Green Group discussion
Animals
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Songbirds
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https://gizmodo.com/bird-that-looks-l...
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https://www.birdguides.com/articles/p...
This link leads to a page about a cuckoo being fed by a meadow pipit.
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https://phys.org/news/2020-08-songbir...
More information: Jason P. Dinh et al, Song performance improves with continued singing across the morning in a songbird, Animal Behaviour (2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2020.06.018
Journal information: Animal Behaviour
Hi I'm not sure if this is the right place to put this, but I've really been enjoying learning more about birds through Lockdown & something that really helped with that was the daily / now weekly Self Isolating Bird Club hosted by Chris Packham & Megan McCubbin - so I thought I'd share the previous videos & today's (starts 9am UK time) can be found on Periscope or on Twitter
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"Ausprey and Newell measured eye size relative to body size in 240 species that make up the cloud forest bird community of Amazonas, their study region.
They found the largest-eyed insect-eating birds were "far-sighted" species, those that nab prey on the wing, such as flycatchers. Eye size in "near-sighted" species that hunt in the dimly lit understory increased the closer to the ground they lived.
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"The researchers also attached tiny light-sensing backpacks to 71 birds representing 15 focal species. The sensors tracked the intensity of light the birds encountered over a period of days, providing a first look at their light "micro-environments.""
https://phys.org/news/2020-10-bright-...
More information: Ian J. Ausprey et al, Adaptations to light predict the foraging niche and disassembly of avian communities in tropical countrysides, Ecology (2020). DOI: 10.1002/ecy.3213
Journal information: Ecology
Provided by Florida Museum of Natural History
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" It all started in Andalucia, Spain, in 2018 with a picture and a small, quite hidden, report. The report was the first to link intensive olive oil production, mechanical night harvesting and wild bird deaths. The figures were shocking: more than 100 dead birds per hectare, but then an extrapolation formula was applied to the entire Andalusian olive grove, yielding the horrendous figure of 2.6 million dead birds per year.
The images of dozens of dead Blackcaps Silvia atricapilla, Thrushes Turdus philomelos or Chaffinches Fringilla coelebs among freshly picked olives did the rest. Soon enough bird lovers, environmentalist, foodies and consumers around the world turned on their supermarkets, on their politicians and farmers, and on us at BirdLife International demanding answers and solutions.
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"Then in March 2020, following evidence and our international pressure, the nocturnal harvesting of olives in olive groves was banned throughout the Spanish and Portuguese fields. This has been a massive success for the conservation and sustainable food movements. "
Well done all who worked for the songbirds. And don't forget, those birds all eat insects and /or snails.
http://www.birdlife.org/europe-and-ce...
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"It was already known beforehand that there is a migration divide in Europe: east of this imaginary line, the blackcaps migrate southeast in the fall, and west of this line, they move southwest. Through targeted breeding experiments, it was already successfully shown in the 1990s that the direction of migration is inherited by the parents. These experiments also showed that offspring crossed in captivity between western- and easterly blackcaps show an intermediate orientation, i.e. they migrate exactly in the direction of the south. The assumption was that this would be avoided in nature, since the southern route would lead the birds over the Alps, the Mediterranean and possibly over the Sahara desert.
The scientists were now able to show that this intermediate orientation direction does indeed occur in nature and that the birds that choose this migratory direction also successfully return to their breeding areas despite the ecological barriers they have to overcome in this way. The area in which the orientation preference changes is surprisingly narrow and covers only 27 kilometers.
Another exciting finding from the data obtained concerns a group of birds which, at the end of the year, do exactly the opposite of what one would expect: they do not migrate to the warm south but northwards and spend the winter in Great Britain.
Since the 1960s, there has been a steady increase in the number of blackcaps that choose this strategy, probably due to milder winters and the winter feeding in English gardens. The new investigations show for the first time that these birds come from brood-areas scattered over whole Europe. Why do they not let themselves be dissuaded from this strategy by uncomfortable winters?
On the basis of the evaluated data it was to be recognized that these birds returned in the spring approximately ten days earlier to their breeding places than those which spent the winter in the south. The hibernators from Great Britain possibly had an advantage in the search for breeding places. For the evolutionary scientists, these findings are only a beginning. Bird migration behavior is largely genetic, and this study now lays the groundwork for finding the genes that control where birds migrate and when they fly."
https://phys.org/news/2020-11-variety...
More information: Kira E. Delmore et al. Individual variability and versatility in an eco-evolutionary model of avian migration, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (2020). DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2020.1339
Journal information: Proceedings of the Royal Society B
Provided by Max Planck Society
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Together, the data constitute a rich genomic resource that is now freely available to the scientific community. The release of the new genomes is a major milestone for the Bird 10,000 Genomes Project (B10K), an international collaboration "
https://phys.org/news/2020-11-scienti...
