1. Once known as Isla de los Pájaros (or “island of the birds”), remote and rugged Guadalupe was home to more endemic bird species than any other island off the Pacific Coast of North America. That came to an end when sealers and whalers arrived in the early 1800s. They brought goats, which leveled the pine and cypress forest, and cats, which killed thousands of birds. Five of eight endemic land birds went extinct. The Guadalupe Storm-Petrel disappeared. But in the last few decades, something marvelous has happened on Guadalupe. Mexican biologists have pulled off a massive effort to reverse centuries of damage and restore these seabird nesting islands. Their success is a gleam of hope, in a world that is losing seabirds fast. (via Living Bird)
2. Who's Kenn? Simply put, Kenn is a national treasure. A renowned birder, author, and conservationist, Kenn Kaufman has spent his life dedicated to observing birds, reading about birds, writing about birds, and sharing the world of birds with others. With all that birdy knowledge in his brain, he also acts as the field editor for Audubon magazine. So, whenever the folks at Audubon have a bird question stumping them around the office, they just ask Kenn. And now you can, too! If you have a bird or birding question you'd like Kenn to answer, leave them in the comments below or on Facebook. Maybe next month you'll get the kind of thorough, thoughtful, and even humorous response from Kenn they’ve grown so fond of over the years. (via Audubon)
By Mick Thompson, Bald Eagle, Happy Fourth of July!
3. As Chicago moves into another phase of reopening, two federally endangered shorebirds are entering their own new phase of trying to save their species. On June 18, four piping plover chicks hatched on Montrose Beach, the favored nesting spot of parents Monty and Rose, who flew back to Chicago after wintering apart. Monty and Rose left their new nesting site two days after the eggs hatched, heading for last summer’s home near the former volleyball courts. Now the surviving chicks have a few weeks of dodging predators and eating as much as possible before they’ll fly and make the second act of Monty and Rose’s species-saving effort. (via Chicago Tribune)
4. A decades-long fight to recover the world’s rarest wading bird is turning a corner with the success of New Zealand’s massive effort to prevent extinction of their most unique and amazing species. A nearly 40-year program to protect the kakī, or black stilt is paying off, with a record number of adult kakī now living in the wild. Thanks to the ongoing work of the New Zealand Department of Conservation’s Kakī Recovery Program, the population of adult kakī has increased by 30 percent to 169, the largest increase in nearly 40 years. The kakī is the ‘Man vs Wild’ of the wading bird world. After all of its friends have left New Zealand’s Southern Alps for the winter, the kakī shelters in place, toughing out temperatures as low as minus 4 degrees (-20 C). (via Good News Network)
By Scott M. Ramsay, “A new birdsong unexpectedly spread across North America” (via Axios)
5. The latest supplement to the American Ornithological Society's Checklist of North and Middle American Birds, published in The Auk: Ornithological Advances, includes several major updates to the organization of the continent's bird species, including the addition of the Mexican Duck and the removal of the Northwestern Crow. The official authority on the names and classification of the region's birds, the checklist is consulted by birdwatchers and professional scientists alike and has been published since 1886. (via The Auk: Ornithological Advances, Science Daily)
Bonus! A great blog post from the team at Vermont Ecostudies, reporting on their 29th year of banding birds on Mt. Mansfield (VT): “Sharpies, PUFI and Blackpolls: Week 3 on Mt. Mansfield”.
Bird Photo of the Week
By Hap Ellis, Red-tailed Hawk.
Bird Video of the Week
By Vox, “Pigeons are gross. They’re also wildly underrated.”
Cornell Live Bird Cam, “Savannah Osprey”.
Cornell Live Bird Cam, “Cornell FeederWatch Cam”.