confusion. All five of these guides show Orange Bishop but no other _Euplectes_ species -- misleading some (= tens of thousands of?) readers to think that any bishop seen in North America, or eastern North America, or Florida, has to be an Orange Bishop because that's "what's in the book."
Since the Publix bishop was seen in female-plumage, and since we're again discussing it several months after it was reported, then I'd suggest that we refer to it as the bishop or the Publix bishop, but not the Orange Bishop, since there is no way to identify it to species.
Best regards,
Bill Pranty
Bayonet Point, Florida
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