More information: Dense sampling of bird diversity increases power of comparative genomics, Nature (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2873-9 , www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-28...
Journal information: Nature
Provided by Smithsonian
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"Trump Tried to Scoop Up a Popular Birding Preserve for His Border Wall, But You Don't Mess With Birders
The Trump administration was reportedly all set to purchase the Salineño Wildlife Preserve, a 2.5-acre stretch of Texas so popular among birders that it’s been called “hallowed ground,” to make way for its infamous border wall. But the deal fell apart at the last minute on Friday after the land’s owner bowed to pressure from pissed off environmentalists and bird enthusiasts nationwide, per Border Report.
According to the outlet, which first broke the news of the pending federal acquisition on Thursday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials said they reached an agreement on Nov. 3, aka election day, with the nonprofit that owns the land, the Valley Land Fund. (The group later disputed CBP’s account of the date of the agreement). The Valley Land Fund agreed to voluntarily sign over its rights to the 2.5 acres, located in a remote part of the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, so the land could be converted into an “enforcement zone,” per a CBP statement.
Negotiations were apparently kept under wraps, as caretakers at the preserve later told Border Report that they had no idea the land had been sold. They said operations had continued as usual after it reopened on Nov. 1 for the winter birding season. The preserve is apparently an extremely popular destination for birdwatching, with the president of the American Birding Association, Jeffrey Gordon, calling it one of the top two or three destinations in North America for birders."
https://earther.gizmodo.com/trump-tri...
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https://phys.org/news/2020-11-amazon-...
More information: Dispersal ability correlates with range size in Amazonian habitat restricted birds, Proceedings of the Royal Society B (2020). rspb.royalsocietypublishing.or … .1098/rspb.2020.1450
Journal information: Proceedings of the Royal Society B
Provided by Field Museum
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Members of the public reported nearly 10,000 dead birds, including finches, flycatchers, swallows, warblers, and bluebirds, to the USGS in August and September, and they sent some 170 carcasses to the agency. The researchers analyzed 40, of which 32 showed these signs of starvation. The remaining ones weren’t in good enough condition to conduct post-mortem tests."
https://earther.gizmodo.com/thousands...
Suggested causes of the starvation included drought, cold spells, smoke plumes from massive wildfires, and in the comments, a proliferation of insects the previous year leading to a larger population of birds which could not be supported in a low insect year.
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The painted bunting's numbers have declined in recent decades, according to the National Audubon Society. Threats include cowbirds, who parasite their nests. They are also frequently captured in the tropics for use as pets.
Their range is projected to expand north due to the climate crisis, but should not extend as far north as Maryland with even more than three degrees Celsius of warming. The main climate related threats facing the bird are spring heat waves at more than 1.5 degrees of warming and urbanization at more than three degrees, since they will need now developed areas as part of their new range."
https://www.ecowatch.com/painted-bunt...
What a handsome bird!
For people not from the Americas, a cowbird is a type of cuckoo I believe, and does what a cuckoo does.
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Well done those photographers.
https://www.rte.ie/news/2021/0304/120...
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"They didn't sound anything like a regent honeyeater — they sounded like a different species," Dr. Ross Crates, a member of the Difficult Bird Research Group at the Australian National University in Canberra, told BBC News.
Crates and his team realized that the birds were so endangered (there are only 300 left in the wild) that their limited contact with other regent honeyeaters prevented them from learning traditional calls.
"They don't get the chance to hang around with other honeyeaters and learn what they're supposed to sound like," Crates told BBC News."
https://www.ecowatch.com/endangered-b...
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"The researchers note that the air is much thinner at these altitudes, and much cooler—below freezing. They suggest the birds might be climbing so high because it is the only way they can keep cool during their flight as their muscles generate constant heat. There is also the possibility that they are taking advantage of atmospheric conditions."
https://phys.org/news/2021-05-great-r...
More information: Sissel Sjöberg et al. Extreme altitudes during diurnal flights in a nocturnal songbird migrant, Science (2021). DOI: 10.1126/science.abe7291
Press release
Journal information: Science
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"When a University of Michigan-led research team reported last year that North American migratory birds have been getting smaller over the past four decades and that their wings have gotten a bit longer, the scientists wondered if they were seeing the fingerprint of earlier spring migrations.
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""We know that bird morphology has a major effect on the efficiency and speed of flight, so we became curious whether the environmental pressure to advance spring migration would lead to natural selection for longer wings," said U-M evolutionary biologist Marketa Zimova.
In a new study scheduled for publication June 21 in the Journal of Animal Ecology, Zimova and her colleagues test for a link between the observed morphological changes and earlier spring migration, which is an example of timing shifts biologists call phenological changes.
