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Bird News Items
1. Let’s begin with a look at conservation strategies in Columbia - protecting “precious biodiversity”: Some weeks ago, the media referred to Colombia as one of the best places in the world for birdwatching. There was a reason behind that claim. Colombia garnered the highest number of recorded bird sightings on Global Big Day, a global birding event that takes place simultaneously throughout the planet every year on May 11th. Colombia documented 1,558 species sighted last Global Big Day. The only other country that came close to that figure was Peru with 1,448 species. Beyond making newspaper headlines, this high number of sightings raised a key question in the scientific community. What is being done to protect such precious biodiversity? Colombia´s ecosystems are as diverse as its bird population. (via Audubon)
2. Listening to birds in the face of climate change: It’s just a titch late in the breeding season and the elusive Bobolinks are nowhere to be found in a rare grasslands patch of Rouge National Urban Park that’s off-limits to the public. But that doesn’t stop ecologist team lead Leonardo Cabrera from setting up his high-definition soundscape recording system and calling for quiet as he captures some audio. He pulls out his phone and plays a YouTube clip of the Bobolink’s joyous, bubbling song. He shows a photo of a gorgeous breeding male that looks like it’s wearing an upside-down tuxedo because of its white back and black underparts. “This is just a tool,” Cabrera says of his fancy equipment. (via National Parks Traveler)
By Hap Ellis, Black Guillemot – Cape Porpoise Harbor, ME.
3. Biking the Adirondack’s Rail Trail: I am a lifelong birder and outdoors enthusiast, a retired conservation biologist and a wildlife photographer. Yet, at 77 years old and dealing with progressive axonal polyneuropathy, I can now just manage a slow walk, and thankfully, a bicycle. I love my e-bike. It provides exercise and allows me to reach places I can’t walk to in search of birds. I welcomed the opening of the Adirondack Rail Trail. The Adirondack Explorer thanks its advertising partners. Become one of them. From mid-May through June, the woods, fields, and marshes of the Adirondacks are bursting with life, most notably the singing of millions of neotropical migrants that have returned from their wintering grounds in the tropics. These insect-eaters include flycatchers, swallows, thrushes, warblers, orioles, tanagers and other birds. (via Adirondack Explorer)
4. Last week we highlighted the Atlantic Puffin’s breeding success this year on Maine’s rocky islands; now similar good news on the other side of the Atlantic: A puffin population has been declared "stable" following fears that bird flu might have had a more devastating effect. The first full count for five years on the Farne Islands off Northumberland has revealed the endangered species has in fact increased by 15% since 2019. There are now thought to be 50,000 breeding pairs on the site, which is cared for by the National Trust. Ranger Sophia Jackson said the birds' self-isolating behaviours meant they had "weathered this particular storm”. (via BBC)
5. One very cool project in Wisconsin – “The environment has been reborn”: Endangered birds nest at Cat IslandBotulism in the Klamath Basin Refuge Complex: On Aug. 17, the Bureau of Reclamation started flowing water to the Tule Lake and Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuges to help mitigate an outbreak of avian botulism. Thousands of ducks, waterfowl, and shorebirds at the Tule Lake Refuge have died from the disease this month. Both refuges are part of the Klamath Basin Refuge Complex straddling the Oregon-California border near Klamath Falls. The circulating water and increased volumes are helping prevent an even greater disaster, says Vradenburg, as sick and dead birds are concentrated in fewer areas. (via KLCC News)
6. And then there is this critical project far away from here – a Mouse-Free Marion - Bombing “the everloving ****” out of the island’s mouse population: Humans introduced mice to Marion Island in the Indian Ocean, just southeast of South Africa, back in the 1800s. The mice run the joint now and have for well over a century. They are a predator that preys on the island’s seabirds, especially the island’s albatross population. It’s a shame because the island is home to a quarter of the world’s wandering albatrosses, which have the largest wingspan of any bird alive today. Its population has been devastated by the mice. (via Vice)
By Hap Ellis, Red-tailed Hawk – Niagara-On-The -Lake, Ontario.
