1. Long way from the Arctic: The forbidding frozen wilderness of the high Arctic tundra is the natural home of the snowy owl, a great predator perfectly adapted to hunting its primary food source, lemmings. But sometime over the last few weeks, one snowy owl in particular made a surprise appearance in noticeably less harsh terrain — the shingled roofs and white chimneys of suburban Southern California. What brought the owl to the city of Cypress, in Orange County, about 25 miles southeast of Los Angeles, remains a mystery and the subject of impassioned debate among the scores of bird watchers and curious neighbors who have come out to marvel at the bird. (via The New York Times)
2. And, a long way from Siberia: A bird which was nursed back to health after being found injured in the commercial heart of Hong Kong two years ago has returned to the city for winter after flying more than 3,325km (2,066 miles) from its usual habitat in Russia, conservation groups have found. The bird of prey, a female eastern buzzard, was spotted in the west of Hong Kong Island on November 1. A solar-powered tracker attached to it in 2020 showed it had travelled for two months from Amur Oblast, a Russian administrative area in the far east which borders China’s Heilongjiang province, to reach the city. (via South China Morning Post)
3. Scientists looking to birds for clues on aging: Let me describe a mystery bird that vividly illustrates some of the biological challenges birds have had to conquer in order to live as long as they do. My mystery bird is tiny, weighing about the same as a U.S. penny. When active, it requires so much energy that it must eat up to several times its own body weight in food per day to avoid starving. During flight, its wings beat 80 times per second, and each gram of its flight muscles produces up to 10 times the energy of the muscles of an elite human athlete when both are working at maximum capacity. Its heart pounds away at a machinegun-like 20-something beats per second. Finally, its normal blood sugar concentration would make it dangerously diabetic if it were human. How long do you think it lives? (via MIT Press Reader)
4. What it takes: young Regent Honeyeaters are being sent to …singing school!: It was the saddest of swansongs. A beloved Australian bird, the regent honeyeater, was fading to extinction because young males were not being taught to sing, so could no longer attract a mate. Scientists discovered last year that juveniles among the critically endangered breed had resorted to copying the songs of other species because there were no longer enough adult males to pass on the soft, chiming love song. However, their imitations were so bad that female regent honeyeaters were rejecting them — a phenomenon never observed before among wild animal species according to researchers. Now scientists have enrolled young males of the species in singing school with wild captured adults as teachers — and the results are a hit with females. (via The Times)
5. From the U.S. Coast Guard: the story of a cutter, Teddy Roosevelt and saving sea birds in Hawaii: Henry Henshaw was not only chief of the federal bureau overseeing threatened species over 100 years ago; he was also the nation’s leading ornithologist (expert on birds). In this capacity, he reported on the poaching of wild seabirds on the remote and uninhabited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. During the 1800s, American expansion led to the exploitation of previously uninhabited lands. Moreover, the voracious appetite for wild animals for food, clothing, souvenirs, and sport, threatened the existence of many species inhabiting the land and waters of the United States. However, by the late 1800s, the U.S. had also become a world leader in protecting species from poaching and unregulated catches. (via United States Coast Guard)
6. What is a Cratonavis zhui you might ask – well, maybe a missing link: A recently discovered bird with a T. rex-like skull was unearthed in China — epitomizing, in one bizarre fossil, a visual representation of the long, strange evolution from dinosaurs to birds. Called Cratonavis zhui, the strange hybrid died some 150 million years ago and was uncovered by paleontologists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. Cratonavis most likely behaved like a raptor, flitting from tree to tree and pouncing on prey with its sharp claws. It's a remarkable find that illustrates mosaic evolution, or the slow transition of some traits while others remain the same. (via Saloni)
7. Most birders know this: Ask Alex Harper why he loves to go birding, and he’ll start at the very beginning of the story. “My parents tell me that birdie was my first word. I don't remember. I was probably one at the time. But that's what they tell me,” he said. Harper grew up amid the sawgrass prairies and mangrove forest of the South Florida Everglades, begging his parents to take him birding with his grandfather’s binoculars. One of the more unusual — and popular — bird counting spots in South Florida is Dump Marsh. The marsh sits in the shadow of Miami-Dade County’s south landfill, near the Black Point Marina. Despite the 300-acre landfill, the football field-sized marsh has become a hotspot for bird watchers with its wide array of birds, from the tiny warblers Harper still loves, to owls, hawks, turkey vultures — of course — and a chorus of songbirds.(via WUSF Public Media)