Unexpectedly, they found that the morphological and phenological changes are happening in parallel but appear to be unrelated or "decoupled."
"We found that birds are changing in size and shape independently of changes in their migration timing, which was surprising," said Zimova, lead author of the study and a postdoctoral researcher at the U-M Institute for Global Change Biology.
Both the new study and the 2020 paper that described the changes in body size and wing length were based on analyses of some 70,000 bird specimens from 52 species at the Field Museum. The birds were collected after colliding with Chicago buildings during spring and fall migrations between 1978 and 2016."
https://phys.org/news/2021-06-smaller...
More information: Marketa Zimova et al, Widespread shifts in bird migration phenology are decoupled from parallel shifts in morphology, Journal of Animal Ecology (2021). DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.13543
Journal information: Journal of Animal Ecology , Ecology Letters
Provided by University of Michigan
Can we please make buildings less dangerous for birds? Stickers on windows?
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https://nestwatch.org/connect/blog/do...
"The orioles typically nest in desert or semi-desert vegetation, often in yucca trees. It’s very uncommon for them to nest on an occupied home. In 2016, a pair of Scott’s Orioles built a nest on a nail under the eave of Jo’s cabin while her new home was being built. Beginning in 2017, the same or a different pair began nesting on the eave of the new house, a feat accomplished by threading some grass into a splinter in the wood trim.
What is even more peculiar is that the birds have been using the same nest for four consecutive years, an undocumented behavior of a species that typically makes a new nest every year. At the end of the 2017 nesting season, Jo took down the old nest thinking that the birds would not reuse it. Jo was not alone in thinking the nest had served its purpose. Birds of the World tells us there are, “No instances of [Scott’s Orioles] using a nest from a previous season.” Indeed, studies suggested that they would only infrequently reuse a nest during the same breeding season. Not only have they been using the same nest affixed to the same splinter of wood since 2018 (when it was rebuilt in the exact same location), the orioles routinely nest 2–3 times per year in it. As of July 2021, the same nest has received eleven attempts in four years—most of them successful."
Citizen science wins!
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https://f.hubspotusercontent20.net/hu...
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"Ever wondered why birds are born to peep, chirrup and sing? Surprisingly international avian experts have shown this to be true, literally, after finding fluctuations in bird species' heartbeat responses to their parents' calls—from inside the egg.
Using non-invasive techniques, a study led by Flinders University's BirdLab research group found evidence of prenatal auditory learning in embryos of three vocal learning species (superb fairy-wren, red-winged fairy-wren and Darwin's small ground finch) and two vocal non-learning species (little penguin and Japanese quail)."
More information: Prenatal auditory learning in avian vocal learners and non-learners, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B (Biological Sciences), DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0247
Provided by Flinders University
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"The recent seizure of eight live hornbills at Kuala Lumpur International Airport confirmed experts’ suspicions that live hornbill trafficking is on the rise in Southeast Asia.
Analysis of seizure records across Southeast Asia indicates that the incident is just the tip of the iceberg: Between 2015 and 2021, there were 99 incidents of live hornbill trafficking involving 268 birds spanning 13 species.
Among the recent haul was a baby helmeted hornbill (Rhinoplax vigil), a critically endangered species hunted to the brink of extinction for its distinctive ivory-like bill casque, which is prized by collectors in parts of Asia.
Specialists say more information on how poaching for live trade affects wild populations is urgently required; only then, they say, will it be possible to push for stronger enforcement and close loopholes that allow the illegal trade to flourish.
In August 2021, authorities at Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur International Airport discovered a shipment of eight hornbills, caged but alive, en route to international markets. The Department of Wildlife and National Parks (PERHILITAN) seized the birds and arrested two men for failing to display valid documentation for possession of the birds. Among the haul was a baby helmeted hornbill (Rhinoplax vigil), a critically endangered species hunted to the brink of extinction for its distinctive ivory-like bill casque that’s prized by collectors in parts of Asia."
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"I come from a family of bird nerds.
Are you sitting back with a hot beverage and preparing yourself for another trip down cottage memory lane?
All right, let’s go…
Once upon a time, my dad decided we should start putting out bird seed to attract feathered eye candy for our weekend entertainment.
It started small, as these things do, with a couple of cute feeders and some hanging suet. The problem, as any backyard bird lover knows, was squirrels. You’ve heard enough about my dad by now to know he wasn’t going to take squirrel incursions lying down. He got out there with the ladder, metal and plastic shields, slippery oil, clanging bells and, of course, duct tape.
The squirrels prevailed. They took heroic leaps and dive bombed the ever-increasing variety of feeders my dad tried. Eventually, they figured out a way and the seed vanished before the birds could get much of it.
