Editors' Page

Hoatzin a name? Hoatzin is the common name of the bird we asked you to identify in Birdscapes’ 2nd Annual Name That Bird Contest in the Winter 2004 Issue, but we wanted more: the scientific name. We placed the names of those who correctly identified the bird as Opisthocomus hoazin into their respective geographic-region hats. Three volunteers, whose help we greatly appreciate, randomly drew the winners’ names from the hats.

Carolyn Marsh of Wellesley, Massachusetts, had her name pulled from the U.S. geographic-region hat by Deputy Regional Director Geoff Haskett, with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) - Region 2, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Juan José Antía from Montevideo, Uraguay, had his name drawn from the Latin America and Caribbean-region hat by Gil Cintron. Gil is chief of the Service’s Latin America and Caribbean Branch, Division of International Conservation, in Arlington, Virginia. In Gatineau, Quebec, Special Assistant Monique Kennedy, with the Canadian Wildlife Service’s Wildlife Conservation Branch, drew the Canadian winner’s name: Thomas Reed-Metayer from St-Ferréol-des-Neiges, Quebec. Each of our winners have received a signed copy of Birds of the West Indies. The book’s author, Dr. Herb Raffaele, chief of the Service’s Division of International Conservation, has our deepest gratitude for donating the prize.

Hulk Hogan would probably enjoy this issue of Birdscapes. It has a theme woven throughout to which he could relate: wrestling with nature. In the Project Profiles department, Joe McCauley’s story, “Phragmites Control: A Tough Job Worth Doing,” describes how a partnership is trying to get its arms around this invasive plant. The Research department carries Jena Moon’s and Doug Haukos’ efforts to get a hammerlock on the causes of declining northern pintail populations in “Pintails in the Playas,” while Jim Devries grapples with the survival rates of mallard hens during the breeding season in “Mallard Hen Survival in the Canadian Aspen Parklands.” In the Species at Risk department, Sonia Gabriela Ortiz Maciel and Miguel Ángel Cruz Nieto give their thick-billed parrot research some muscle in “Flying Emeralds.” Then, in the How To department, Gary Kramer’s “Wildlife Photography 101" instructs on how the heavy weights capture wildlife on film. Andrew de Vries, in his “In the Company of Birds and Forests” seen in the Furthermore department, relates how the forest industry and conservation organizations are taking a tag-team approach to conserving Canada’s forest birds. Get ready—you’re only a page away from having to take on these and other powerful stories by yourself.