Birds on the Move.

Bird News Items

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Nov 20, 2021

1. Let’s begin in Ireland: Netting seabirds is great fun. And it’s crucial for science and conservation. Lying about 10 kilometres northeast of the mainland, Inishtrahull island is home to thousands of seabirds during the summer nesting season, including storm petrels (Hydrobates pelagicus), Manx shearwaters (Puffinus puffinus) and fulmars (Fulmarus glacialis). The fulmars are experiencing a population crash, which I’m investigating. Migratory birds are protected here, but we need to know where they go when they leave their nests. A few birds get GPS monitors, but we dole those out carefully, because each costs about £1,000 (US$1,368). The data they provide help us to understand their migration patterns. (via Nature)

2. Grim: Humanity's close relationship with birds extends back tens of thousands of years. From helping us fish and hunt, providing us with soft comfort on which to sleep, to being our early long-distance messengers, these modern dinosaurs have gifted us with many incredible services, beyond merely being food, throughout our entire existence. But one in six birds has quietly vanished across Europe since the 1980s, a new study has concluded. The research points "to a failure to achieve existing biodiversity targets and call for transformative change across sectors of human society as an emerging Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework takes shape.” But not all hope is lost! (via Science Alert)

Click here to read about the North American declines Nearly 3 Billion Birds Gone | Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology : Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

3. Stunning: There is a problem in getting up close to birds in order to celebrate them. Warm-blooded, they support striking levels of energy and movement. They are social, active and dynamic – most of them fly, though there are significant species of flightless birds. Birds rarely stand still, especially near humans. That’s why the pioneering illustrators of the 19th century sought dead specimens to bring into the studio to paint. John James Audubon’s 1838 engraving of a shocking-pink, double-bent flamingo is one of America’s best-known images, but his career was as much about slaughtering birds – and encouraging a network of associates to do the same – as it was about illustrating them. (via The Economist)

See also: Majestic and intricate, stunning images showcasing the diversity of birdlife are taken from Birds, a photography book by Tim Flach.

4. Study of a perky little bird suggests there may be far more avian species in the tropics than those identified so far. After a genetic study of the White-crowned Manakin, scientists say it's not just one species and one of the main drivers of its diversity is the South American landscape and its history of change. These results are published in the journal Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. "We found that the White-crowned Manakin probably originated in the highland forests of the Andes Mountains in northern Peru," explains lead author Jacob Berv. Berv conducted this research while a Ph.D. student at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and is currently a Life Sciences Fellow at the University of Michigan. (via EurekaAlert)

5. Birds on the move – Colorado: According to Colorado Parks and Wildlife, the annual bald eagle migration back to Colorado has begun. Each year, from November to March, migratory bald eagles return to Colorado in big numbers from the north, with more than 1,000 expected to pass through the state this winter. Barr Lake State Park reports that 35 birds were spotted by volunteers on Wednesday, with more eagles expected to pour into the state in days and weeks to come. When it comes to eagles, they're a bit unique in terms of migration. For starters, they don't all migrate. Colorado is home to around 200 nesting pairs and those tend to stay in the state year-round. Their migratory counterparts will pass through, but even then, they aren't quite as consistent as other bird species. (via Out There Colorado)

6. Birds on the move – California: This holiday season, you can see a great deal more than “seven swans a swimming” in Northern California. Each year, more than 100,000 Tundra Swans migrate from the Arctic to overwinter in the flooded rice fields of Northern California. And through January, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife is leading weekly tours highlighting the visiting swans. “This is the largest concentration of swans on the West Coast in the winter,” according to Brian Gilmore, a scientific aid with CDFW who helped start the tours about a decade ago. The swans arrive in the fields in early November after several weeks of flight, having traveled more than 3,000 miles from Alaska and northern Canada to spend the winter in the rice fields. (via Reno Gazette Journal)

