1. Cryptochrome 4: The US military wants to harness the ability of migratory birds to fly great distances at night without getting lost to help it fight wars without satellite navigation. China’s anti-satellite capability is seen as a growing threat to America’s space-based global positioning system (GPS), forcing the Pentagon to fund research into alternative ways of navigation — including those already perfected by nature. Migratory birds such as the European robin have a protein called cryptochrome 4 in their retinas which enables them to sense the Earth’s magnetic field and chart their course from one country to another. (via The Times)
2. More on the Holy Grail of bird apps: Identifying birds by their songs has always been difficult, for computers and humans alike. Every species of bird has a range of vocalizations, sometimes an immense range, and those vocalizations can have regional inflections, just as people speak with local accents. In some species, individual birds put a unique spin on their songs, too. A mockingbird is the avian equivalent of a jazz musician. Last month, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology released an updated version of its Merlin Bird ID app, which allows users to identify birds by song. There are other voice-recognition apps for birds, but they are accurate barely 50 percent of the time. Though Merlin doesn’t claim to be 100 percent accurate, it comes very close. (via The New York Times)
3. eBirders helped place the bet: Two rice fields in California’s Central Valley—one so dry, the parched ground was cracked in patterns like a shattered windshield. On the other, a couple inches of still water was disturbed by the march of Long-billed Dowitchers, rhythmically pumping and probing like an advancing army of sewing machines. The dry field is what most of the 500,000 acres of rice country in between the Sierra Nevada and the Coast Range looks like in late winter, as farmers dry out their beds to prepare for seeding in spring. The latter is what just 2 percent of the Central Valley’s rice fields looked like last February, an anomaly holding 2 to 4 inches of water. But it was no accident. The farmer was paid to put the water there, in a wager that the birds would come. And eBirders helped place the bet. (via All About Birds)
4. Out here in the Matobo Hills of south-west Zimbabwe (recognised as a Traditional Cultural Landscape by Unesco), most families are subsistence farmers and rain is a fundamental element of survival. Here, large black birds with puckered red faces, Southern ground hornbills (Bucorvus leadbeateri), are considered to be the callers of the rain. Amahundundu, the Ndebele and Kalanga people of the Matobos call them, naming the birds for their low, thunderous call that can be heard up to 5km away. They are so important to these communities that when a ground hornbill dies, elders gather and give the bird the same traditional burial they would a human. Kill an ihundundu ("i" refers to the bird in the singular, "ama" in plural), they believe, and you will go mad. You will anger the gods, rain will not fall and you could be banished from the community for life. (via BBC News)
5. “As sun to day, as turtle to her mate,” declares Shakespeare’s Troilus of his commitment to Cressida. Chaucer wrote of “the wedded turtledove with her heart true”. Yet Britain has not been kind to these migratory birds, whose numbers in the British Isles have dwindled by 98% since the 1970s to an estimated 3,600 breeding pairs in 2016. Paul Klemperer, Elizabeth Baldwin and Alex Teytelboym, all of Oxford University, are using economics to help. They have designed a reverse auction in which farmers bid publicly for contracts to provide suitable habitats. This is trickier than it sounds. (via The Economist)
6. One tough pair of Piping Plovers: The piping plover family at Montrose Beach is smaller than it was earlier this summer, but the remaining chicks will get named ahead of their upcoming migration south for the winter. Monty and Rose, Chicago’s favorite pair of endangered migratory birds, successfully hatched four piping plover chicks at Montrose Beach this summer for the third consecutive year. But the bird couple’s efforts were not without trials and tribulations — and ultimately tragedy. Two of the birds’ chicks have died, said Edward Warden, president of the Chicago Ornithological Society. The names of the two surviving chicks will be publicly announced 5 p.m. Friday at Montrose Beach. The ceremony also will be live streamed on the Chicago Piping Plover Facebook page. More information can be found here. (via Block Club Chicago)
7. The summer’s heat waves take their toll: Wildlife conservation groups across the country have expressed concerns about how this summer’s heat waves are affecting bird populations. Dr. Victoria Hall, executive director of the University of Minnesota’s Raptor Center, on Wednesday told MPR host Cathy Wurzer that the impact on birds of prey in Minnesota has been less severe than in the Pacific Northwest, where wildlife hospitals have seen huge increases in sick or injured birds due to the heat. Among Minnesota’s bird population, Hall said, the effects of recent extreme weather have been more indirect but wide-reaching. “We are seeing changes to things like food supply for these birds,” she said. With insect populations lower this year, the bird population’s food chain is under strain. “When you put pressure on one part of an ecosystem, it’s going to change others.” (via MPR News)