That’s when Dad took Mom on a mission out of town to buy the seemingly impregnable Bird Hotel. It was hyped up big in birding magazines. The rather imposing structure sat atop a pole at least eight feet tall and reputedly held 50 lbs of seed. He drove the pole into the ground in an open space a little farther from the window than he would have liked, but well away from the trees.
Dad prevailed. The squirrels pretty much had to catapult from across the lake to gain purchase on the Bird Hotel. They still dropped out of nowhere sometimes, but it was very much hit and miss.
It was time to lower Dad’s blood pressure meds and start enjoying the scenery.
A routine began. Every Friday night, upon arrival at the cottage, Dad set up the Canadian flag on the beach. Then he got out the ladder, unlocked the “squirrel proof” lid and dumped in 50 lbs of mixed seed—something for everyone. He initially expected the seed would last a month. Once word got out about the best hotel in town, however, those birds went through 50 lbs on a weekend. Then in a day. Dad started shopping locally to keep his feathered friends fed. It wasn't cheap, especially in spring and fall, with the migrating flocks checking into our hospitality suite.
Inside, we gathered at the window, handing around the binoculars, exclaiming over the colorful, fluttering marvels. Dad kept a little notebook by his recliner, listing our sightings. There were more than a few arguments about similar varieties, with no internet then to settle the score easily.
For a good while, it was all about the family ornithological treasure hunt. Dad chided me often for sleeping in and missing the best action. Sometimes I thought he exaggerated a little about what I’d missed, but we didn’t have a good enough camera for anyone to prove him wrong.
But then... more went south than the birds. Trouble began when we started bringing our cats along for the weekend. They parked underneath to pick off unwitting birds, the chipmunks that gathered to eat spilled seed, or sometimes even a squirrel if ambition ran high.
There was murder beneath the bird hotel.
We took turns running outside to chase the cats off, and inevitably, the birds flew, too. These were the days of outdoor cats, so keeping them inside wasn't really feasible.
One day, our neighbor called to tell us that while we were gone, great blue herons began holding meetings under the feeder. They came up from the shore to dine on the chipmunks, as well. It was easier than fishing, apparently.
Our joy in the bird hotel fizzled.
Communally, we decided it wasn’t fair to invite guests to a banquet and then kill them. Plus, I think Dad was getting a little tired of hauling seed.
Since that day, many decades ago, the bird hotel has sat empty. Naturally, I think of Dad whenever my eyes light on it, as the birds used to do."
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"The average White-winged Crossbill can eat up to 3,000 seeds per day! How can one bird get access to so much food? The answer lies in the structure of this bird’s unique crossed bill. "
https://academy.allaboutbirds.org/whi...
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But mountaintop environments in the tropics, particularly in Eastern Africa—from Mt. Kenya to Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania south through Malawi into Mozambique—have seen little geological change over that same time period. Hence, the birds the researchers studied—lineages of the eastern double-collared sunbirds in the genus Cinnyris—had no impetus to alter either their colorful plumage or their often intricate songs."
https://phys.org/news/2022-01-birds-s...
More information: Jay P. McEntee et al, Punctuated evolution in the learned songs of African sunbirds, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (2021). DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2021.2062
Journal information: Proceedings of the Royal Society B
Provided by University of California - Berkeley
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This is a lovely story of a small forest bird which presumably was blown away, and managed to adapt to a storm-tossed island, south of everywhere in Chile.
https://www.rte.ie/news/2022/0827/131...
"In the Diego Ramirez Islands, 100km from southern Chile's Cape Horn, scientists have identified the Subantarctic rayadito, a 16g brown bird with black and yellow bands, and a large beak that is confounding biologists.
That's because the Subantarctic rayadito, which resembles a rayadito species that inhabits the forests of southern Patagonia and nests in trunk cavities, was found "living in a place with no trees."
"There are no bushes and no woodland species, literally in the middle of the ocean a forest bird has managed to survive," said Ricardo Rozzi, an academic from Chile's University of Magallanes and the University of North Texas and director of the Cape Horn International Center for Global Change Studies and Biocultural Conservation (CHIC).
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"One of the researchers, Rodrigo Vasquez, a biologist at the University of Chile, said that genetic studies confirmed that the newly discovered species "differs in a mutation from the rest of the species of the classic rayadito species," in addition to other differences in form and behavior.
The researchers said they had captured and measured 13 individuals on the island.
"The Birds from the Diego Ramirez population were significantly heavier and larger (with a longer and wider bill and longer tarsi), but they had a significantly shorter tail," they said in Nature."
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"In June of 2020, Stephen Gosser, a self-described "diehard birder," was out in the woods of Western Pennsylvania when he thought he heard the song of the elusive and strikingly beautiful scarlet tanager. The blood-red bird with black wings and tail is a favorite among birders for both its beauty and rarity, as the birds prefer to stay hidden high in the forest canopy.
