All About Nests.

Bird News Items

1.  “It’s so fascinating, but it hasn’t been studied…” until now! Read on: Birds can be picky building their nests. They experiment with materials, waffle over which twig to use, take them apart and start again. It’s a complex, fiddly process that can seem to reflect careful thought. Sparrow weavers in Africa appear to learn distinct building styles that reflect group traditions, research shows. It raises intriguing questions about avian intelligence. New research led by Dr. Tello-Ramos, published on Thursday in the journal Science, provides the first evidence that groups of birds that build their homes together learn to follow consistent architectural styles, distinct from groups just a few dozen feet away. The finding upends longstanding assumptions that nest building is an innate behavior based on the birds’ environment and adds to a growing list of behaviors that make up bird culture. (via The New York Times)

NPR’s take on the same study: Neighboring groups of birds within the same species can create very different-looking nests — showing that their nest-building choices aren’t solely controlled by instinct and the environment. Instead, these birds seem to learn rules for nest-making that get passed down within a family group from generation to generation. That’s the conclusion of researchers who studied nearly 450 grassy structures built over two years by white-browed sparrow weavers living in the Kalahari Desert in South Africa. These small, brown-and-white birds live communally, and it turns out that groups of birds that lived quite near to each other nonetheless built distinctive architectural forms, according to a new report in Science. The finding suggests that when people look up and see a nest in a tree, it might not be the product of innate behavior alone. (via National Public Radio)

By Hap Ellis, Eastern Screech Owl, Niagara-On-The-Lake, Ontario.

2. And speaking of bird nests, check these pictures out: These elaborate constructions are just some of the birds’ nests found at the Natural History Museum in Tring, UK, one of the oldest and largest ornithological collections in the world, with over 1 million specimens. Some of those pictured are built primarily using dry grass, like that of the spectacled longbill (main picture), the only known research specimen, and the opened-up “ball” nest of the desert cisticola (pictured above), which boasts a roof and an entrance hole bound by spider’s webs. Others, like the brown noddy’s (below), are made of a mix of materials, including bird excrement and a colony of calcifying aquatic invertebrates called bryozoans. (via New Scientist)

3. This from Audubon: “migration is no solitary trek”: For songbirds, migration is the most difficult time of year. As they pass through thousands of miles of varied terrain, migrants must navigate a host of threats while urgently searching for habitat where they can rest and refuel. For a long time, it was assumed that birds completed these daunting journeys alone. But new research suggests migration is no solitary trek—it’s a social affair that encourages different species to band together. In a pioneering study published last week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers discovered that songbirds socialize across species lines, forming “migrating communities” as they travel. (via Audubon)

4. Just how colorful are our American birds?: Birds boast some of the most vibrant colors among terrestrial animals. Our pretty avian friends have inspired our Democrat and Chronicle photographers for years and captured the imaginations of many who live along the shore of Lake Ontario. Yes, the tropics are often renowned for the brightest birds, but U.S. birds also display a wide array of striking hues. But just how colorful are our American birds? Our network analyzed over 500 photographs of bird species provided by the Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, whose extensive media collection helps researchers identify and study color abnormalities and rare bird colors. The species were chosen based on data from Project FeederWatch, a citizen science program run by the Cornell Lab, which allows people to submit sightings of birds they've seen locally. (via Democrat and Chronicle)

By Hap Ellis, Ruby-throated Hummingbird - Kennebunkport, ME.

5. A paean to an elusive warbler, from the “Adirondack Explorer”: Warblers are the colorful “butterflies” of the bird world that fill our forests with lovely songs in spring. There are 53 warbler species in North America. With nearly 30 breeding in northern New York, it is one of the best locations to see and hear them. The mourning warbler is one of the most sought-after by birders visiting the Adirondacks. It is an elusive and hard to see species spending most of its time low in dense thickets. In migration, it is solitary and forages in shrubby vegetation. Birders to our south rarely catch a view of this skulking warbler as it heads north in spring, so it is commonly on their wish list of species to see in our area. (via Adirondack Explorer)

6. Big win for the Florida Scrub Jay: The federally-threatened Florida scrub jay would have been at risk if the golf course proposals would have went through at Jonathan Dickinson State Park. WPTV News anchor Mike Trim spoke with Jim Howe of the Audubon of Martin County and Audubon Florida during protests against the project. Both Howe and Audubon Florida executive director Julie Wraithmell said Jonathan Dickinson State Park is the southernmost natural habitat for the scrub jay in Florida, with an estimated 130 of the birds residing in the park. (via WPTV)

