1. Interesting piece on avian flu from the FT: Ciaran Hatsell, a National Trust of Scotland ranger, knows about loss. On June 5, he discovered the first signs of avian influenza in one of the gannets. Since then it has wiped out thousands of birds on the reserve. The flu is a highly pathogenic strain of the H5N1 virus. Since its early detections in poultry and wild birds in the spring of 2021, this new strain has killed more than 86 million birds in the US and Europe alone, predominantly through poultry culling, the mass slaughter of birds at sites where cases have been found. The European Food Safety Authority said the 2021-2022 epidemic season was the largest ever recorded on the continent.
Hundreds of thousands of wild birds have been affected too, particularly seabirds that live in densely packed colonies — optimal conditions for the spread of disease. The level of transmission in wild bird species is unprecedented. Whereas previous strains have affected a handful of species before petering out by the end of the winter, the current one has infected hundreds of species and hung around in populations year-round. Worth reading in full. (via Financial Times)
2. This magnificent bird could be the answer: For centuries, the Philippine eagle and hawk eagle have shared this remote rainforest with the Dumagat, an Indigenous people who call the slopes of the Sierra Madre mountains in the northern Philippines their home. Together, they survived Spanish colonialism and American imperialism and the impinging development of the modern Philippines. But in recent years the raptors have become perilously scare. Fewer than 600 mature Philippine hawk eagles are left in the wild. But the eagles could be their salvation. The indigenous population’s last hope may be to document the presence of the Philippine eagle and hawk eagle, and lobby for the area to be declared a protected critical habitat. (via The Washington Post)
3. Quantitative ecology in action: So you’ve participated in a Christmas Bird Count or have signed up for a few Climate Watch blocks. You’ve sent in the data and now you have questions about who analyzes that data and what are they looking for. Well, we have some answers. American Birds spoke with quantitative ecologists Tim Meehan and Sarah Saunders, and Audubon’s Director of Climate Science Brooke Bateman, about their work with your hard-won data points. Meehan, who is a quantitative ecologist with Audubon’s Science team, spends his time digging through the vast datasets of the Christmas Bird Count. Now in its 122nd year, the Christmas Bird Count is one of the longest-running community science projects in the world, and the data collected is some of the richest available for avifauna in the Western Hemisphere. (via Audubon)
4. The importance of banding: Developed at the turn of the 20th century, bird banding uses metal or colored leg bands or colored wing tags marked with a unique number or alpha-code as a method for documenting re-encounters of individual birds. In North America, the US Geological Survey’s Bird Banding Lab, established in 1920 by visionary scientists, is a cornerstone for avian conservation and research. In the last 100 years, approximately 77 million bands have been deployed with over 5 million re-encounters reported. This research has led to some amazing insights about birds and their lives. For example, it tells us that the oldest-known living banded bird is a 70-year-old Laysan Albatross named Wisdom who hatched her 39th chick last year. With impressive records like these, there is indeed a lot of wisdom captured in this extensive dataset. (via Audubon)
5. No surprise which bird is the fastest: The question about the fastest flying avian might’ve come up in casual conversations with friends, in your child's homework or, perhaps, just out of simple curiosity. The house sparrow is the most abundant bird in the world, according to National Geographic, with a population of 1.6 billion. But is it the fastest avian to soar across the sky? According to National Audubon Society, the fastest animal in the sky is the Peregrine Falcon. It has been measured at speeds above 186 miles an hour, but only when stooping or diving. The fastest bird in flight, measured at a scientifically verifiable 69 miles an hour, was the Common Swift for the longest time. (via USA Today)
6. When learning to communicate, parents matter: In learning to communicate, a good teacher is essential. Take zebra finches, for example. Juveniles of the species learn songs directly from a tutor – usually their father – through a social interaction that keeps them motivated and on-task. Young birds who simply hear the songs through a speaker, without the tutor’s one-on-one instruction, don’t learn them nearly as well. How exactly this social component of song learning works has long been a mystery. But now, researchers at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) have identified the brain circuity that controls it. They reported their findings in Nature Communications. (via EurekaAlert)
7. Native birds recovering?: A deep dive into bird survey data has found that some of Australia's favorite backyard visitors considered 'common' are actually on the decline as cities and suburbs opt for less greenery. The study used citizen science data to examine the prevalence and diversity of bird species across Greater Brisbane, Greater Sydney, Greater Perth and Greater Melbourne. The team found that introduced species, historically prominent in Australian urban bird communities, were decreasing in prevalence in all four regions, while a small group of native urban exploiters were becoming more prevalent. (via Science Daily)
8. “Lights out” latest from NYC: At or before 11 p.m. last night, buildings owned by or managed by the state of New York turned off unnecessary artificial lighting. They’ll do the same every night until Nov. 15. Why? To benefit migrating birds. Lights Out New York is a statewide initiative to mitigate the negative effects artificial light has on the migratory patterns of birds. In 2019, NYC Audubon successfully lobbied the New York City Council to pass a requirement that all new construction in the city use bird-friendly design materials, including windows that help birds recognize a window as a hard object and keep the bird from flying into it. According to Partridge, replacing the windows at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in mid-Manhattan resulted in a 90 to 95 percent reduction in bird collision deaths at the building. (via The Union)
9. Protecting the Turtle Dove and other migrants in France: There is a bird that used to be fairly common in both France and the U.K. Its call is known as the sound of summer; such a gentle, almost purring, turrrr, turrrr turrrr. Tragically it has declined by some 90% in the UK, and France is following close behind, Europe as a whole 80%. It is the Turtle dove (Tourterelle des bois), and it is that lovely purring call that gives it the name, in the Latinised version turtur. Arriving late on migration, in the month of May, it will soon be gone in August, when it sets off to its ‘wintering’ grounds south of the Sahara. (via The Connexion)
10. Rare Bird Alert: A Duncan, B.C., boat captain says it was the "highlight of her birding career" when she got a glimpse of a rarely seen South American bird while out on a tour a few weeks ago. Tasli Shaw says she was on a full-day boat trip in the Salish Sea on July 23 when she noticed a bird that looked different from the usual gulls she's seen over her 13-year career, just south of Trial Islands close to Victoria. "[It] immediately registered as a stranger to the birder side of my brain," said Shaw, who works for the Ocean Ecoventures whale-watching company in Cowichan Bay on Vancouver Island. Shaw says she immediately "jumped into action" and managed to get a video of the bird — which turned out to be a Nazca booby, a seabird native to the east Pacific, around Central America. (via CBC)
Bird Photo of the Week
Photo by Hap Ellis, Canada Jay, Greenough, MT.
Bird Videos of the Week
By BBC Earth, “Birds Feast on Bee Swarm”.
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Outdoor Owl Cam.
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Owl Chicks.