1. The power of eBird – newly released eBird trend maps by the Cornell Lab (very cool): Sadly, we know birds are declining overall. But what's happening to specific birds in specific areas? A new tool called eBird Trends helps answer those questions by revealing local changes in bird abundance over the past 15 years. For example, Wood Thrush numbers have declined over the past half century, but the eBird Trend map above paints a more complex picture of recent breeding population changes: some areas show declines while others show increases. Here's how you can use the new eBird Trends maps to find out how species are doing near you—a first step in helping to change their prospects. (via Cornell Lab of Ornithology)
2. Media sensation of the week: A woman has marched through London almost naked and painted as a bird to protest the decline of the swift population. On Saturday, Hannah Bourne-Taylor, 36, from Oxfordshire, arrived at Hyde Park wearing blue, black and white body paint applied by artist Guido Daniele. She presented a petition supported by the Royal Society for Protection of Birds (RSPB) and Rewriting Extinction.bIn 2018, she had nursed a bird back to health by letting it nest in her hair. (via BBC)
3. From Russia, 6200 miles later: If you think travelling overseas is exhausting, spare a thought for the sharp-tailed sandpiper, which every year makes a journey of about 9,700 kilometres to "gorge" itself on Aussie grub and bask in the summer weather. From August, the 62-gram, brown spotty bird jets off from its home in Siberia, Russia, to make the long journey across continents with its sights firmly set on Australia. After breeding during the short North Siberian summer, at least 90 percent of the birds end up making their way to Australia. They usually touch down in the north-west, while some make it down to southern parts of the country. Once in Australia, the birds feed on the abundance of food in coastal wetlands and mudflats, according to a study by the New South Wales Local Land Services. (via ABC News)
4. And speaking of long distance migrants: Birds that migrate long distances tend to be more likely than others to break up with their long-term partner, according to an analysis of 232 species. About 90 percent of bird species are socially monogamous, meaning they form couples that primarily breed with each other and raise offspring together. Some of these couples stay together for life, while others end up getting “divorced” and moving onto new partners. Liu Yang at Sun Yat-sen University in China and his colleagues found that species that migrate further each year to obtain food between breeding seasons typically have higher rates of splitting up. (via New Scientist)
5. Good news for horseshoe crabs in Delaware Bay: A fisheries regulator on Thursday unexpectedly extended a ban on harvesting female horseshoe crabs from the Delaware Bay to help protect a vital food source for the red knot, a threatened shorebird that migrates via the bay’s beaches. A board at the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission voted to maintain a decade-old zero-quota on female crabs at a closely watched meeting that set next year’s crab catch by the fishing industry in New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. The decision rejected a plan that would have allowed the industry to catch about 150,000 female crabs in 2023, the first proposed female harvest in 10 years. The plan had been attacked by conservationists who argued that resuming the female harvest would further reduce food for the red knot and other migrating shorebirds that depend on the bay’s crab eggs to complete a long-distance flight each spring from South America to breeding grounds in the Canadian Arctic. (via The New York Times)
6. Golden Eagles “not really affectionate” – no doubting that here: Across the prairies, wetlands and foothills of Wyoming, falconers practice a form of hunting that traces back to times long before rifles and modern archery equipment. “You’re tapping into their (raptor’s) desire to chase something and catch it. It’s instinctual,” Gordon Crawford of Glenrock told Cowboy State Daily. Crawford began hunting with birds of prey in the 1970s and is founder of the Wyoming Falconers Association. Falconry involves hunters using birds of prey such as eagles, hawks or falcons to pursue and kill small game, upland game birds or waterfowl. He used mostly hawks. Either longer-winged breeds that like to soar high and take game fowl in mid-air, or broad-wing hawks that prefer nailing ground-based small game such as rabbits. (via Cowboy State Daily)
7. Wisdom (a Laysan Albatross), 70th birthday and avian aging: Wisdom the Laysan Albatross celebrated a big birthday last year, turning a whopping 70 years old. Flying for months at a time over the open sea, albatrosses’ bodies are built to last, and as far as we know, she is the oldest wild bird in the world. However, the reason for Wisdom's extraordinarily long life—even living longer than the biologist who first banded her—remains a mystery. While most birds don’t reach their eighth decade like Wisdom, they have earned a reputation for longevity that has puzzled scientists for centuries. In 1623, English philosopher and scientist Francis Bacon observed that birds outlive small mammals. Now we know that birds, on average, live two-to-three times longer than mammals of the same size. (via Audubon)
8. 40,000 followers and only a sophomore: Peering through binoculars, a half-dozen Cornellians admire a great blue heron standing on the opposite shore of Beebe Lake. Their guide points a song sparrow on a branch, Canada geese and common mergansers idling on the water, an American goldfinch off in the distance, and a downy woodpecker moving up a tree trunk. While the birds may be the main draw, the guide – a sophomore member of Cornell’s Birding Club – is drawing attention of his own. A social media influencer with nearly 40,000 followers on Instagram, Isaiah Scott ’25 is emerging as a young adult leader in the national birding community. He’s passionate not only about conserving and appreciating avian species, but also attracting fellow Gen Zers and people of color to birding. (via Cornell Chronicle)
