1. Hermit warblers in California have developed 35 different song dialects, apparently as a result of wildfires temporarily driving them out of certain areas. Brett Furnas, a biostatistician at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, explains “Warblers are very sensitive to fire in the short term. And so they will abandon an area temporarily, even if it’s just an understory or a low-severity fire that doesn’t destroy the whole stand. And so this creates a vacuum. And then other hermit warblers singing rival dialects move in into this vacuum. And then you end up, maybe a few years later, with two or more different dialects in the same place.” (via Scientific American)
2. Starlings, swifts, and small birds called dippers build nests in the most unlikely places: behind the powerful curtains of waterfalls. But how they penetrate the pounding streams to reach their safe havens has long been a mystery. Now, research reveals just how small fliers can traverse these splashy obstacles—and how the waterfalls could protect against another threat: blood-sucking bugs. To understand the physics of waterfall crossing, scientists turned to hummingbirds. Although the little buzzers don’t typically pop in and out of falls, they are close relatives of waterfall-nesting swifts and easier to work with in a lab because of their smaller size. (via Science Mag)
By Hap Ellis, Greater Yellowlegs.
3. Many bird species are sensitive to temperature changes, so they have a role to play as harbingers of a changing climate. New research shows that several bird species have already shifted their behavior in response to the sort of hotter and drier weather predicted by climate change models. These responses vary based on the duration of the extreme weather and characteristics of the bird species. Combining high-resolution weather data from Daymet and ground-based observations from eBird, a team of researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Cornell University recently investigated how 109 bird species responded to such events in eastern North America. (via Global Change Biology, NASA, eBird)
4. A Brazilian sanctuary, home to 15% of the world's population of blue "Hyacinth” Macaws, has been consumed by fires — and there are fears for the well-being of the rare birds. The São Francisco do Perigara cattle ranch and bird sanctuary surrounds more than 61,000 acres in Mato Grosso state. More than 70% of the farm's vegetation was destroyed by the blaze. Between 700 and 1,000 blue macaws lived on the ranch. Most of the birds may have flown to safer locations, said Neiva Guedes, president of the institute. "They can manage to escape fires because they fly, but soon they will run out of food, and that is what we think will affect them most." Guedes added. (via Birds of the World, CNN)
5. Excerpt: Stepping from my vehicle, I heard shrill chatters coming from an immense oak tree at a wood’s edge. These were four merlin chicks that had fledged from somewhere nearby but were still too young to hunt independently. The juveniles would hold their silence until a parent returned to the site with feathered prey. Smallish members of the falcon family, Merlins feed primarily on small- to medium-sized birds captured during mid-air blitzes. While pursuing migrant shorebirds at Weskeag Marsh, for instance, merlins skim the grass tops, pumping their wings in a steady, rapid fashion. Often the shorebirds don’t detect their attacker until he bursts onto the open planes. (via Free Press Online)
By Hap Ellis, Merlin with captured shorebird.
6. If you've ever been woken up before sunrise by the chirping of birds outside your window, you may have wondered: why do birds sing so loud, so early in the morning? The cacophony is mostly males, whose songs are meant to impress potential mates and rivals. Researchers say there may be a good reason why birds are most vocal at first light. By singing early and often, birds perform better during the day. (via Science Daily)
7. A research team led by a University of Rhode Island ornithologist had birds fly in a wind tunnel to simulate migration and found that birds that consume dietary antioxidants before and during fall migration can reduce the endocrine stress response triggered by long-duration flights. The results, published this week in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, emphasize the importance of protecting habitats with an abundance of available berries containing antioxidants at migratory stopover sites. (via The Royal Society, My Vet Candy)
8. Birds are, by some estimates, the most diverse group of vertebrate animals living on land today. New research shows how this seemingly large variety in birds' skull shapes is just a tiny fraction of the diversity seen in their dinosaur ancestors. There are more than 10,000 species of birds living all over the world, varying from huge plant eaters to tiny nectar drinkers. Ryan Felice, a scientific associate at the Museum, has been 3D-scanning dinosaur and bird skulls to compare their shapes, and see exactly how evolution has worked on these two groups. His paper is published in PLOS Biology. (Natural History Museum, PLOS Biology)
Helpful Tip: Whether your favorite form of outdoor recreation includes sitting on the patio reading or digging in the garden, there’s a good chance that you will be sharing the space with local wildlife. Optimizing opportunities to view and interact with backyard wildlife can make the great outdoors even more enjoyable. Making a backyard hospitable to birds can increase the chances for sightings and hearing their sweet songs. Installing a bird bath can be a step in the right direction. (via The Signal)
Bird Photo of the Week
By Hap Ellis, Semipalmated Plover.
Bird Video of the Week
By Vox, “Why Parrots can Talk like Humans”.
Cornell Live Bird Cam, “West Texas Feeders”.
Cornell Live Bird Cam, “Panama Fruit Feeders”.