1. The beauty (and power) of bird song: The surprise hit of 2021, Songs of Disappearance – an album compiled solely of the birdsongs of Australia’s threatened birds – has once again surged into the Aria top 10. Can our embattled natives unseat Korn this week? After a new year’s break, the endangered birds of one of Australia’s most unlikely chart-toppers, Songs of Disappearance, are back. Last week, though, with the “Endangered Edition” – a deluxe version featuring a photo book and a bio of each species – hitting retail stores for the first time, the birds once again took flight. Soaring from 1012th position, the imperilled virtuosos have once again found a comfortable perch at number two on the charts – but not everyone is satisfied with the result. (via Broadsheet)
2. This too from Australia: It’s just dumb luck that I did my PhD on the swift parrot. I’d run into logistic issues with my research on black cockatoos in Western Australia – and at the same time my supervisor and I found out there was a conservation project on swift parrots that needed to happen. There’s not really any kind of cohesive strategic approach to the implementation of conservation action on threatened species in Australia. Most threatened species don’t have recovery plans. And for those that do, few have funding for their implementation. We rely on ephemeral funding, and try to make every dollar stretch as far as it can. You have to be almost opportunistic in how you access funding. Underfunding is one of the biggest threats to Australia’s biodiversity, and it’s chronic. (via Cosmos Magazine)
3. Possible help from Washington: Birds don’t recognize borders so we must work with our neighbors to protect them wherever they fly,” said Marshall Johnson, chief conservation officer, National Audubon Society. “This legislation will provide more places to nest, winter, and rest for the millions of birds across farms and forests in Ohio, through backyards and bays in Maryland, to the mountains of Colombia, and beyond.” Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) introduced legislation this week to enhance the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act (NMBCA). The NMBCA is an innovative and cost-effective approach to the conservation of the more than 350 neotropical bird species in the U.S. It supports the conservation of bird habitat as well as research, monitoring, outreach, and education. (via Audubon)
4. Not any old twig: To build its nest, a bird won’t go for any old twig. Somehow, birds pick and choose material that will create a cozy, sturdy nest. A bird’s nest is a special version of a granular material: a substance, such as sand, made up of many smaller objects. Physicist Hunter King of the University of Akron in Ohio and colleagues combined laboratory experiments and computer simulations to better understand the quirks of nestlike granular materials. The more force the piston applied to the pile, the stiffer the pile became, meaning it resisted further deformation. As the piston bore down, sticks slid against one another, and the contact points between them rearranged. That stiffened the pile by allowing additional contact points to form between sticks, which prevented them from flexing further, the simulations showed. (via Science News)
5. “Social attraction”: The trek into the Siuslaw National Forest began innocently enough. I accompanied Jim Rivers, Oregon State wildlife ecology professor, and his crew to replace the batteries on a Marbled Murrelet’s nest monitor and radio telemetry system. And the terrain did prove mostly flat—except for the numerous steep ravines and drainages along the uncut trail, and the final, steep hand-over-hand scramble to get to the giant Douglas-fir that a fluffy, fist-sized murrelet chick called home. This dense, verdant neighborhood is prime murrelet habitat, which is in short supply across the murrelet’s range, where most old-growth stands of soaring Douglas-fir and Sitka spruce have been logged off. (via Living Bird Magazine)
6. Discovering Jaegers’ secrets: It’s spring on the Canadian tundra at Nanuit Itillinga National Wildlife Area, and three kinds of jaegers appear out of nowhere, ready to start nesting. Where in the world have these transoceanic-traveling seabirds been all year? Until recently, their movements were a mystery. But research published in the journal Ecology and Evolution in December 2021 revealed some answers from this High Arctic location in Nunavut where Pomarine, Parasitic, and Long-tailed Jaegers all come to breed. This spot is near a High Arctic science field station operated by the Canadian government, which provided Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center research scientist Autumn-Lynn Harrison with a ready base of operations for jaeger research. (via Living Bird Magazine)
7. More on the concerning bird flu: The U.S. is in the midst of its worst deadly bird flu outbreak in years. Millions of poultry and wild birds have been killed. And although the risk to human health is low, the impacts have trickled down to consumers. William Brangham traveled to the Midwest, where producers and scientists are desperately trying to stay ahead of the virus. (via PBS News)
8. And this from Europe: Seeking to stamp out the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of avian influenza, France and other countries have been culling record numbers of poultry—more than 16 million birds since December 2021 in France alone. Last year, the cost there exceeded €150 million. Now, faced with the desperation of farmers like Drouin, France, the Netherlands, and other hard-hit countries have restarted research into a solution long considered taboo: vaccinating flocks. (via Science)
9. Lights Out Chicago: Conserving energy and stargazing are two of many reasons people opt to turn their lights out at night, but over the next couple of days, experts are urging residents to also flip their switches between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. to help save the lives of millions of migrating birds. Over the next two nights, the birds are expected to migrate across Chicagoland in one of the biggest migration movements of the season so far, according to the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors, a volunteer conservation project that works to protect migratory birds through rescue, advocacy and outreach efforts. (via Chicago Tribune)
10. “Marginal Speed Control”: There are few things more spectacular—or startling—than a large flock of birds swirling overhead in a synchronized dance across the sky. Now, researchers have figured out how these flyers soar so close together without crashing. The scientists focused on starlings (Sturnus vulgaris), which commonly fly in large flocks. They tweaked computer models until they came up with one whose on-screen birds behaved like real birds. The challenge was to figure out how large flocks maintain certain speeds even as individuals within them go faster and slower. The secret, the team reports today in Nature Communications, is having “marginal speed control”: (via Science)
11. One remarkable bird: The common cuckoo, also known as the European cuckoo, is a remarkable and fascinating bird, migrating to the UK from Africa every spring. It's famous for its parasitic behaviour, which is specifically brood parasitism where it does not build its own nest and raise its young, but instead tricks another bird species into doing the work for it. Such behaviours have inspired various cultural and social references. William Shakespeare refers to the cuckoo in spring, and to cuckoldry, in Love's Labours Lost, and the cuckoo's call inspired the cuckoo clock. The ‘cuckoo’ name has been used in other species' names, referencing the parasitic behaviour. (via Discover Wildlife)
12. California birding tip: Even if you’ve lived here a long time, Southern California can amaze you. Hundreds of different bird species can whiz through the area unnoticed — until you stop and watch in jaw-dropping awe. That’s what happened to outdoor writer Matt Pawlik. He recently joined an expert birder who showed him a secret place in the Angeles National Forest north of L.A. where, so far this season, 130 migrating species have passed through. This was my first early morning visit to the Bear Divide Vista Picnic Site east of Santa Clarita in the Angeles National Forest. Terrill, a postdoctoral researcher at Occidental College’s Moore Laboratory of Zoology, was swiftly chirping out the identities of winged passersby. He skillfully snapped photos while explaining the ornithological phenomena happening before our eyes: spring migration. (via Los Angeles Times)
Bird Photo of the Week
Photo by Laurie Campbell/Minden Pictures, “Murmurations”.
Bird Videos of the Week
By Ted-Ed, “Migration”.
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Condor Cam.
Cornell Live Bird Cam - West Texas Feeder Cam.