1. More on the intersection of avian flu and wild birds: When black vultures began to die at Florida’s Hontoon Island State Park in February, rangers called in investigators from the state’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. They soon concluded a virus that has devastated domesticated birds worldwide had reached the vultures: a strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) known as H5N1. The vultures had likely acquired the virus from eating infected waterbirds—as well as by cannibalizing their own kind. Workers removed more than 200 carcasses in a bid to contain the outbreak. But Mark Cunningham, a wildlife veterinarian with the commission, thinks the effort was probably futile. “It’s hard to see this chain of infection really breaking anytime soon,” he says. That’s a fear shared by researchers and poultry farmers across North America, who in recent weeks have been urgently documenting and trying to contain the continent’s largest outbreak of HPAI. (Science, USDA)
2. The “ultimate” bird: It’s not unusual today to find swans on rivers and lakes, splitting their time between pulling up water plants and punishing the unwise with powerful blows of their bony-elbowed wings. Eleven million years ago, however, swans in what is today called Japan did something unexpected: They took to the oceans. In a paper published this week in The Bulletin of Gunma Museum of Natural History, Japanese paleontologists formally described this family or genus of swans, Annakacygna, which had long, filter-feeding heads, small wings and seriously strange hips — all of which have lead the researchers to call it the “ultimate bird.” (via The New York Times)
3. Millions of birds light up radar: If you saw a lot of movement overnight on the radar, it wasn't weather — it was birds. Yep, you read that right. An overnight migration of more than 160 million birds making their way from South America back to North America was so prominent it appeared on the radar. Even in the Tampa Bay region, the annual nocturnal migration put on a show. The timelapse below shows birds actively on the move during the overnight hours. Millions of birds make their way between North and South America yearly in an effort to stick around the warm summer season. Based on current predictions, BirdCast says around 250 million birds will fill the sky on the night of April 27 and 311 million birds will fill the sky on the night of April 28. (via WTSP News)
4. More on the “Lights Out” campaign: Over the next few weeks, millions of birds will migrate through Texas on the way to their summer homes, but unfortunately, many of them will not survive the trip. That’s why this time of year, organizations like Texan by Nature, are asking home and business owners to turn off, or dim, non-essential outdoor lighting through the Lights Out Texas campaign. “Lights Out Texas is a campaign of education, awareness and action that focuses on turning lights out at night during the spring and fall to help protect the billions of birds that migrate through Texas annually,” Taylor Keys, Texan by Nature program director, said. “Most people don’t know, but the majority of migrating birds migrate at night. That’s why it’s important to turn lights out.” In the spring, birds migrate March 1-June 15. Critical peak migration is April 22-May 12. (via Texas Farm Bureau)
5. Ornithologist Clinton Francis was leading a class field trip along the California coast when students spotted what appeared to be an injured Killdeer. They watched as the striking shorebird aggressively called and held out a contorted wing. When Francis explained that the Killdeer was faking it, using what’s called a broken-wing display to lure predators away from its nest, a student asked a question that seemed simple, but proved challenging to answer: What other species do that? The broken-wing display is just one of the many creative behaviors animals have evolved to avoid becoming a meal. Some animals may flush or freeze, like herons and egrets, when an attacker approaches too closely. But evading predators is more complicated during the breeding season, when birds must balance their own survival with preventing the next generation from becoming nugget-size snacks. (via Audubon National Magazine)
6. Concerning: Bird species that live in wooded areas are under stress from human-caused changes to forest composition, according to new research led by Oregon State University that quantifies the effects of forest “degradation” on bird habitat. “Reducing forest loss has been the main focus of conservation policy to date, which is well justified because it has a strong negative effect on biodiversity,” said Matt Betts of the OSU College of Forestry. “But the effects of changing the composition and age of forest via timber management have traditionally been very difficult to measure at large scales and thus have been largely ignored. Our work shows population declines in many bird species in eastern Canada are due to habitat loss caused by forestry activities.” (via EurekaAlert)
7. We need this to be promising: Collisions with glass kill birds every day of the year in the U.S., but the problem can be especially pronounced during the spring and fall migration seasons. Windows without bird-friendly glass are among the deadliest threats that migratory birds meet on their journeys, killing up to a billion in the U.S. each year. Birds perceive reflections in a glass surface as reality, and when they fly toward a reflected tree or open sky, their mistake is often deadly. American Bird Conservancy (ABC) has joined forces with Washington College in Maryland to double its capacity to test and rate glass and other materials for their ability to deter bird collisions. The move will help ABC meet high demand for testing from glass manufacturers—a vital component of the organization’s work to reduce the threat of window collisions for birds. (via Facility Executive)
8. Fire fallout in Australia: Australian rainforests and bird communities remain under threat following the catastrophic 2019-2020 bushfire season, new UNSW Sydney research shows. Functional bird populations vital to rainforest regeneration are struggling to recover in the years after the black summer bushfires devastated Australia, according to a study from the Center for Ecosystem Science at UNSW Sydney. Researchers found that unprecedented megafires negatively impacted the diversity of functional rainforest bird communities among burnt areas of the Gondwanan compared to surviving regions, as well as adjacent dry sclerophyll forests—woodland areas characterized by hard leafed and drought-adapted vegetation. (via Phys Org)
9. Power lines fallout in Kenya: A blindfold calms the large black and white augur buzzard as two men glue a prosthetic leg into an insert on her body to replace the one that she lost. The female is one of many injured birds of prey that turn up at Simon Thomsett's Kenyan rehabilitation centre, most of which, like her, have been crippled by electrocution. The problem has progressively grown as Kenya has upgraded its electricity network, replacing wooden poles with steel-reinforced concrete, which can be conductive, and hanging inadequately insulated power lines between them, conservationists say. That and the lack of deterrent markers along the cables are pushing Kenya's already dwindling bird of prey populations closer to disappearance. (via Reuters)
10. Books - Seven regional Bird Guides from the Cornell Lab (especially good for new birders): There’s a brand-new series of seven field guides to help people learn about the birds found in their region of the United States and Canada. The All About Birds Regional Field-Guide Series is built upon information from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's All About Birds website, used by more than 20 million people each year. "There are more than 700 species of birds in North America," explained series editor Jill Leichter at the Cornell Lab. "That’s pretty daunting if you’re just getting started in birdwatching. But we've tailored the books to showcase about 200 species most likely to be found in each of 7 regions, making it easier to find the bird you're trying to identify." Each guide also includes a comprehensive, 58-page section full of helpful tips and best practices for birdwatching, bird photography, gardening, feeding birds, building nest boxes, and more. (via Cornell Chronicle)
Bird Photo of the Week
Photo by Hap Ellis, Barn Owl – Ellis County, TX.
Bird Videos of the Week
By Inside Edition, “Birdwatching Tourists in Mexico Get Stopped by Gunmen”.
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Barred Owl Hatchlings!
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Daytime Coverage.