7. Very encouraging news: Everyone roots for the underdog, and when it comes to birds there is none bigger in North America than the whooping crane. Down to just 15 adults in 1938, whooping cranes have clawed their way back from the brink of extinction. Although still at a precarious level, there are now about 900 birds in captivity and three wild populations. The majority of birds, more than 500, are expected to end their fall migration from their nesting grounds in Alberta, Canada’s Wood Buffalo National Park to the Texas coast where they will remain until late March. “On our last winter estimate, we calculated the population the winter before last because we didn’t get to count last year because of COVID, at 506,” said Wade Harrell, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service whooping crane recovery coordinator. “We are quite sure the population has grown since then.” (via Tyler Morning Paper)

8. Every little bit helps: Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) restored a Clean Water Act veto issued in 2008 that would once again block the environmentally destructive Yazoo Pumps project from draining wetlands that provide habitat for more than 28 million migratory birds annually. Recognizing the hemispheric significance of this area, the National Audubon Society, through its regional Audubon Delta office, along with hundreds of other conservation and social justice organizations, science professionals, and members of the public have long opposed the Yazoo Pumps proposal. (via Audubon)

9. More regulatory news: The Biden administration on Friday said it will consider new measures to protect greater sage grouse, a bird species once found across much of the U.S. West that has suffered drastic declines in recent decades due to oil and gas drilling, grazing, wildfires and other pressures. The announcement of a range-wide evaluation of habitat plans for greater sage grouse came after the Trump administration tried to scale back conservation efforts adopted when Biden was vice president in 2015.A federal court blocked Trump's changes. But Biden administration officials said the attempt set back conservation efforts—even as the chicken-sized bird's habitat was further ravaged by wildfires, invasive plant species and continued development. (via Phys Org)

10. This from China: The winter migration season has arrived. With the cold wave heading down south, migratory birds from remote places such as Siberia have begun to arrive at Dongting Lake, central China for the winter. Dongting Lake in central China's Hunan Province is the country's second-largest freshwater lake. When the temperature rises after a cold snap, locals call the 10th lunar month "Indian summer." During this time, the lake's water level drops and sedges grow, allowing wintering birds to enjoy abundant food. The Eurasian spoonbills are the first to arrive at the heart of East Dongting Lake National Nature Reserve. They line up and use sideways sweeps of their beaks to filter out tiny fish and shrimp. When they fly to another foraging spot, people can only see the vast expanse of a white sky. (via CGTN)

11. And this from Iran: Bushehr province is a suitable habitat for migratory birds, due to having the largest coastline with the Persian Gulf, pristine and uninhabited islands, a variety of aquatic plants, and food availability. Flocks of migratory birds migrate from northern to southern regions, and Bushehr province is considered by the International Bird Organization. More than 120 species from about 20 families of wintering birds have been identified and observed in the province, such as terms, geese, storks, pelicans, sandpipers, cranes, flamingos, herons, large white-headed gulls, and cormorants. According to last year's census, the number of migratory shorebirds to Bushehr province was about 68,000, which indicates an increase of at least 10 percent compared to a year before. (via Tehran Times)

12. Backyard birders take note: Maybe you’ve seen the headlines: migrating birds collide en masse with a Texas office tower’s reflective sides, or crash into the gauntlets of glass we’ve erected in their flight paths through New York or Chicago. But this problem isn’t unique to big cities or migration season. Each year between 365 million and 1 billion birds die from collisions with windows across the United States. The overwhelming majority of those window strikes occur at residential and low-rise buildings, with fewer than 1 percent caused by skyscrapers. So no matter where you live—an urban high-rise or a one-story suburban house—sooner or later window strikes will likely hit close to home. When they do, try these tips from the experts to help injured birds and prevent future collisions. (via Audubon)

13. Birds & Books: A lovely fresco painted about 3,500 years ago on the island of Santorini, Greece, shows a pair of swallows dancing in the air, their beaks about to touch as they whirl around. It is spring, and the lilies sprouting from the rocks below and beside the birds look as if they wanted to reach toward them, eager for a share in that lightness. Birds can go wherever they want, muses Boria Sax in “Avian Illuminations,” his wide-ranging, wistful history of human connections with the bird world, from the first drawings on cave walls to Rachel Carson’s dire warnings. Some birds may beat their wings, some might just prefer to let themselves be carried by the wind. It is almost impossible, writes Mr. Sax, “to imagine this sort of freedom.” But is it? Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, for one, has little trouble picturing a life in the sky. (via The Wall Street Journal)

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