1. As a professor and curator of ornithology at Harvard University, Scott Edwards usually spends his summers immersed in conferences, fieldwork, and laboratories. But this year, when COVID-19 halted most scientific endeavors and closed campuses across the U.S., Edwards decided to attempt his dream of cycling from the Atlantic to Pacific. He planned to cruise along country roads and sleep at campgrounds, expecting both to be empty enough for social distancing. When Edwards learned about Black Birders Week, he created a Twitter account to participate. Audubon magazine talked to Edwards 10 days into the trip about 80 miles east of Lake Erie. To keep up with Edwards, you can follow him on Twitter at @ScottVEdwards1. (via Audubon)
2. When Onon took off above the rolling hills of the Khurkh valley in Mongolia last June, researchers had no idea if they would see him alive again. Along with one oriental cuckoo and three other common cuckoos, each fitted with a tiny tracking device, he was about to embark on an epic journey to southern Africa. Last month, he was the only bird to return safely with his tracker intact. Fans followed online updates from the Mongolia Cuckoo Project, watching in awe as Onon cruised across oceans and made 27 border crossings in 16 countries. Researchers are now studying data from his journey for clues about why cuckoos travel as far as they do, and how they might be affected by the climate crisis. (via Wired, Birding Beijing)
By Hap Ellis, Ruby-throated Hummingbird.
3. Tiny, feisty rufous hummingbirds are known for their long migrations, which take them up and down the length of North America each year. Now, they have a new claim to fame: They can keep track of particularly juicy flowers depending on where they appear—first, second, or even fourth—in a line-up of blooms. Although this understanding of “numerical order” may sound simple, it’s a complex skill that may help hummingbirds remember the easiest routes between nectar-rich flowers. It’s also the first time researchers have seen the ability in a wild vertebrate. (via Science Mag)
4. If ever there were a competition to rank sibling relationships in the animal kingdom, barn owls would be close to the top. That’s because elder barn owlets will sometimes give away their meal to their younger siblings. Such cooperative behavior has been reported in adult nonhuman primates and birds, but rarely among young. “I don’t know any other species where you can find it,” says Pauline Ducouret, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. Observations of nests show that elder barn owlets offer their food to their younger siblings in exchange for grooming, Ducouret and her colleagues report in the American Naturalist. (via The Washington Post, Science News, The American Naturalist)
5. Helpful: At some point, nearly everyone who spends time outdoors finds a baby bird—one that is unable to fly well and seems lost or abandoned. Your first impulse may be to help the young bird, but in the great majority of cases the young bird doesn’t need help. In fact, intervening often makes the situation worse. All About Birds has provided a great resource to best determine whether to take action with a nestling, or leave the fledgling to wait for it’s parents return. (via All About Birds)
6. A specialist search and recovery team has been deployed to recapture the last remaining survivors of a flock of endangered birds that absconded from a predator-free island in New Zealand during coronavirus lockdown. There are only 250 shore plover or tūturuatu left in the wild and they are the world’s rarest plover. Conservationists have been painstakingly reintroducing them to the mainland after they were almost wiped out by cats and rats by 1880. (via The Guardian)
7. In India, the endangered Greater Adjutant Stork is confined to the northeastern state of Assam, their last stronghold. Elsewhere, small populations persist in Cambodia’s northern plains. Only 800 to 1,200 adult Greater Adjutants remain, most of them in Assam. But in studying this species, Dr. Purnima Devi Barman has noticed a change in the storks’ behavior. Greater Adjutants are increasingly leaving the rural wetlands and becoming village dwellers. Through her tireless work with Aaranyak, Barman has empowered an army of local women to advocate for the storks. Once scorned, the storks are now welcome and celebrated in the villages—and people who once destroyed Greater Adjutant nests now care for the birds like their own children. (via Living Bird, eBird, Aaranyak Organization)
8. Some might say it's for the birds. But the latest creation from German robotics company Festo promises not only literal flights of fancy, but quite promising real-world applications down the road as well. The company unveiled a video of a stunningly lifelike fleet of robo-birds that glide through the air with guidance from an ultra-sideband radio system. Artificial lamellae and quill are designed to replicate realistic motion. When the BionicSwift models rise, the lamellae bunch up to help provide lift. When they descend, they fan out to allow air to pass through. They can glide gracefully, make sharp turns and fly in loops. (via Techxplore)
Bird Photo of the Week
By Mike Hamilton, Lazuli Bunting.
Bird Videos of the Week
The unusual vocalization of the Three-wattled Bellbird, a bird that breeds primarily in Costa Rican highlands in the cloud forest (March–September) and return to lower elevations in the mangroves for the interim months.
Cornell Live Bird Cam, “Cornell FeederWatch Cam”.
Cornell Live Bird Cam, “Savannah Osprey”.