Biggest Birding Week.
Bird News Items
NEWS FLASH: BNI will be off the grid next week - gathering material in southern Africa. Back in your Saturday mailbox May 31st.
1. Let’s start with a nice piece from Scientific American - consider “unplugging”: The Boreal Owl is a tiny but fierce gnome of the deep boreal forest—the belt of cold, wet, largely coniferous forest that encircles the North Pole. Highly sought after by birders, this owl appeals less for its plumage than for its secrecy and its rarity in most places where people tend to live. This past winter, a huge movement of this species to regions south of its usual range occurred because of food scarcity—an event called an irruption. This put Boreal Owls within striking distance of birders—including me—who were looking to add the species to their “life list,” a record of all the species a person has seen. So in March, before the visiting owls returned home, some friends and I made a last-minute weekend trip to Duluth, Minn., to look for them. Although there’s always a frenetic energy to a rarity chase such as this, to me, the experience underscored the importance of taking time to pause and observe the birds we find. (via Scientific American)
2. From Deseret.com, a nice look at birding - with a great quote from one of the all-time greats: “They’re accessible and interesting to us intellectually,” says John Fitzpatrick, director emeritus of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. “We love to count them. We love to keep lists about them. Since the earliest dawn of human civilization, they’ve been very important for us spiritually and emotionally as well.”: The cottonwood trees around me seemed to shimmy with life. Maybe it was just a late spring breeze nudging its way through the overstory, but there was also a chance that some winged tenant was fidgeting in its nest on a nearby branch and causing the stir. I wasn’t sure. Still, I was curious enough to pick up a borrowed set of binoculars, fumble for the focus wheel, and take a closer look. Gazing skyward, I made out a faint feathered outline. What a thrill!. As much as I enjoyed the idea of exploring the outdoors and encountering wildlife, I hadn’t made much effort to do so before that Saturday morning in May, when I found my way to the shores of Jordanelle Reservoir east of Salt Lake City. I’d recently moved here from the East Coast, and wanted to familiarize myself with the people, places and experiences my new home had to offer. So, with no prior avian knowledge, I joined a free birdwatching event I saw advertised on social media. That’s how I learned that birding (or birdwatching, as it was once called) has become America’s sweetheart of pastimes. (via Deseret News)
By Hap Ellis - Savanah Sparrow, Arnold Arboretum, Boston, MA.
3. Nature’s take on the groundbreaking study we’ve referenced several times: Bird populations worldwide have been in decline for decades, but without fine-grained information about where current shifts are happening, it is difficult to plan conservation strategies. In Science, Johnston et al. report trends in avian populations across North America at a spatial resolution of just a few hundred square kilometers. (via Nature)
4. Rare bird alert from Lesbos (Let’s go!): Black-winged white stilts wade through a salt pan, plunging their beaks into the water in search for food at the Kalloni bay on the Greek island of Lesbos, as bird-lovers watch through binoculars from afar. Stilts are one of more than 330 species found in the wetlands of Kalloni and elsewhere in Lesbos, which have established the island as a European hotspot for birdwatchers from around the world since the 1990s. (via Reuters)
5. A harrowing finding indeed - seabirds and plastics Down Under: On a remote Australian island renowned for its natural beauty, researchers have made a grisly discovery: Seabirds have ingested so much plastic they crunch when touched. The “harrowing” finding of plastic in the stomach of birds including chicks less than 3 months old is a stark warning for the health of other species in the marine environment, said ecologist Alex Bond, principal curator at Britain’s Natural History Museum. Bond recently returned from a visit to Lord Howe Island, a remote territory about 360 miles off Australia’s east coast. He is part of a team of researchers from Adrift Lab, a global unit that studies the impact of plastic pollution in the world’s oceans, that has been studying the island’s birds, sable shearwaters, for nearly two decades. (via The Washington Post)
6. Taking turns: A 20-year field study of the African superb starling (Lamprotornis superbus) found striking evidence that birds often switch breeding roles from year to year by taking turns as ‘breeders’ or each other’s ‘helpers’. This reciprocal assistance was not explained by genetic relatedness (kinship) and required decades of observation to be detected. (via Nature)
By Hap Ellis - Common Yellowthroat, Arnold Arboretum, Boston, MA.
7. “They had a bit of a scrap”: Two of New Zealand’s most rare and beloved animals – a large flightless takahē bird and an ancient tuatara reptile – have been captured chasing and nipping at one another during a bush-floor melee. Nick Fisentzidis, a department of conservation ranger on the pest-free Tiritiri Matangi Island near Auckland, saw the takahē attack the tuatara and quickly grabbed his phone to capture the rare footage. “I saw them having a bit of a nip at each other,” Fisentzidis said. “The takahē definitely had a go at the tail of the tuatara, and they had a bit of a scrap.” The video shows the takahē in hot pursuit of the tuatara, but the tables turn when the reptile squares up to the bird. (via The Guardian)
8. Understanding a flamingo’s “hydrodynamic mechanisms” (as in, what are they doing with their feet?): If you’ve ever really looked at how flamingos eat, you know how captivatingly peculiar it is. They bob their inverted heads in the water and do a kind of waddle cha-cha as they inch their way across shallow water, filter-feeding small crustaceans, insects, microscopic algae and other tiny aquatic morsels. Victor Ortega-Jiménez, an integrative biologist at the University of California, Berkeley, remembers being fascinated by this behavior the first time he saw it in 2019, during a trip with his wife and child to the Atlanta zoo. Ever since, he has been wondering what, exactly, was going on beneath the surface. “The birds looked beautiful, but the big question for me was, ‘What’s happening with the hydrodynamic mechanisms involved in flamingos’ filter feeding?’” he said. (via The New York Times)
9. This pitch for the “Biggest Week” for birders has the advantage of being true - it is an amazing experience!: Deb Nofzinger, a Sandusky County Park District naturalist, meets a lot of people who are interested in birding, but feel anxious over how to start. “A lot of people are intimidated by going birding because they don’t know how to identify the birds, don’t know what they sound like," Nofzinger said. "Technology can help." As many people do, she recommends a mobile app for your phone such as e-Bird, available at eBird.org. The next website for the public to visit is the one for the Biggest Week in American Birding, www.bwiab.com, and also pick up the printed Visitor’s Guide. It looks like a full-blown magazine, and it is. (via Port Clinton News Herald)
By Hap Ellis - Great Blue Heron, Arnold Arboretum, Boston, MA.
