Fly Free.
Bird News Items
1. Let's start with a beautiful video from the Cornell Lab's Conservation Media group on one of our favorite seabirds:
2. Borneo's "omen birds": Deep in the rainforests of Indonesia’s West Kalimantan province, the piercing calls of birds reverberate to the rhythm of the gushing Utik River that has long nourished wildlife and the lifeways of the Dayak Iban people. For others, the bird calls might not warrant attention, but here, members of the tribe pause to listen for what they believe are the omens and warnings from spirits. In recent decades, songbird populations have declined in the country due to deforestation and the songbird trade. However, in the face of this declining biodiversity, the Dayak Iban of Sungai Utik village continue to care for a Paris-sized swath of rainforest and maintain customary laws to protect what they call their “omen birds.” These include species like the white-rumped shama (Copsychus malabarincus), scarlet-rumped trogon (Harpactes duvaucelii) and Diard’s trogon (Harpactes diardii), whose songs reverberate over the treetops of Borneo’s forests. (via Mongabay)
By Hap Ellis, Great Blue Heron - Readville, VA (Intercoastal Waterway).
3. BLM falls "far short" of what science says the Greater Sage Grouse needs to survive: The Bureau of Land Management’s “Greater Sage-Grouse Rangewide Planning” was released today and lays out the agency’s intentions for 65 million acres of the bird’s habitat on public lands but falls far short of what science says the birds need to avoid extinction. Conservation groups expressed alarm at the double-whammy of weak plans and the likely threats posed to the sage grouse by the incoming presidential administration’s “Drill, baby, drill,” agenda. The proposed plans fail to fix problems identified in the draft plans, including failing to provide scientifically adequate buffers for habitat that grouse need to reproduce, nest and raise chicks, disturbance caps or even consistent definitions of which habitats need protecting. Wyoming, where the majority of the birds remain, continues to have weak protections. The plans also fail to provide meaningful and enforceable standards to ensure livestock grazing doesn’t deplete vegetation essential for sage grouse survival. (via Center for Biological Diversity)
4. This study on the use of the earth's magnetic field by some birds during migration goes to a next level: Many migratory birds use Earth’s magnetic field as a compass, but some can also use information from that field to determine more or less where they are on a mental map. Eurasian reed warblers (Acrocephalus scirpaceus) appear to calculate their geographical position by drawing data from different distances and angles between magnetic fields and the Earth’s shape. The findings suggest that the birds use magnetic information as a sort of “GPS” that tells them not only where to go, but where they are initially, says Richard Holland at Bangor University in the UK. (ivar New Scientist)
5. For those looking for a possible addition to your life list: As part of our commitment to data quality, accessibility, and ease of use, we strive to use an integrated taxonomy across eBird, Macaulay Library, Birds of the World, Merlin and other Cornell Lab of Ornithology projects. Cornell’s 2024 update includes 3 newly-recognized species (one is newly-described), 141 species gained because of splits, and 16 species lost through lumps, resulting in a net gain of 128 species and a new total of 11,145 species worldwide. This includes your My eBird lists, range maps, bar charts, region and hotspot lists. (via eBird)
6. Feel good story from a New Hampshire newspaper: It started with a peregrine falcon. For Robert Vallieres, a veteran of the Gulf War, this was the bird that changed his life once he returned from combat. “They needed people to watch their natural habitats. It’s called nest-watching,” Vallieres said. “For birds of prey, they asked me to watch stuff in the White Mountains, so I took a tour with New Hampshire Audubon when I got back in the ’90s.” Birds ended up being his reentry point into the world. Vallieres, who joined the military in his second year out of high school, served with the 20th Engineer Brigade during operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. He sustained a traumatic brain injury in the Persian Gulf and was taken out of the desert via medevac. (via Concord Monitor)
By Hap Ellis, Laughing Gulls - Intercoastal Waterway, VA.
