1. The bioacoustic implications of climate change: A bird sings on the prairie and nobody can hear it. Forget whether it makes a sound—biologists want to know why it went unheard. Drier conditions intensified by climate change might be responsible, a new study finds, because birdsong doesn’t travel as far in dry air. That could have harmful consequences for birds trying to defend their territories or find a mate. The study is one of the first to examine the bioacoustic implications of climate change, says Jacob Job, an acoustic ecologist who was not involved with the work. It is “at the forefront” of this emerging research question, he says. (via Science)
2. Must see documentary – All That Breathes: Shaunak Sen was stuck in a traffic jam one evening in 2018 when he looked up at the hazy, polluted skies of Delhi and saw dozens of raptors, birds with brown feathers, gracefully circling overhead. Then, one bird just dropped to the ground in mid-flight. "After I went back home, I had to Google it," Sen says. "What happens to birds that fall out of the sky in Delhi?" The answer led him to two Muslim brothers — Nadeem Shehzad and Muhammad Saud — who would soon become the subjects of his award-winning documentary, All That Breathes. Shot over a period of three years from 2019, the documentary this year won both the Golden Eye Award for top documentary at Cannes and the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. It tells the story of the brothers' lifelong struggle to save an unusual bird — the meat-eating black kites that have made the smog-ridden Delhi skies their home. (via National Public Radio)
3. Feeling down in the dumps…: If you're feeling especially chirpy today, it could be thanks to our feathered friends. Seeing or hearing birds has been linked to an improvement in mental wellbeing that can last up to eight hours. Researchers recruited 1,292 people from around the world for their study, with the majority based in the UK. They used a smartphone app called Urban Mind to collect real-time data on mental wellbeing alongside reports of seeing or hearing birdsong. The app asked participants three times a day whether they could see or hear birds, followed by questions on mental wellbeing to work out if there was an association between the two and how long it lasted. (via Daily Mail)
4. 11 days; 8,425 miles; Non-Stop!: A five-month-old bird has set a new world record for longest nonstop bird flight. The bar-tailed godwit – aka Limosa lapponica – traveled from Alaska to Tasmania nonstop for 11 days, a journey of 8,425 miles (13,560 km). The godwit took off from Alaska on October 13, 2022, and reached Ansons Bay in Tasmania, just south of Melbourne, Australia, on October 24. Since the young bird was tagged, it allowed scientists to accurately track its flight. The scientists were able to track the bird as it crossed over various islands in the Pacific Ocean, including Vanuatu and New Caledonia. But it did not stop to rest in any inviting tropical locale, bound headlong for Australia. In fact, this is the first recorded flight between Alaska and Tasmania, a large island of Australia south of Melbourne. (via EarthSky)
5. As they should be: The federal agency said Tuesday it had finalized protections for the species, following a proposal last year. It cited the effects of a warming climate on the sea-ice habitat in Antarctica, where emperor penguins spend the majority of their lives, as the “primary threat to the penguin.” “Climate change is having a profound impact on species around the world and addressing it is a priority for the Administration,” Fish and Wildlife Service Director Martha Williams said in a statement on Tuesday. Emperor penguins are considered a bellwether of any future climate changes in Antarctica because their icy habitat is so sensitive to rising temperatures. (via Wall Street Journal)
6. The power of radar: Scientists track birds with electronic tags and radar to solve flight mysteries. In answering ecological questions, the research findings may also improve infrastructure planning. Feathers mark birds as a group, but with feathers come remarkable aerial feats. Bar-tailed godwits can fly 12,000 kilometers non-stop, flapping for more than 200 hours. The avian altitude record—by a Griffon vulture—is above 11 kilometers. Some hummingbirds drum out more than 70 wingbeats per second. Nonetheless, big gaps persist in our understanding of how much energy birds use when they fly and the influence of the environment on this exertion. A prime example is seasonal migrations. Man-made changes to the environment can force birds to expend more energy in the air and even interfere with important migration routes. (via Phys Org)
Again, BNNI recommends Cornell Lab’s radar-based migratory bird tracking website www.birdcast.info
7. Engineered solutions needed (along with “Lights Out”): Amid this year's fall migration season, avian advocates are amplifying their calls to help birds avoid flying into buildings — a major threat to big raptors and tiny warblers alike. Between 365 million and nearly 1 billion birds are killed in building collisions every year, per an oft-cited 2014 study published in the journal The Condor. The North American Bird Conservation Initiative's 2022 State of the Birds report, meanwhile, found that U.S. bird population trends are down "in every habitat except in wetlands." That's bad news for all those ill-fated birds, of course. But victims' remains have a habit of piling up on the street around big skyscrapers, inviting rodents and other pests, and making things generally unpleasant. (via Axios)