7. Given the football season is upon us, this short but fun piece caught our eye: We’re about ready to gear up for football, but birds have some much better athletes in wings, who dutifully do what they need to do twice a year. The Bar-tailed Godwit has always been an extreme version of athlete with the longest nonstop migration between Alaska where they hatch, to New Zealand and Australia where they spend their nonbreeding season. Moonbird, or B-6, is still the world’s record holder since October 2022, flying almost 8,500 miles nonstop in eleven days to Tasmania, Australia. Researchers discovered this information after equipping B-6 with a solar satellite tag and every move was tracked. The Blackpoll Warbler and Pacific Golden-Plover are just as competitive! (via Muskogee Phoenix)
8. Is the avian flu becoming the “Forgotten epidemic”?: With at least 280 million birds dead since October 2021, the highly infectious H5N1 strain of avian flu has devastated poultry and caused the biggest sudden drop of the world’s wild bird population in decades. The millions of wild birds killed includes tens of thousands of endangered and endemic species – and tens of thousands of mammals have died too. Today, new data, published in Nature Communications, documents the disease’s spread to the southernmost tip of the planet – the Antarctic region – where it has inflicted significant die-offs in elephant seals and fur seals. This outbreak has affected every continent except Oceania, and yet there has been little coverage of the impact on global biodiversity and farming systems – or of potential risks to human health. (via The Guardian)
9. The power of eBird: New data summaries from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's eBird platform will help state wildlife planners assess the status of bird populations that live in or pass through their state—a crucial tool in protecting species. A team of data scientists at eBird, the participatory science platform, has packaged summaries covering every bird species in every state, and made them available online for free. These data summaries will help states prepare their federally required 2025 updates to State Wildlife Action Plans. (via Phys Org)
10. Birds, power lines and forest fires - a grim report: Electrocuted, flaming bird carcasses are falling off of power lines and causing wildfires across the U.S. This surprisingly common phenomenon has been responsible for at least three Colorado wildfires so far this summer. These events are not isolated. A 2022 study found that electrocuted birds caused 44 wildfires in the contiguous United States between 2014 and 2018. That study was led by Taylor Barnes, a biologist who now works for electric utility company EDM International. In the paper, Barnes wrote that “avian-caused ignitions” happen when a bird sits on an overhead power line. For reasons that can vary from case to case, sometimes the bird receives a powerful electrical shock, setting its feathers on fire. The dead or dying bird then falls, and, on occasion, lands in some brush or other flammable material. (via Gizmodo)
By Hap Ellis, Semipalmated Sandpiper – Cape Porpoise Harbor, ME.
11. Birds, buildings and glass – looking for Federal Government help: The Center for Biological Diversity and 29 other bird and wildlife conservation organizations from 24 states filed a legal petition today asking the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to establish a permitting process for commercial buildings to protect birds from deadly window collisions. Today’s petition proposes a permitting process under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act that would require building owners to use proven measures to reduce collisions, such as films, curtains or others means that make glass visible to birds. According to recent studies, buildings in the United States kill more than 1 billion birds each year. This problem has contributed to a roughly 30% decline in birds since 1970 — or an estimated 3 billion fewer birds gracing the skies in North America. (via Center for Biological Diversity)
12. A new UCLA study on how North American birds are adapting to climate change: As North America heats up due to climate change, animals are responding in three primary ways: moving north, heading to higher elevations and making phenological changes — adjusting annual cycles such as when they breed. A new UCLA study analyzed 27 years of data across 311 land-based species to examine how North American birds have responded simultaneously using all three methods. Most previous studies have only looked at individual types of responses to climate change. By examining all three primary responses side by side, researchers were able to get a more expansive and accurate picture of how birds — from finches to falcons — are adjusting for climate change. (via UCLA Newsroom)
13. We’ve covered this research in the last few weeks, but it is not often that we find an “Item” on the World Economic Forum website: Most people don't realize that this is a silent pandemic. This is something that is killing over a million people every year, and it can get so bad as to kill 10 million people by 2050 on an annual basis.” Those are the words of Dr. Shyam Bishen, Head of the World Economic Forum’s Centre for Health and Healthcare, describing antimicrobial resistance (AMR). This month, scientists at Oxford University published research showing that wild birds living close to humans, like ducks and crows, are likely to carry bacteria with AMR. (via World Economic Forum)
14. “(T)he importance of designing urban landscapes” from Down Under: Research led by Griffith University reveals how urban areas in Brisbane are losing bird species with characteristics that people find most "aesthetically pleasing.” The study, led by Dr. Andres Felipe Suarez Castro, found 82 different bird species across 42 different landscape types in Brisbane, but the variety of smaller, colorful, "melodious" bird species decreased in areas where there were not enough green spaces and fragmented landscapes. Dr. Suarez-Castro said these outcomes highlighted the importance of designing urban landscapes in future developments that increased opportunities to find colorful and melodious birds and favor people's connection with nature. (via Phys Org)
By Hap Ellis, Broad-winged Hawk– Cape Porpoise Harbor, ME.
15. More on the PNW’s “invasive” Barred Owl strategy in this excellent On Point/NPR podcast: The Barred Owl is considered "invasive" in the Pacific Northwest and it's pushing the Northern Spotted Owl to extinction. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has a plan — kill nearly half a million Barred Owls over the next 30 years. (via National Public Radio)
16. And finally, a story of “love at first sight” – involving, of all birds, a cormorant: We met in a barn. That is the first thing to say. The setting was a Saturday morning barn sale, listed in The Weekly Packet, which is the name here on my peninsula in Maine for the four-sheet newspaper that covers local culture (lively, earnest), disputes concerning boats and docks (scandalous), police activities (rare) and, most importantly, listings of yard sales and barn sales and jumble sales, which typically take place on Saturday mornings. So, the bird and I locked eyes when I was expecting to browse mouldering books or magazines, or to pick up a pretty pitcher for my farmhouse table. There is the cormorant, then, and the context. I want to give you both. (via Apollo Magazine)
Bird Videos of the Week
Video by Badgerland Birding, “Texas Birding: Elusive Bar-tailed Godwit Expedition”
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Chestnut-headed Oropendola.
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Learn what to expect to see on the Northern Royal Albatross Cam in the coming months.