Such an interesting bird! I looked through photos from a very close
encounter with a limpkin at Corkscrew Swamp a few years ago and didn't have
anything that clearly showed the outer primaries, but I did find this:
- The outermost flight feather (primary) in Limpkins is sickle-shaped
but broad at the tip, and is especially pronounced in males. This feather
can be used to make a loud buzzing sound called winnowing when the bird
flies, and this sound is apparently used to mark territory, even at night.
Greg Walker
Louisville
On Mon, Dec 12, 2022 at 9:25 AM <brainard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
The Limpkin is the *fourth* new bird documented for KY this year. People
have been asking how long it has been since we've had that many new state
birds in a calendar year.
Well . . .
We had three in 2006, 2008, and 2011 . . . but it was 2004:
Yellow-billed Loon [on Ky Lake 13 Apr],
Black Skimmer [by Least Tern researchers on the Miss River 22 Jul],
Long-tailed Jaeger [Ky Lake above Ky Dam 29 Aug], and
Northern Shrike [Sinclair Unit Peabody WMA, Muhlenberg County 13 Nov].
We've also had *three* of 2022's new ones in a period of just over a month
[31 Oct - 4 Dec]! The closest thing to that I can find is Sooty Tern [4
Oct], Long-billed Murrelet [29 Oct], and Common Ground-Dove [24 Nov] back
in 2002.
And as long as we are on trivia . . . out of all the many thousands of
square miles in KY, the Limpkin was found *only* 8.8 air miles SSW from
where the Brown Boody was found on Lake Malone in late May!
Finally, RE: Limpkin trivia . . . I was reading up on them this morning
and learned that the lower mandible is curved to the right at the tip; this
adaptation allows for easier extraction of Apple Snail bodies from their
shells! Not sure if any photos will show that. I was reading to try to
learn about the possible function of the odd shape to the outermost primary
feathers of adult Limpkins. The feathers are short and oddly twisted at the
tip. Ray Bontrager mentioned that character to me yesterday while we were
chatting about age of the KY bird. Regarding age, I'm not sure we can tell
for certain, but to me the size of the white markings on the body more
closely match an adult than a young bird. I could not find anything about
the oddly shaped outer primaries, by the way, so if anyone does, please
share.
bpb, Louisville
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