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Re: Birders watch for West Nile Virus
- To: carolinabirds@duke.edu
- Subject: Re: Birders watch for West Nile Virus
- From: Joshua Stuart Rose <jsr6@duke.edu>
- Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2000 23:38:07 -0400 (EDT)
- In-Reply-To: <v01540b00b61e399c559d@[64.92.84.121]>
- Sender: carolinabirds-owner@acpub.duke.edu
On Thu, 26 Oct 2000, Elizabeth L. Hanrahan wrote:
> >
> > However, At the meeting of the North Carolina Wildlife Rehabilitators last
> > October 15th at the zoo the topic of the West Nile Virus came up. We were
> > asked by our permitting officer, Randall Wilson, Section Manager, Division
> > of Wildlife Management for the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission
> > to ask all birders to be on the lookout for flocks of blackbirds.
> > Speciffically, we were asked to notify folks to look for roosting sights
> > of: Crows, Grackles or other Corvids.
Hi Carolinabirders,
I'm sure most of us already know this, but Grackles are not Corvids.
Corvidae is the crow family; the only species in North Carolina which
belong to this family are American and Fish Crows and the Blue Jay, and
in the mountains the Common Raven. I think that's all. The reason for
attention to Corvids is that they are especially sensitive to the West
Nile Virus, and so are the first species to start dying when WNV reaches
a new area. American Crows are, at least; I haven't heard anything yet
regarding the relative suceptibility of jays, ravens, or other species of
crows.
Grackles, on the other hand, are not Corvids, but members of the family
Icteridae, the New World Blackbirds. They are related to orioles,
meadowlarks, and cowbirds as well as blackbirds, and probably some other
birds I'm forgetting, but not crows. I'm sure that WNV has been detected
in grackles, as it has in a dizzying array of species from gulls to
raptors, but I don't think they share high suceptibility that corvids
have. Elizabeth, could you contact Randall Wilson and find out if he
really wants information on grackle roosts (perhaps because there are so
many birds there) or was he under the mistaken impression that they were
really Corvids?
Good birding,
Josh
Joshua S. Rose
Duke University
Department of Biology (Zoology, R.I.P.)
jsr6@acpub.duke.edu
http://www.duke.edu/~jsr6/