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The following is an archived discussion of a featured article nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The article was promoted by SandyGeorgia 11:33, 9 April 2010 [1].

Zapata Rail

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Zapata Rail (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

Nominator(s): Jimfbleak - talk to me? 06:06, 1 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]
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Viva Zapata!. Now you hear it, now you don't. Join the real James Bond and Fermín Zanón Cervera in the steaming swamps of Cuba Jimfbleak - talk to me? 06:06, 1 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

There are four results in the Zoological Record, and of those you missed:

Title: Exhibition of a specimen of the Petehora Pipit (Anthus gustavi) from Fair Isle ; also a British-killed specimen of White's Thrush (Turdus varius) and a rare Rail Cyanolimnas cerverai from Cuba.
Author(s): Hartert, E.
Source: Bull. Bt. Orn. Cl. Volume: 49 Page(s): pp. 57-58 Published: 1929

I doubt there will be anything of value in that.

Images look good, except that File:Clgar_u0.gif is missing evidence for the claim that drawings by Cada are free to use.
Sources:
  • What makes the Arturo Kirkconnell piece a reliable source?
  • Arturo Kirkconnell is co-author of Birds of Cuba, Andrew Mitchell is Director of the Global Canopy Program, which is referenced in the Birdlife International Cuban Kite evaluation.
  • The Tierramérica and IPS News sources don't seem to be the highest-quality reliable sources, but I suppose they could be used if there is nothing better.
  • Tierramérica is a joint project of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and The World Bank (WB), with IPS serving as the executive agency, so not bad Jimfbleak - talk to me? 06:28, 2 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Other comments:
  • Is "limnas" really Latin? It sounds rather Greek to me.
  • Perhaps leave the phrase saying it is almost flightless out from the description, since the point is discussed more fully later.
  • Ridgway cite should be completed with the title of the contribution &c.
There is little to tell, but what there is told well. I look forward to supporting after the above issues have been resolved. Ucucha 03:11, 2 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Support. Thanks for the replies. Ucucha 10:46, 2 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

  • Thanks for support and for completing the Ridgway ref - I wasn't sure whether the family stuff should be included - it's a bit of an odd one for me, where a journal has a single item as its contents Jimfbleak - talk to me? 13:07, 2 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Support Comment The article information seems comprehensive; I just have a couple specific notes:

*The intro might be helped with a few more sentences, e.g. size, diet, and reproduction, even if it's just to note that there isn't much information. I for one like to see where information gaps exist, rather than think that the intro is incomplete

*A minor point, but could the range be changed to a more obvious color, like red? It took me a while to find it on the thumbnail map.

  • Nah, like I said, a minor point

*"...and become a professional naturalist"

  • become->became, unless you meant "he had stayed on to become an ornithologist"

*"...he sent the Spaniard on a series of trips into the region, where he eventually found the rail"

  • the two uses of "he" here seem to refer to two different people? Perhaps rephrase or split into two sentences

*"...his name is commemorated by the new centre in the Ciénaga de Zapata National Park"

  • centre of what?
  • ecological, added

*"Barbour did not believe that the three swamp bird species..."

  • What three species? Do you mean that the rail fossils at Havana, Pinar del Río and the Isla de la Juventud were not all Zapata Rails but belonged to different species?

*"...conditions similar to those found today may once have extended over the large submerged area now represented by the shallow banks, with scattered mangrove keys, which extend towards the Isla de la Juventud and perhaps eastward..."

  • The two uses of "extend" here make the sentence read a bit odd; perhaps rephrase?
  • oops, sloppy - second occurence now replaced with stretched

*"The fossils from Isla de la Juventud are small compared to the limited samples from the extant bird, but the paucity of available material makes it impossible to establish whether the populations were genuinely different."

  • The wording of this sentence makes it seem you're comparing the sizes of the actual fossil remains (bones and such); perhaps rephrase to something like "the birds fossilized at Isla de al Juventud are smaller than the few extant specimens..."

*link rainy season

*"The few records in subsequent years suggested that numbers remain low..."

  • verb tenses should agree on "suggest" and "remain"

*"...but after no official sightings for two decades, a 1998 survey found two more locations in the Zapata Swamp"

First, the conjunction "but" doesn't seem to fit here, as the discovery of 70-90 birds doesn't seem to contradict the statement that their numbers are low. Second, do you mean "found the birds at two new locations"?
  • but to although, rephrased as suggested

*The name of the catfish is all-capitalized in the image caption, but not in the prose

*Also, perhaps one of the images of a living catfish here would be more informative?

*"The Zapata Rail is restricted to a single area, with an extent of about 1,000 km2 (386 mi2), and its small population of between 250–1000 individuals is assessed as decreasing"

  • Are these population figures extrapolated from the 1998 sightings above, or have there been more recent surveys?

*"There are plans to encourage more tourists to visit the Zapata area, particularly from Europe, and if the United States allows its citizens to visit Cuba in the future, this could further increase the demand for ecotourism"

  • Would "impact of ecotourism" be more appropriate than "demand" here? Also, the way the sentence is phrased makes it seem that ecotourism levels are only contingent on whether the US allows travel to Cuba
  • now effects of ecotourism. (impact is first verb in next sentence). The interpretation you take is what was intended. The US is large, wealthly and very close, so if US citizens are given the right to travel freely, it's bound to outweigh all other tourism Jimfbleak - talk to me? 06:28, 3 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

*"Rising sea levels due to global warming could contaminate the wetland saltwater"

  • Contaminate the wetland with saltwater, or contaminate the saltwater in the wetland? If the latter, how?

*"...the debris left by hurricanes could lead to further damaging fires once the fallen vegetation dries out."

  • Is the debris left by the hurricane the fallen vegetation? Or is the hurricane debris setting the fallen vegetation aflame? Or are both the hurricane debris and the fallen vegetation contributing fuel for worse fires?

Thats all for now. -- Yzx (talk) 20:16, 2 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks again for review and support Jimfbleak - talk to me? 06:09, 4 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • Support Comments I'm glad you've expanded the description, and added a mention of the catfish in the text. Any weights, even of small samples?
Apparently not. Van Perlo always gives weights where they are available (and the number of samples, which can be just one, if that's all there is), but does not do so here. The detailed description by Barbour & Peters and by Ridgway would have been from prepared specimens sent back to the US, so live weights would not have been possible. Jimfbleak - talk to me? 06:59, 8 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • "Tourism and climate change may pose future threats" seems awkward; how about something like "may pose threats in the future"?
Done as suggested Jimfbleak - talk to me? 06:59, 8 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]
During the Cuban breeding season, the rail is always seen in this habitat, and is known to return to the sawgrass after the rainy season. The only nest was in sawgrass, and there is no reason to assume that it was atypical. It's difficult to come up with an alternative scenario. Thanks for reviewing, Jimfbleak - talk to me? 06:59, 8 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]
OK. Seems fine with me, and has been pretty well reviewed by others. —innotata 14:31, 8 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]
thanks again - one thing with a short article is that it gives less targets (: Jimfbleak - talk to me? 15:07, 8 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.
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