9. And then there is this about a 13 year-old: Zita Robertson set a goal to see 175 bird species this year. The 13-year-old birder from Canton, Missouri, reached that number in May. She has since raised the bar several times — to 190 species, then 200, then 210. She is now aiming for 220 species and is four birds away from accomplishing her mission. The personal-best bird count isn’t the only highlight of her year: This summer, the American Birding Association chose the home-schooled eighth-grader as the Young Birder of the Year for the 10-to-13-year-old division. The organization based its decision on her submissions for the “modules” that the program’s 55 participants work on between July 2021 through February. The five categories are field notebook, writing, illustration, photography, and conservation and community leadership. (via The Washington Post)
10. The midnight call of the “devil bird”: The crankiness of sleep-deprived east coast Australians driven “insane” by what they call a “devil bird” keeping them up through the night is palpable on the Reddit thread dedicated to the problem of the koel’s midnight calls. Many on the thread were quick to come to the defence of the bird whose cooee calls they said heralded the Australian summer. A migratory bird, the koel usually arrives in Australia from Papua New Guinea and Indonesia to breed from late September to early October each year, when the male will sing his advertising call day and night to attract a female. However, a heightened exasperation this year could be justified as the bird’s calls have continued later into the year than is usual due to climatic conditions. (via The Guardian)
11. This Blackburnian Warbler is getting a lot of ink in the UK: The British are going through hard times. The queen died. Their economy is a mess. They've had three prime ministers in as many months. But it's not all gloom and doom. NPR's Philip Reeves traveled to a remote part of the British Isles to learn about a recent incident that made some Brits rather happy. It all started a few weeks ago at around lunchtime on a tiny island in the Atlantic. John Judge was there on holiday. Well, the weather was really sunny, really bright. So he just went for a wander round looking for birds. He's visited these parts every year for 34 years, hoping to see something special. What he saw on this day took his breath away, a Blackburnian Warbler. (via National Public Radio)
12. New research on avian bird flu: Finding a turkey this holiday season could be difficult because of avian flu outbreaks on farms. Migratory wild birds could be to blame for transmitting the virus to commercial flocks, but no one has looked closely at this wandering population until now. In ACS' Environmental Science & Technology, researchers report that cooler temperatures and certain species gathering in the same winter habitat could increase the circulation of H7 and H9 strains. Avian flu is currently monitored in the air at many poultry farms and live markets, where large outbreaks are likely to occur. (via Science Daily)
13. More than you might need to know about glucocorticoid hormone levels and temperature fluctuations: Free-living great tits differ considerably in the level of stress hormones in their blood. A research project at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence studied the birds over several years. The scientists observed large differences in how strongly glucocorticoid hormone levels fluctuated in individual great tits, as the birds experienced different environmental temperatures. Such differences among individuals can make it easier for bird populations to adapt to changing conditions—such as more frequent temperature extremes due to climate change. Hormones control vital body functions in many animals, including birds. They help animals to regulate metabolism and food intake, thereby supporting them in maintaining their body temperature within a certain range. (via Phys Org)
14. Rare bird alert - Louisiana: Louisiana Ornithological Society member Melvin Weber reported finding a red-legged honeycreeper in south Louisiana on Oct. 13. It was later confirmed that two rare birds, the male and female red-legged honeycreeper, a tropical bird traditionally found from Southern Mexico south to Peru, Bolivia and central Brazil, Trinidad, Tobago and Cuba were found. Pictures and descriptions of the birds were posted on eBird and Facebook and within minutes, birders from around the state and region were made aware of the find, many making plans to travel to Grand Isle to see them the next day. “This is kind of a huge deal,” said John Dillon. “Before this week, there was one accepted record of a single red-legged honeycreeper in the entire United States, and that was for three days in November of 2014 in South Texas.” (via The Advocate)
15. Birding in Northern Iran (but not at all sure you’d want to go): The Eshqabad Wetland receives birds from the northern countries of Iran in the second half of the year, said Rey’s tourism chief on Saturday. Birdwatching is one of the main capacities of the region to attract tourists and travelers during the mentioned time. The south Caspian Sea retreats are amongst the most famed heavens for birdwatchers in Iran, usually being dominated by its northerly guests until about mid-May, when the migration season comes to an end. In a wider scene, the mid-winter population of migratory birds is estimated to exceed a million in the whole southern sandy shorelines of the Caspian Sea that spans some 700km. (via Tehran Times)
16. Finally a very quick “feel good” (audio) story: Long after it should've migrated south for the winter, the hummingbird remained. Birders Clive and Susan Keen told the CBC that the unusual autumn warmth in Canada's British Columbia likely confused the hummingbird. But once the first snow fell and the bird stayed, the two got worried. So they captured the hummingbird, drove it nine hours south and set it free in a park near a bird feeder, hoping it might return next spring. (via WQLN)
Bird Photo of the Week
Photo by Rick Bunting, Robin-Starling standoff, Bainbridge, NY.
Bird Videos of the Week
By DogWoof, “All That Breathes”.
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Tropical Feeder.
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Red-bellied Woodpecker.