When Gosser finally located the songbird, he saw what appeared to be a rose-breasted grosbeak, but it sounded just like a scarlet tanager. He took some photos and called for backup—a team from the National Aviary in Pittsburgh arrived soon after to catch the bird and obtain a blood sample.
To follow up on Gosser's tip, a team of researchers led by Penn State was able to use a combination of genomic sequencing and song analysis to identify the specimen as a rare hybrid bird, whose ancestors haven't shared the same breeding location or lineage for 10 million years. Their work was recently published in the journal Ecology and Evolution."
More information: David P. L. Toews et al, Genetic confirmation of a hybrid between two highly divergent cardinalid species: A rose‐breasted grosbeak ( Pheucticus ludovicianus ) and a scarlet tanager ( Piranga olivacea ), Ecology and Evolution (2022). DOI: 10.1002/ece3.9152
Journal information: Ecology and Evolution
Provided by Pennsylvania State University
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https://phys.org/news/2022-10-beautif...
"Fionn Ó Marcaigh, first author on the paper and a Ph.D. Candidate in Trinity's School of Natural Sciences, said, "One of Wallace's major findings is referred to as 'Wallace's Line'—a boundary between deep and shallow seas that many animals have been unable to cross, leading to marked differences in the species found on either side. The widespread olive-backed sunbird appeared to be an exception, being found all the way from China to Australia with Wallace's Line right in the middle of its range.
"The new study, however, has shown that the populations on either side actually represent two different species, in keeping with Wallace's original predictions. The black sunbird was already known to be subject to Wallace's Line, but the new research has shown that the population around Sulawesi is a separate species from the one in New Guinea."
Despite this split, the olive-backed sunbird covers quite a wide range for such a small bird. The newly discovered Wakatobi sunbird, on the other hand, is restricted to the tiny Wakatobi Islands, off the coast of the larger Sulawesi. Small, isolated islands like these have their own evolutionary processes, and these often produce unique species, as in the famous case of the Galápagos.
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"As well as being genetically unique, the Wakatobi sunbird also has darker plumage, a higher-pitched song, and shorter wings than the olive-backed sunbird. Its short wings probably contributed to its remaining isolated on the Wakatobi Islands while the olive-backed sunbird was undertaking long-distance colonization over the sea."
More information: Fionn Ó Marcaigh et al, Small islands and large biogeographic barriers have driven contrasting speciation patterns in Indo-Pacific sunbirds (Aves: Nectariniidae), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society (2022). DOI: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlac081
Journal information: Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society
Provided by Trinity College Dublin
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""We wanted to understand: Can we identify genetic regions that are responsible for generating the plumage color differences that exist in rosy finches?" he said. "And there's also this question about the elevational differences. Do the birds that live in Colorado possess some unique genetic differences that allow them to live at high elevations that the birds that live at sea level don't have?"
Using blood and tissue samples from the University of Alaska Museum of the North, the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and a 2018 field study, Funk created a whole genome dataset that encompassed the full geographic range and all the varying observable characteristics of North American rosy finches. After analyzing the data, he identified unique genomic regions—and, possibly, specific genes—that are probably playing a role in the birds' trait differences."
More information: Erik Funk et al, The genetic basis of plumage coloration and elevation adaptation in a clade of recently diverged alpine and arctic songbirds, Evolution (2023). DOI: 10.1093/evolut/qpac064
Journal information: Evolution
Provided by University of Colorado at Boulder
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"For birders struggling to figure out what kind of Redpoll they're watching, new research from the University of Colorado Boulder says don't worry—the different species are actually all one and the same.
This new research, out recently in Nature Communications, finds that Redpolls, a bird found in the Arctic that will sometimes come to the Southern latitudes during the winter and can be hard to differentiate, aren't actually multiple species, genetically speaking. Instead, the three recognized species are all just one with a "supergene" that controls differences in plumage color and morphology, making them look different."
More information: Erik R. Funk et al, A supergene underlies linked variation in color and morphology in a Holarctic songbird, Nature Communications (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-27173-z
Journal information: Nature Communications
Provided by University of Colorado at Boulder
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"This new research, though, aimed to fill in that gap, so it examined a bird common in the northern hemisphere: the white wagtail.
The white wagtail is a small songbird with nine subspecies stretching across Eurasia, from North Africa to Alaska. For this study, they looked at the hybrid zone between two subspecies of white wagtails—alba and personata.
Semenov and colleagues previously sampled a 3000 km transect of that hybrid zone which stretches across Siberia, as well as remote, isolated populations."
