1. Today is Global Big Day. Organized by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, GBD is both a fundraiser for the Lab and, more importantly, a global effort in Citizen Science to get birders throughout the world to go birding and record on eBird the sightings. Last year eBird had roughly 50,000 birders in 175 countries submitting some 120,000 checklists. Read more about this year’s event here! (via The Cornell Daily Sun)
2. And for those birdwatchers in the Big Apple: This past pandemic winter, when the world felt doubly dreary, our avian friends were especially high on many peoples’ happy lists. Three species in particular dominate the sidewalks, asphalt, tops of buildings, fire escapes, window ledges and air conditioners of New York City: house sparrows (the small brown and gray birds, males with a black beak and bib underneath), pigeons (which need no introduction) and starlings (the medium-sized dark iridescent birds that are quick, crafty and ubiquitous). All three of these species are invasive. Domesticated pigeons came from France around 1600, and escaped. House sparrows were introduced to Brooklyn around 1851 and starlings were successfully released in Central Park in 1890 and 1891. (via Scientific American)
3. In preparation for birth, some expectant human parents will build IKEA cribs or down prenatal vitamins. Female hoopoes douse their eggs in a pungent postcoital goo. Shortly after laying their eggs, these delightfully zebra-striped birds will begin to paint the clutch with their beak. The pigment they use is made in-house—a brown, oily substance secreted by the uropygial gland, located at the base of the female’s tail. The eggshells start out cerulean, but with each coat of fluid, they transform into a mucked-up greenish-gray. Though subtle in appearance, the secretions are rank. (via The Atlantic)
4. Condor shenanigans: Giant California condors are rare – but not at Cinda Mickols’ home. More than 15 condors, an endangered bird whose population hovers at around 160 in the state and under 500 in the US, have recently taken a liking to Mickol’s house in Tehachapi – and they’ve made quite a mess. Mickols’ daughter began posting photos of the rowdy guests on Twitter, documenting her mom’s encounters with the creatures. The US Fish and Wildlife Service noted on Twitter that Quintero’s mom’s house is located in historic condor habitat, and suggested that Mickols try harmless hazing like shouting and clapping or spraying water. Quintero said the wealth of wildlife in the area is a large reason her mother moved there, but she has gotten more than she bargained for with the condor shenanigans. (via The Guardian, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)
5. A “minute observation”: In 2019, scientist Crinan Jarrett was working a mistnet on a cocoa farm in Cameroon when she let out an excited yell. Her African colleagues working nearby rushed over to see what the fuss was about—and they were both amused and confused. The bird in the net didn’t look particularly spectacular to them. It was a Wood Warbler, a common migratory songbird that breeds in Europe and Asia and winters in Central and West Africa. Jarrett wasn’t just excited by the species, but also by its feathers. It had brand new feathers growing alongside the old ones—a sign the bird was molting nearby. The minute observation points to a larger finding about the ability of songbirds to find productive habitat on cocoa farms in western Africa. (via Audubon Magazine)
6. Few but the most dedicated ornithologist will know anything about Australia’s Paradise parrot. That is because it has the dubious distinction of being the only mainland Australian bird marked “extinct” by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Its premature vanishment almost a century ago, meanwhile, remains prescient today when it comes to how best to protect other threatened Australian avian species. That the Paradise parrot – Psephotellus pulcherimus – was already on the verge of extinction by 1900 in its habitat on the Darling Downs in the Queensland colony speaks volumes about the dramatic environmental impact of colonization on native grassy woodlands. (via The Guardian)
7. Pandemic-induced creativity: In November 2020, during a contested election and deadly pandemic, a tiny Saw-whet Owl was rescued from the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. Being very small (and politically unaffiliated), the owl spawned a minor media sensation. Among those entranced was New York-based music producer So Wylie. She’d always had a soft spot for owls. She Googled the bird and listened to its rhythmic, musical call. She composed a minute-long beat and posted a video of it on TikTok, thinking of it as a fun one-off project. But the online response was so enthusiastic that Wylie has kept at it. Now, her bird beat videos—featuring avian stars such as the Barred Owl,Hermit Thrush, and Common Potoo—have garnered an enthusiastic and growing fan base of birders. (via Audubon)
8. Mystery of Migration: Migration ecologist Sissel Sjöberg had long wondered how tiny birds like the great reed warbler can make it across long expanses of water or desert on their epic migrations. Though just half the weight of a golf ball, they fly 7000 kilometers between Northern Europe and sub-Saharan Africa twice a year. Now, a new study may have the answer: These nighttime flyers soar well into the day—and at heights of up to 6000 meters, three times as high as they normally fly. It has been challenging to outfit small songbirds with the tracking devices that make such research possible, says Felix Liechti, an ornithologist at the Swiss Ornithological Institute who pioneered such tracking technology, but was not involved with the new research. (via Science Mag)
9. Serious athletes and brawling schoolyard children are familiar with the audience effect: people compete harder in front of a crowd. This phenomenon is not unique to humans. Other mammals, birds, fish and even insects fight more vigorously when they know they are being watched by members of their own species. According to findings published in Ecology and Evolution, the bigger and more diverse the audience of birds, the more intensely tufted titmice and Carolina chickadees turned up the heat on aggressive territorial displays when battling a member of their own species. Given that there is safety in numbers, researchers suspect that a crowd of feathered neighbors, even ones of different species, lends peace of mind to battling birds that their bickering will not wind up getting them eaten by a predator. (via Ecology and Evolution, Scientific American)
10. For those who remember Red-Tails in Love, an updated NYC Red-Tail story: Michael Palma Mir’s first encounter with the hawk was not auspicious. Around the first of March, he noticed it outside his West Harlem apartment. In his 57 years living there, Mr. Palma Mir had never seen anything like this beautiful bird, a killer. He grabbed his camera and stuck his head out the window for a better shot. The next thing he knew, it was right there. “It was three feet away from me and coming in real fast,” he said. “All I saw were the talons coming right at my head.” He yanked his head back inside and slammed the window, never expecting to see the bird again. He was wrong. The hawk returned, again and again, turning Mr. Palma Mir’s fire escape — six stories above a nonbucolic corner of upper Broadway — into a nest and a soap opera for social media. (via The New York Times
11. Lesser Prairie-Chickens are tough birds that evolved to handle harsh weather. They’ve always endured heat waves and droughts, their numbers sometimes tumbling as a result. But the birds, a type of ground-dwelling grouse, were numerous—perhaps 2 million strong before European settlement—and they occupied a vast area of the southern Great Plains. Given a few years of decent rainfall and milder temperatures, they’d bounce back. Today, however, only around 34,000 Lesser Prairie-Chickens remain, spread across parts of Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. (via Audubon Magazine)
12. As climate change speeds up the arrival of spring across North America, migratory birds that travel thousands of miles to northern breeding grounds across Florida and other coastal states are having trouble keeping pace. In a study of more than 7 million observations compiled on the site eBird, scientists found the farther the birds migrate, the more likely they are to arrive behind schedule. Arriving in the waning days of spring, Morgan Tingley, a University of California, Los Angeles ornithologist said, could mean finding too few berries, bugs and other critical food needed to continue their journey or feed their young. “We have birds that are actually really sensitive to changing climate change and therefore also sensitive to earlier springs. And then we have some birds that just appear to be insensitive,” Tingley said. (via WLRN News)
Bird Photo of the Week
Photo by Hap Ellis, Northern Parula.
Bird Video of the Week
Video by Leon Moore Nature Experience, “#GlobalBigDay 2021”.
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Red-tailed Hawk Chicks.
Cornell Live Bird Cam - California Condors.