Editor's Choice: A New Feature from the Auk

EDITOR'S CHOICE

Michael Murphy, Editor

Starting with the October 2011 issue of The Auk, we are highlighting articles that we believe deserve special attention from our members and hopefully increase interest in the journal in readers who are not members now. Below are my choices for this issue of The Auk.

• Film Documentation of the Probably Extinct Imperial Woodpecker (Campephilus imperialis)
   
  Martjan Lammertink, Tim W. Gallagher, Kenneth V. Rosenberg, John W. Fitzpatrick, Eric Liner, Jorge Rojas-Tomé, and Patricia Escalante
   
  Lammertink et al. present the only known film record of the Imperial Woodpecker (Campephilus imperialis), and results of their recent surveys at the site where the film was made in 1956. The authors conclude that this majestic species, the world’s largest woodpecker, probably went extinct in the late 20th century due to logging of large pines and to human persecution.
  
• Brood Size and Late Breeding are Negatively Related to Juvenile Survival in a Neotropical Migratory Songbird
   
  Scott A. Tarof, Patrick M. Kramer, James R. Hill III, John Tautin, and Bridget J. M. Stutchbury
   
  Tarof et al. provide one of the most thorough descriptions to date of first year survival for a migratory songbird. They show that the probability of return declines steadily over the season, mortality in the first few weeks after leaving the nest is low, and that most mortality occurs after the young depart on their first fall migration. Negative effects of brood size on survival appear to be restricted to the immediate weeks after fledging.
  

Cover art by Evaristo Hernández-Fernández