10. Latest Lights Out! Item: The wren’s legs were tucked delicately underneath its diminutive body, slumped on its side as if asleep. If it wasn’t lying on the bare concrete of a Texas street, there would be few clues that it had endured a crunching, violent death. The bird had flown headfirst into the Bank of America building, a 72-storey modernist skyscraper in the heart of Dallas. Its corpse was catalogued by volunteers who seek to document the toll of birds that strike the glass, metal and concrete structures festooned with bewildering lights that form the skylines of our cities. (via The Guardian)
11. For our Virginia readers: Birds are indicators of the health of their habitats and signal early warnings of broader trouble to the environment, and potentially people. In the past 50 years, Virginia species like Wilson's Plover — a signature bird of Virginia's barrier islands — have lost half of their population, per the North American Bird Conservation Initiative's 2025 State of the Birds report. The plover and the Golden-winged warbler are now labeled a "Tipping Point" species, meaning they could vanish within the next half-century without urgent conservation action. The cerulean warbler in Virginia's mountains has also seen its population crash in the past 50 years. The Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources has said pollution, changing climate and "the sea level rise that comes with it" can impact Virginia's coastal birds. (via Axios)
12. For those looking at “smart” feeders, a helpful Wired Magazine piece: Odds are, at this point you’ve probably seen or know someone who has a smart bird feeder. They’re fairly recognizable from a distance with their clear housing, cameras, and solar panels, and perhaps a friend or family member has sent you a photo or video of a bright goldfinch or handsome woodpecker (guilty). The question at this point, then, is whether these things are really worth the $100-plus price tag. Are they actually durable? And what about the squirrel problem? Lucky for you we’ve been testing the most popular smart bird feeder models, including Netvue’s original Birdfy feeder ($135) and Bird Buddy's new Pro model ($219), for months on end—in rain, snow, and heat, and in a yard with persistent squirrels. We’ve explored the apps and notification settings, installed any optional solar panels, and used Cornell Lab’s All About Birds—as well as Google Lens and our own local expertise—to verify the accuracy of AI identifications. (via Wired)
By Hap Ellis - Fellow Birder?, The Country Club, Brookline, MA.
13. “Quixotic”: Whether goslings live or die at the Central Park Reservoir could be up to two 70-something, nature-loving men who first crossed paths there this winter. Edward Dorson, a wildlife photographer and regular visitor to the reservoir, learned in 2021 that federal workers were destroying the eggs of Canada geese there as part of a government safety program to decrease bird collisions with airplanes. He tried to stop it. He reached out to animal rights organizations and wrote letters to various government agencies. He got nowhere. Then in December, he met Larry Schnapf, a tough-talking environmental lawyer, who spotted Mr. Dorson admiring the birds and introduced himself. Mr. Dorson told him about the nest destruction. Mr. Schnapf, in his 40-year legal career, had mostly focused on redeveloping contaminated properties but had picked up the occasional pro bono passion project. “I told him I take on quixotic pursuits,” Mr. Schnapf said. (via The New York Times)
14. Introducing “one of the world’s strangest birds”: The hoatzin is often regarded as one of the world's strangest birds. Hatchlings are born with clawed wings — a rare, prehistoric trait — and adults give off a strong, unpleasant smell due to their cow-like, fermenting digestive system, earning them the nickname “stinkbird." Hoatzin have some pretty weird traits, with mohican crests, blue facial skin, red eyes and large, fan-shaped tails, which they used to maintain balance while navigating dense vegetation. But these tropical birds are most notable for their pungent odor, which is commonly compared to manure or rotting vegetation. This unpleasant smell is the result of a highly unusual digestive process that sets them apart from almost every other bird species. (via Live Science)
15. Finally., in the grinding, ghastly war in Ukraine, small acts of humanity - like border guards saving a Red-throated Loon - resonate: Ukrainian border guards rescued a rare bird – a white-throated loon, which was hit by car headlights. The bird was carefully lifted, checked, taken to a body of water and released. Ukrainian border guards rescued a rare bird - a red-throated loon, which was hit by car headlights. This was reported by the press center of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, UNN reports. According to preliminary data, the bird was hit by car headlights during a patrol. It was carefully picked up, checked - there were no injuries. Then it was taken to a pond, where it flew away on its own business. (via UNN)
Bird Videos of the Week
Video by National Geographic, “Bird vs. Lizard”.
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Great Horned Owlets.
Cornell Live Bird Cam - American Kestrel nest!
Go Birding!!