7. This is kind of creepy: Zombie birds are no longer part of post-apocalyptic fiction; they may soon be among us. But in their newfound life, the birds aren't looking for brains. They're being used to further wildlife research. Researchers at the New Mexico Tech Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro have spent the past two years developing drones and robots from the bodies of dead birds. Still in testing, the animatronic birds may be used to study avian formations, coloration and communication, in addition to other natural ecosystems. These bird-like drones could solve some issues that wildlife researchers have experienced with traditional drones, said Mostafa Hassanalian, lead researcher and mechanical engineering professor at New Mexico Tech. (via USA Today)
8. Digitally reconstructing the brain of Navaornis hestiae (think Mesozoic Age): Researchers have identified a remarkably well-preserved fossil bird, roughly the size of a starling, from the Mesozoic Era. The complete skull has been preserved almost intact: a rarity for any fossil bird, but particularly for one so ancient, making this one of the most significant finds of its kind. The extraordinary three-dimensional preservation of the skull allowed the researchers, led by the University of Cambridge and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, to digitally reconstruct the brain of the bird, which they have named Navaornis hestiae. Navaornis lived approximately 80 million years ago in what is now Brazil, before the mass extinction event that killed all non-avian dinosaurs. (via University of Cambridge)
9. Immigrants (and we're talking birds here) strategically use social learning says this Max Planck study: Scientists have found a trigger for social learning in wild animals. An experiment on great tits has pinpointed a single factor—immigration—that can cause birds to pay close attention to others, leading them to rapidly adopt useful behaviors. The study is the first to provide experimental support of a long-held assumption that immigrants should strategically use social learning. The study, conducted by scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior (MPI-AB) and the Cluster of Excellence Collective Behavior at the University of Konstanz in Germany, is published November 14 in PLOS Biology. (via Phys Org)
10. Local action in action - Maine Audubon's 2024 report on bird collisions during Spring and Fall migrations: Buildings are not a natural part of the environment, and humans have disguised buildings in a number of ways to make them more deceiving, and deadly, to birds. The result is that millions of North American birds are killed each year in building collisions, another danger added to the growing list of threats to bird populations worldwide. Thankfully, there are solutions to this problem. The American Bird Conservancy recommends numerous architectural solutions, including screening; a de-emphasis on exterior glass; ultraviolet strips placed inside glass panels; exterior frits or stickers; and other measures. (via Maine Audubon)
11. Avian Flu update - Yikes! California is now picking up traces of bird flu in wastewater: Wastewater in several Californian cities, including San Francisco and Los Angeles, recently tested positive for bird flu. But understanding disease risk and exposure to humans isn’t so straightforward. Since the first avian influenza outbreaks hit the U.S. early this year, health and agriculture experts have struggled to track the virus’s spotty path as it spreads in dairy cow herds and an unknown number of humans. Infection risk still seems low for most people, but dairy workers and others directly exposed to cows have been getting sick. Canada’s first human case was just reported, in a teenager who is in critical condition. To get a better handle on the unsettling situation, scientists are picking up a pathogen-hunting tool that’s been powerful in the past: wastewater surveillance. (via Scientific American)
By Hap Ellis, Osprey - Intercoastal Waterway, VA.
12. Maybe don't date a birder: If you're looking for a dream date who will sweep you off your feet a birder could seem a good bet. Surely life will be full of romantic walks in the countryside, observing nature or enjoying exotic holidays abroad in search of colourful vibrant birdlife? However, you might want to look beyond the binoculars, says Dixe Wills, as dating a birder may not be as idyllic as it seems… (via Discover Wildlife)
13. Well, what do you know, a birder in the Oval - well, next to the Oval - President-elect Trump's new Chief of Staff is an avid birder: The Hill political newspaper called her “the most powerful Republican you don’t know”; The New York Times described her as “perhaps the most significant voice inside Mr Trump’s third presidential campaign”. But who is Susie Wiles, and what makes this cake-baking, bird-watching 66-year-old grandmother tick? (via The Independent)
14. New book co-authored by David Sibley explores birds in winter: When cold weather approaches, we humans usually have it easy. We can retreat to the shelter of central heating, or pile on more layers of clothing. The path to survival is a lot more complicated for birds, of course, and a new book delves into how they have adapted to face the challenges of cold and scarcity of food that winter represents. The book is “The Courage of Birds and the Often Surprising Ways They Survive Winter” (affiliate link), and one of its co-creators, David Sibley, talked to me about some of the impressive suite of tactics that different species have developed to live to see another spring. (via Away to Garden)
15. Let's finish with an obituary that caught our eye from the New York Times about the world's strongest man, who just happened to have a soft spot for "budgies" (at one point 300 of them!): Geoff Capes, a herculean wonder from the English countryside who, in addition to winning the World’s Strongest Man competition twice, was a champion breeder of parakeets, an activity that provided an escape from stunts like bending steel bars around his neck, died on Oct. 23 in Lincoln, England, in the East Midlands. He was 75. (via The New York Times)
Bird Videos of the Week
Video by @GunsRosesGirl3, “Snowy owl mum protecting her chicks from snow” (via X)
Video by National Geographic, “Silent Snowy Owl Attack”.
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Canada Jays.
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Blue Jays, Tufted Titmice, and Black-capped Chickadees.
The snowy owl “video” is AI…