More information: Georgy A. Semenov et al. Asymmetric introgression reveals the genetic architecture of a plumage trait, Nature Communications (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-21340-y
Journal information: Nature Communications
Provided by University of Colorado at Boulder
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"The endangered Bahama Warbler may be surviving on just one island following Hurricane Dorian's devastation in 2019, according to researchers at the University of East Anglia.
A new study published in Bird Conservation International shows the bird's distribution and ecology on Grand Bahama before the hurricane struck. But the team says that the warbler may now only survive on neighboring Abaco island, after hurricane Dorian destroyed the bird's forest habitat on Grand Bahama."
More information: David J. Pereira et al, Distribution and habitat requirements of the Bahama Warbler Setophaga flavescens on Grand Bahama in 2018, Bird Conservation International (2023). DOI: 10.1017/S095927092200048X
Provided by University of East Anglia
Central America and the Caribbean are crucial stopovers and crossing points for migratory songbirds.
A World on the Wing: The Global Odyssey of Migratory Birds
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""Swifts would have nested naturally in cliff faces and they see our buildings as cliff faces. Modern buildings now are too airtight for them," said Lynda Huxley of Swift Conservation Ireland.
Ms Huxley has successfully campaigned for swift bricks and boxes to be incorporated into several new builds in Co Mayo.
The leisure centre at Castlebar was built to include 23 nest compartments, with 20 occupied this breeding season.
"You can replace a normal cement block with a swift brick. It's an enclosed space," she explained. "The swift enters the nest entrance hole, and they will build their nest at the other end of the block. They can’t go anywhere else in the building, so it’s a very secure site for them"."
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"There are several reasons for the drastic loss of suitable habitat behind the decline of corncrakes in Ireland but modern farming practices and mechanisation are at the heart of it.
Dr Carey points out that the map of where the corncrake population still survives here closely matches that of the Irish language and Gaeltacht regions.
"It is quite remarkable. Just like this bird, the Irish language was pushed out to the edge of the country too.
"In many ways, the corncrake is a bird of the Gaeltacht. You find it in Gaeltacht regions. These regions have climatic and geographic constraints which mean that farming hasn't been intensified there. This is the real treasure of these areas."
Now it is those same farming communities and their willingness to engage some traditional farming practices in the core breeding areas of counties Donegal, Mayo and Galway that is the key to the success of the Corncrake LIFE project.
As many as 250 farmers and landowners are managing close to 1,500 hectares of land for corncrakes.
They create large patches of nettles or crops on their holdings for the birds to hide in, and delay grass mowing until mid-August to enable them to raise broods of chicks in safety.
Studies show that mowing fields from the 'centre–out' rather than from the 'outside- in' can reduce chick mortality by up to 60%.
Agricultural contractors are key as they have the skills and knowledge to ensure that the birds are not harmed during harvesting time."
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Birding Under the Influence: Cycling Across America in Search of Birds and Recovery
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"In what is proving to be a vintage year for birdwatchers, this autumn has been a classic one for North American landbirds arriving on UK shores.
At the last count, more than 50 individual birds of 15 ultra-rare species had been found, including three “megas”, as birders call them. These were Britain’s first Canada warbler, second bay-breasted warbler and third and fourth magnolia warblers.
If you imagine that these are dull, greenish-brown birds like our own warblers, then think again. These are American “wood-warblers” of the family Parulidae, whose plumage – even in autumn – is a galaxy of rich, bright colours.
The reason so many of these birds were turning up – almost all of them along the west coasts of Britain and Ireland – was because of the movement of Hurricane Lee up the eastern seaboard of the US. As it progressed, it met migrant birds heading south, on their way to spend the winter in the tropics, and swept them out over the Atlantic Ocean and towards us.
The tragedy is those that were found here are just a tiny fraction of the total, the vast majority of which would have perished before they could make landfall."
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"A striking and extremely rare half female, half male bird has been spotted by a University of Otago zoologist.
Sesquicentennial Distinguished Professor Hamish Spencer was holidaying in Colombia when an amateur ornithologist John Murillo pointed out a wild Green Honeycreeper with distinct half green, or female, and half blue, male, plumage.
"Many birdwatchers could go their whole lives and not see a bilateral gynandromorph in any species of bird. The phenomenon is extremely rare in birds, I know of no examples from New Zealand ever.
"It is very striking, I was very privileged to see it," Professor Spencer says.
Photographs of the bird make the discovery even more significant as they are "arguably the best of a wild bilateral gynandromorphic bird of any species ever.""
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"For the first time, scientists have captured photos of a bird long thought lost. Known as the Yellow-crested Helmetshrike, or Prionops alberti, the species is listed as a 'lost bird' by the American Bird Conservancy because it had not seen in nearly two decades.
University of Texas at El Paso scientists made the discovery during a six-week expedition to the Itombwe Massif, a mountain range in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. The photos of the helmetshrikes have been reviewed and confirmed by Cameron Rutt, Ph.D., who leads the Lost Birds project at the American Bird Conservancy."