7. Birders are always hoping for “Irruptions” in the fall and winter; here’s a good overview on this exciting phenomenon: Irruptions involve some of the smallest birds that spend their springs and summers in the northern boreal forest, which stretches from Alaska to Newfoundland and Labrador. Once winter rolls around, waves of theseArctic-friendly fliers occasionally move south into the northern tier of the United States, and sometimes as far south as Florida. To know more about this bird phenomenon, we turn to an expert:Jeff Wells, vice president for boreal conservation at the National Audubon Society. (via Birds and Blooms)

8. Birds & Glass - progress at the embattled McCormick Place in Chicago (You have to click through to the NPR story.): Larita Clark looks straight up, then to her right and then her left. As far as she can see, it's all glass. She's standing outside Lakeside Center, one of the four massive buildings that make up Chicago's McCormick Place, the largest convention center in all North America. Clark is the CEO of the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority. That's the organization that owns the convention center just south of downtown Chicago. Currently, Clark is overseeing a sort of polka-dot makeover that she and others around the city hope will make the windows of the more than 2-million-square-foot lakeside building safe for birds. "To me, it's just a bunch of dots, but it's also something that the birds can recognize so they know that there's something there, and they won't collide with the building” said Clark. (via U.S. Glass Magazine)

By Hap Ellis, Semipalmated Plover - Kennebunkport, ME.

9. To us it looks like a flock of birds; to mathematicians studying flight it represents “precise, and previously unknown, aerodynamic interactions” - more on the study of flight dynamics in “Nature Communications”: In looking up at the sky during these early weeks of spring, you may very well see a flock of birds moving in unison as they migrate north. But how do these creatures fly in such a coordinated and seemingly effortless fashion? Part of the answer lies in precise, and previously unknown, aerodynamic interactions, reports a team of mathematicians in a newly published study. Its breakthrough broadens our understanding of wildlife, including fish, who move in schools, and could have applications in transportation and energy. (via New York University)

10. Seems counterintuitive but…gull species are actually in decline in the UK: While the birds may appear to be thriving, seagulls are on the red list - the highest level - for British bird species of concern, because their population has dropped by 72% in 55 years. Marine conservation officer at Cornwall Wildlife Trust, Rebecca Allen, said it was not just in Devon and Cornwall that pairs had decreased. "The population has declined around Great Britain. It's nearly three-quarters decline, since 1969, so that’s quite serious," she said. "It was about 200,000 breeding pairs... so that brings it down to about 50,000 breeding pairs." (via BBC)

11. They just keep coming - Another piece on birding and “well-being”: Like many people during the height of the COVID pandemic, I discovered birding and have continued to grow my interest and enjoyment since 2020. Besides noticing mental health and mood benefits myself, others have regularly shared articles with me about the benefits of birding. Most recently, conservation biologist Nils Peterson and colleagues (2024) conducted an experimental study in which college students were randomly assigned to a control condition (receiving no specific instructions), a nature-walk condition (instructed to take a specific walk through nature at least once a week), or a birdwatching condition (take the same walk and notice how many birds you see using a phone app). Students who noticed birds on their walk reported significant increases in positive emotion and significant decreases in distress compared to the other two conditions. These findings indicate that there’s something specific about looking for birds (or at least looking for elements in nature) that leads to mental health improvements. (via Psychology Today)

12. Weekly avian flu story -  “first known cluster of human influenza A, also known as H5, cases in the U.S. associated with exposure at a poultry operation”:  A new report on last month's cluster of human H5 avian flu cases in Colorado urges U.S. public health agencies to be ready to respond to cases in agricultural workers who often have limited access to health care. About a month ago, health agencies reported nine cases of the virus in infected farm workers in northeast Colorado, where they were euthanizing millions of infected birds on two poultry farms to prevent further spread. Six of the cases came from one operation; three were from another. That was on top of an additional case detected in a dairy worker earlier in July. (via Colorado Public Radio News)

By Hap Ellis, Broad-winged Hawk - Kennebunkport, ME.

13. Finally, this heartfelt piece, “Birding for mom”: I kept my mother’s binoculars after the crash, even though I kind of hated birding. First for being the passion that took her out of the house so much, then for being the passion that kind of killed her. But when my grandfather, the person who first gave my mother the birding bug, had her binoculars repaired after we retrieved them from the crumpled car, I was so touched by his thoughtful gesture that I kept them, despite my resentment. And I was very glad to have her binoculars 30 years later when I finally met up with one of her birding pals again for a walk, because not only did he still recognize them, they made him cry. (via Fort Bragg Advocate News)

HAPPY LABOR DAY WEEKEND!

---

Bird Videos of the Week

Video by Wild Earth, “A Birder’s Paradise”.

Cornell Live Bird Cam - Osprey Fledglings.

Cornell Live Bird Cam - Starlings.

---

---