8. More on this summer’s weather: In California, one of the worst droughts on record has touched off a kaleidoscopic range of emergencies, amplifying age-old resource conflicts as leaders call for conservation by cities, curtailments to farmers and coordination across the board. The interconnectedness of the state’s hydrology is especially apparent in one corner of the Sacramento Valley, where scarce water for farmers will also mean less for the migrating birds that make use of the same land. Fields that produce 95% of the rice grown in California have become an essential rest stop on the Pacific Flyway, with millions of ducks, geese, and other waterfowl and migratory shorebirds stopping to recharge during long flights south. But drought is reducing capacity for both crops and creatures. This year, with water deliveries slashed to a tiny fraction of normal supplies, planted rice acreage is down more than 20%, leaving tens of thousands of acres fallow. That means avian travelers will be pressed for resources when they arrive. (via Bloomberg)
9. Concern for an apex predator: It is seen, not often heard, in the western desert of Utah and along the expanse of the Great Salt Lake’s Antelope Island, where cliffs provide a towering view of the buffalo, the jack rabbits, and people biking and hiking. The golden eagle uses these cliffs as a crib to raise its young, safely away from human threats and as a natural nursery that complements its stunning aerial abilities. Over the past few months, Deseret News explored the world of the golden eagle, what makes it unique, what threats it faces and the important role it plays not only in a fragile ecosystem under siege but in amplifying military readiness for the defense of the United States and its allies. Here are five key takeaways about the importance of the golden eagle, why it is a species that inspires awe and a bit of trepidation and how it intersects with our lives, even though we may not know it. (via Deseret News)
10. Raptor news from Hawk Mountain Sanctuary: It’s not easy keeping tabs on raptors, like osprey and falcons. They are widespread and somewhat rarer than other birds, says Laurie Goodrich, Ph.D., of Hawk Mountain Sanctuary. Unlike songbirds, their populations are not well monitored during nesting season, so migration counts are critical for knowing how these birds of prey are doing. Goodrich is Sarkis Acopian Director of Conservation Science at Hawk Mountain, a raptor research and education facility in eastern Pennsylvania. Spring and fall migration counts of these birds have been recorded there since 1934. The sanctuary is one of the partner organizations contributing to an index of migration statistics. (via the Allegheny Front)
11. Illinois steps up with a Lights Out-related measure: Last week, Illinois took an important step to minimize the impact of our built environment when Gov. Pritzker signed the Bird Safe Buildings Act (HB 247), which requires a bird-friendly design to be incorporated into the construction and renovation of state-owned buildings in Illinois. This new law will require the use of bird-friendly construction techniques for all new construction or renovation of Illinois state-owned buildings. At least 90 percent of the exposed façade material on new state buildings will need to be made of glass that helps stop bird collisions. It will also require that, when possible, outside building lighting is appropriately shielded to protect wildlife. (via 23 WIFR News)
12. The crown jewel of Texas birding hotspots: The Big Bend region, which encompasses the Texas state and national parks that span more than 1 million acres, is situated on the Rio Grande, on the border with Mexico. All of the extraordinary and oddball creatures who call this place home—including mountain lions, black bears, kangaroo rats, javelinas, and gray foxes—have managed to carve their niche in this harsh landscape. Jim Thul, a retired biologist from New Jersey, traveled here to see one in particular: the Colima Warbler, an elusive species that migrates from Mexico each spring to breed in the high peaks of the Chisos Mountains. This is the only place in the United States to find this yellow-rumped bird with a worldwide following. He’s hired Hoy as a guide to help track down the warbler. If Thul sees the Colima Warbler today, it would qualify, in birding lingo, as a “lifer,” meaning it’d be the first time he’s ever seen that species in the wild. (via Texas Observer)
Bird Photo of the Week
Photo by Hap Ellis, Common Tern.
Bird Videos of the Week
By BBC Earth, “The Dark Side of Shoebill Chicks”.
Cornell Live Bird Cam - 6-month Royal Albatross
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Pileated Woodpecker