Provided by University of Texas at El Paso
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Visitors need to sign up and there is a short page of info as training, which does not give all the answers needed, so some are more common sense.
You gain a nice little PDF cert which is printable and could be used for a Scout badge or go on a CV.
https://nestwatch.org/learn/how-to-ne...
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"One of the first Irish cuckoos tagged as part of the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) has returned home after a winter that took him as far as the rainforests in the Congo basin.
Last May, three Irish cuckoos were tagged in Killarney National Park to track their migration from Kerry and back again.
Cuach KP, the first of the three to complete the journey, has travelled 9,000 kilometres. The cuckoo made a quick stop in Fermoy in Cork before finding his way back to Killarney."
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https://phys.org/news/2024-05-ornitho...
"The Giant Hummingbird of western South America is not one species but two, according to an international group of researchers. The northern population stays in the high Andes year-round while the southern population migrates from sea level up to 14,000 feet for the nonbreeding months. The two species appear identical. But looks deceive—their genomes and behaviors tell a different story.
...
"At first, the research goal was simply to learn where the migratory population went—a journey tracked with geolocators and satellite transmitters. The researchers actually tracked eight individual hummingbirds migrating up to 5,200 miles from the Chilean coast up to the Andes of Peru and back. Williamson says that's one of the longest, if not the longest hummingbird migration in the world.
The authors say the shift in migratory behavior is what drove speciation, though there's no way to tell whether migratory behavior was gained by one species or lost by the other. Until now, there had been only one known species on this branch of the hummingbird family tree, while the Giant Hummingbird's closest relatives––the world's smallest hummingbirds––diversified into 165 distinct hummingbird species.
The researchers are proposing straightforward common names: Northern Giant Hummingbird and Southern Giant Hummingbird. The southern migrant species will retain the Latin name, Patagona gigas. The proposed scientific name for the resident northern population is Patagona chaski. "Chaski" is Quechua for "messenger." Quechua is the name for a family of Indigenous languages that spread from Peru to other neighboring countries."
More information: Williamson, Jessie L. et al, Extreme elevational migration spurred cryptic speciation in giant hummingbirds, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2024).
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas...
Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Provided by Cornell University
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"Most long-tailed finches in Australia today have bright red bills, with the color coming from carotenoid (yellow) pigments in the seeds they eat. The birds produce enzymes that chemically turn the yellow pigments from their diet into red pigments, which are deposited in their growing bills.
By analyzing the DNA of more than 900 finches, the researchers identified the exact genetic changes responsible for the different bill colors. They discovered that yellow-billed finches have genetic variations that prevent them from converting yellow dietary pigments into red ones.
"This discovery helps us understand how animals can evolve different color signals, contributing to the amazing colors of nature," says Professor Griffith.
When red-billed and yellow-billed finches mate, their offspring have orange bills. By studying the exact shade of orange in these hybrid birds, researchers could identify the different genes controlling bill color."
More information: Daniel M. Hooper et al, Spread of yellow-bill-color alleles favored by selection in the long-tailed finch hybrid system, Current Biology (2024).
https://www.cell.com/current-biology/...
Journal information: Current Biology
Provided by Macquarie University
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https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dave-g...
"Pet owners accidentally poisoning garden birds.
Our latest research finds pet flea treatments (fipronil and imidacloprid) in 100% of blue tit and great tit nests, with nestling mortality higher in the more contaminated nest.
This follows our previous research showing the same chemicals in 100% of rivers. Pervading the environment with potent neurotoxins banned in agriculture has to stop. DEFRA and/or veterinary profession need to act."
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"For centuries, house birds have made their homes in nooks and crannies of buildings, particularly older ones with gaps in the brickwork or under eaves. But as more buildings are insulated and retrofitted to improve energy efficiency, many of these natural nesting spots are disappearing. Without somewhere safe to nest, these birds struggle to breed, and their numbers have plummeted.
At the same time, the insects they rely on for food are also in decline due to habitat loss and modern farming practices. With fewer places to live and less food to eat, it’s no surprise that these once-common birds are now struggling to survive.
The new three-year project will be a team effort, bringing together local communities, conservation groups, and volunteers to take action. YDMT is partnering with the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority and the RSPB to provide:
Artificial nesting sites, such as bird boxes, to replace lost nesting spaces
Improved feeding habitats, by encouraging gardens and green spaces that support insects
Community events and training, to educate and involve people in bird conservation
Citizen science projects, to monitor bird populations and help inform future conservation efforts.
This isn’t just about helping birds—it’s about bringing people closer to nature. As part of the project, YDMT will be working with local residents in the Yorkshire Dales and reaching out to underrepresented groups in nearby towns and cities. Through volunteering, training sessions, and educational events, the goal is to create a lasting impact—not just for the birds, but for the people who live alongside them."