8. Bears and bird seed: Geoff LeBaron used to love watching Rose-breasted Grosbeaks at his backyard bird feeder in western Massachusetts. However, a few years ago, unwanted guests started showing up: American black bears on the hunt for easy, high-caloric meals. LeBaron, director of Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count, tried putting the feeders away at night, hoping bears would stay away during the day. But after hanging the feeders one morning, his indoor cat hissed and puffed up. Looking out the window, he saw a female bear munching on the seeds from an already-destroyed feeder. “I must have almost handed it to her,” he says. With the constant presence of bears in LeBaron’s yard, he stopped feeding birds except for a hummingbird feeder that the bears have yet to find. (via Audubon)
9. Ecology matters: The world’s 10,000 plus bird species are as ecologically and structurally complex as they are beautiful. The roots of all this diversity run deep, and likely began during a period of mass extinction 66 million years ago, after an asteroid struck the Earth (the same space rock that wiped out the dinosaurs). Following this mass extinction, it’s believed that distinct water and land birds evolved. In a study published today in the journal Nature, Navalón, paleontologist Roger Benson, and their team analyzed the skeletons of more than 200 species of modern birds with 3D imaging technology and found substantial variation in their evolution. (via Popular Science)
10. Tracking a bird with avian flu: For the first time, scientists have tracked the movement of a wild bird known to be infected with highly pathogenic avian influenza in North America. The new research, led by the U.S. Geological Survey, can help improve estimates of when and where the virus could spread in the environment and to other birds. The researchers did not know the bird—a lesser scaup in the Chesapeake Bay area of Maryland—was infected with avian influenza when they released it back into the wild. A swab test taken as an adjunct to the main research came back more than a week later indicating that the bird was infected. (via Homeland Security Today)
11. RobotFalcon (seriously): Collisions between birds and aircraft are the cause of thousands of bird deaths every year. Such incidents, known as bird strikes, can also result in aircraft damage, as well as delays and cancellation of flights, costing the International Civil Aviation Organization a reported $1.4 billion each year. Airport wildlife management teams currently employ a number of deterrents, such as drones and birds of prey -- including falcons -- to try to scare birds away from the airport surroundings. However, breeding and training falcons isn't exactly cheap, and the birds can be difficult to manage. But could a robotic peregrine falcon developed by the University of Groningen in the Netherlands be the solution? (via CNN)
12. Who knew?: While ibex, wildcats, and brown bears are just a few of the mammals that call the nation home, Azerbaijan is also a particularly underrated destination for birdwatching, drawing avian-focused organizations from across the globe to encounter rare species firsthand. Within a couple of hours driving from the capital Baku you reach both high alpine zones in the Greater Caucasus, desert-like steppe, huge wetlands, flowering foothills and dense forests. All with its set of attractive birds and during a week in May you can see up to 230 different species, many of which are very difficult to see elsewhere. (via Forbes)
13. And then a bit closer to home (than Azerbaijan): Birds like Arctic Tern, eiders, waders, passerine birds, as well as seabirds like the Guillemot, Razorbill, Atlantic Puffin, Fulmar, gannets, and various gulls are plenty ashore along the coasts of Iceland’s beaches. Fascinating day trips from Reykjavik for bird watching to Reykjanes Peninsula, Snaefellsnes Peninsula, or the Westman Islands – home to Iceland’s greatest puffin population, are also much popular birdwatching getaways in Iceland. (via Travel and Tour)
14. And finally, a review of a new book on James J. Audubon - Audubon At Sea: John James Audubon is known as many things: a tenacious birder, a compelling painter, an enslaver who might himself have been a man of color. But when you think about the founder of American ornithology and wildlife art, the words “writer” and “seafarer” don’t necessarily come to mind. A look at “Audubon at Sea: The Coastal and Transatlantic Adventures of John James Audubon,” published by the University of Chicago Press, will change that. Edited by Christoph Irmscher and Richard J. King, the book further complicates the story of Audubon’s life by highlighting the man’s writings about his sea voyages and water birds. The book draws on Audubon’s journals and published books, framing him as a figure who, despite being a ship captain’s son who made extensive sea voyages, was challenged, sometimes even flummoxed, by the unpredictability of sea life. (via The Washington Post)
Bird Photo of the Week
Photo by Hap Ellis, Vermillion Flycatcher in fog, Brewster, MA (rare visitor from southwest).
Bird Videos of the Week
By New Scientist, “Flying Robotic Falcon Scares Away Flocks of Birds”.
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Surprise Visiter.
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Grosbeak Gathering!