8. This from the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas: Bird Buddy, the maker of a smart bird feeder that snaps photos of your bird visitors, which are collected in a companion mobile app, is out today with another product for its nature enthusiast and bird-watching community. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the company is showing off a prototype of its new AI-powered Smart Hummingbird Feeder, which is able to take photos and videos of 350 different hummingbird species with wing speeds of up to 60 mph. The company collected around 3 million photos, then hired an ornithologist and team of interns to manually process over 2 million photos to train its bird identification AI. That has allowed Bird Buddy’s system to identify around 1,000 birds — now including hummingbirds. (via Tech Crunch)
9. Every ranch helps when saving grassland bird habitat: The Houseweart Ranch in west-central Colorado has received a Bird-Friendly Habitat Certification from the National Audubon Society. Beef produced on the ranch by owners Cynthia and Ira Houseweart and sold under their Princess Beef brand can now carry the Audubon Certified bird-friendly seal, a package label that recognizes product origin as lands managed for birds and biodiversity. The Houseweart Ranch joins a collective of nearly 100 ranches – combining for more than 2.7 million acres – across 15 states to earn this bird-friendly habitat certification. As an Audubon Certified bird-friendly habitat, the Housewearts are managing their ranch to provide habitat for a wide range of avian species, from Burrowing Owls to Gunnison Sage-Grouse to Western Meadowlarks. (via Audubon)
10. Nefertiti, The Green Room, shrikes and wagtails: Birds in an ancient naturalistic wall painting from Dynastic Egypt were identified as pigeons thanks to the fact that they were drawn so skillfully that the actual species can be identified today. The masterpiece was discovered at Amarna, the location of the capital city of Pharaoh Akhenaten (1347–1332 BC). Excavations in 1924 discovered a palace belonging to Meritaten, daughter of the pharaoh and Nefertiti, with several extravagantly decorated rooms. One of these, the so-called Green Room, has a rare depiction of birds in a wild papyrus marsh with no signs of human activity. (via The Jerusalem Post)
11. A UK County Council brings down the gavel on nesting Kittiwakes: Kittiwake nests have been cleared from a landmark bridge in Scarborough, leaving hundreds of the endangered sea birds homeless, bird watchers said. Bird deterrent gel has also been added after concerns over excrement damaging the Grade II-listed Spa Bridge, North Yorkshire County Council said. The council said it had consulted Natural England, which found it would not harm the birds' wider habitat. Bird watcher Nick Addey is calling for alternative nesting sites to be built. Kittiwakes are a small type of gull which are on the conservation "red list" and global numbers have fallen by 40% since the 1970s, according to the RSPB. Mr Addey said the nests can build up over the years as the birds return to the bridge and form new nests on top of old ones. (via BBC)
12. While over in Ireland, a tiny visitor unexpectedly arrived: There's been huge excitement in the Irish birdwatching community as the small Penduline Tit has been spotted here for the first time. The birds, which are identifiable by the "bandit" like black marking across their eyes and red brown band across their backs usually spend winters in the Mediterranean, with the odd "very rare accidental vagrant to the UK", according to birdfieldguide.co.uk. The bird was spotted in Gearagh, County Cork by nature photographer Pascal Lee. Since the sighting, bird enthusiasts from all over Ireland have been flocking to the West Cork reserve to catch a glimpse of the rare bird. (via Lovin)
13. Finally, let’s close with gorgeous pictures of flamingos in Tamil Nadu, India: Travel and landscape photographer Raj Mohan has captured stunning images of flamingos on Pulicat lake in Tamil Nadu, India. The birds occasionally travel there in response to changing conditions. Although flamingos aren’t generally migratory, their colonies aren’t always permanent either, and the birds will sometimes search out new breeding grounds in their thousands due to factors like changes in climate or water level. Here, they have chosen to settle in a 750-square-kilometre expanse of shallow water, one teeming with fish and plankton. (via New Scientist)
Bird Photo of the Week
Photo by Hap Ellis, Northern Gannet – Race Point, Provincetown, MA.
Bird Videos of the Week
By BBC Earth, “Experiment! How Does An Owl Fly So Silently”.
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Pileated Woodpeckers.
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Pine Grosbecks.