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"Red finches, house finches, robins, sandhill cranes, and mountain bluebirds arrived in parts of Wyoming earlier than usual this year. These species are indicators of springtime, and with the official arrival of the new season this week, I am one of many people looking forward to welcoming warmer weather and additional spring species.
My husband and I maintain bird feeders and water dishes in our front, back, and side yards. My home office has a bank of three windows overlooking the front yard and three more looking into the side yard. We've placed feeders in both locations, and the cat and I often gaze out the windows after I've placed fresh seed in the feeders and fresh water in the bird baths and water dishes. The lovely winged creatures fly in and out of the watering hole, taking baths and drinks, and then fly back to a tree or fence. Dashes of red, crimson, white, brown, and sometimes black, capture our attention. The cat lays on my desk and I gaze out the window longer than I probably should (I should be working!), but I so enjoy watching these little creatures feast, drink, and play.
I incorporate various bird species in several of my sweet romance books, including Canada geese and trumpeter swans. The majestic, large white swans nearly became extinct during the early-to-mid 1900s. Several types of birds were killed for their feathers, as well as the heads and even whole bodies, which adorned ladies' hats during this time frame. Learn about these and other 'crimes of fashion' from the Frick Pittsburge Museum & Gardens website here:
https://www.thefrickpittsburgh.org/St...
Thanks to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, many avian species were saved from extinction and could no longer be used as articles of human clothing. Trumpeter swans found sanctuary in a remote part of Montana known as Red Rock Lakes Wildlife Refuge as well as in Yellowstone National Park. Red Rock Lakes is now a U.S. national wildlife refuge where visitors can go and see trumpeters. Additionally, Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks and the National Elk Refuge near Jackson, Wyoming continue to provide safety for these birds, and they are making a comeback from low numbers even in these places of refuge.
These are special places to observe various species of birds during almost every season of the year. I'm fortunate to live in Wyoming and can visit almost any time, as I did late last fall and during the spring of 2020 where I observed osprey, swans, sandhill cranes, bald eagles, mountain bluebirds, and Wyoming's state bird, the western meadowlark, among other species.
I hope you and your family are able to spend time outdoors this spring, enjoying nature and the amazing birds that grace our landscapes."
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"Cruz is doing well and shedding out his winter coat like crazy. So, this month he’s taking a back seat and the spotlight is on the story of my riding helmet.
At first, I couldn’t understand why loose leaves and twigs were finding their way into the hat I use every day. Perplexed, I removed the debris, rode, and hung my helmet back up.
Next day, the same thing happened again; leaves and twigs were strewn over the riding gloves and spurs I keep in the hat, and I duly threw them out.
The bird then decided to clarify the situation: ‘This helmet is MINE!’ She worked through the night to create a full nest, so I’d know they weren’t random twigs and leaves, but that they’d been lovingly and carefully arranged by a mother-to-be.
That next morning, I felt bad that I’d destroyed the bird’s previous attempts at nest-building. I was also impressed at her perseverance despite my boorish behavior; she’d truly earned the use of that helmet!
I carefully removed my riding gloves and spurs from under the nest and put the leaves and twigs back as best I could, hoping she’d forgive my intrusion.
She did. That night she gave the nest a roof and created a little tunnel down to a snug area below.
Nothing happened for the next few days, then two little eggs appeared in the nest, followed the next day by another two!
The helmet is hanging just inside a stall that three of us use for our horse stuff. It’s got access to the outside through metal bars, with an overhead roof, and is protected from the elements by a clear sheet of plastic. Except for the human comings and goings, it’s a smart place for a nest.
I will let you know how the situation develops …
In case you’re wondering how I’m protecting my head while ‘lending’ my helmet to the bird, I’m using the spare one in the trailer that I keep there as a back-up for shows. I guess the bird already knew that. 😉
As to what type of bird she is, it’s a fair bet she’s the Carolina wren who’s been casing the joint for the past few weeks. I can hear her chirping in the trees behind her nesting area, and am constantly apologizing for my presence."
Green Group
Books mentioned in this topic
The Lady of the Pier: The Ebb (other topics)My Corfu Love Story: A Greek clean summer holiday romance short read set in Corfu Greece (other topics)
The Necklace of Goddess Athena (other topics)
The Storm (other topics)
Rhiann's Rescue: A Pet Rescue Romance Prequel (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Effrosyni Moschoudi (other topics)Gayle Irwin (other topics)
Hilary Walker (other topics)
Gayle Irwin (other topics)
Angela E. Douglas (other topics)
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But some people can make money by selling them. So of course, they keep trapping them.
Illegally, if they are in Florida.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/an...