1. Feathers! Let’s begin with a new look at B6’s odyssey and the triumph of…feathers - a great read: In October 2022 a bird with the code name B6 set a new world record that few people outside the field of ornithology noticed. Over the course of 11 days, B6, a young Bar-tailed Godwit, flew from its hatching ground in Alaska to its wintering ground in Tasmania, covering 8,425 miles without taking a single break. For comparison, there is only one commercial aircraft that can fly that far nonstop, a Boeing 777 with a 213-foot wingspan and one of the most powerful jet engines in the world. During its journey, B6—an animal that could perch comfortably on your shoulder—did not land, did not eat, did not drink and did not stop flapping, sustaining an average ground speed of 30 miles per hour 24 hours a day as it winged its way to the other end of the world.
Many factors contributed to this astonishing feat of athleticism—muscle power, a high metabolic rate and a physiological tolerance for elevated cortisol levels, among other things. B6’s odyssey is also a triumph of the remarkable mechanical properties of some of the most easily recognized yet enigmatic structures in the biological world: feathers. Feathers kept B6 warm overnight while it flew above the Pacific Ocean. Feathers repelled rain along the way. Feathers formed the flight surfaces of the wings that kept B6 aloft and drove the bird forward for nearly 250 hours without failing. (via Scientific American)
2. An excellent article on the McCormack Place (Chicago) bird strikes last October: Chicago experienced a mild autumn in 2023. In September, balmy, warm air blew north into the city, keeping daytime temperatures an average of 2°F degrees warmer than usual. The weather kept southbound migratory songbirds, which don’t like to fly into the wind, in more northern climes, waiting for the winds to shift. By the beginning of October, there was a huge backup of migratory birds in Wisconsin, according to BirdCast—a collaboration of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Colorado State University, and University of Massachusetts Amherst that uses weather radar and machine learning to track and forecast bird migration. Then on the night of Oct. 4, the winds changed course, blowing southeast at last—and prompting birds by the tens of thousands to take wing. (via All About Birds)
By Hap Ellis, Baltimore Oriole - Arnold Arboretum, Boston, MA.
3. Also this - Bulldogs pitching in - Yale Bird-Friendly Building Initiative: “More than 1 billion birds are killed each year as a result of window collisions in North America alone, making buildings the leading human-caused driver of wild bird mortality. To help reduce these collisions, the Yale Bird-Friendly Building Initiative aims to accelerate the adoption of bird-friendly design on Yale’s campus and beyond. In a new video, members of the Yale community describe the scale of this crisis and how a series of efforts by the Yale Bird-Friendly Building Initiative — with support from Yale Planetary Solutions (YPS) — is tracking and reducing bird mortality on the Yale campus, and promoting bird-friendly solutions for other communities and organizations. And they describe why it’s important to protect the world’s birds from this human-caused threat. (via Yales News)
4. From U.S. Fish & Wildlife - The Melodies of Hakalau Forest: Birds’ ability to fly to remote island habitats have allowed them to, over time, flourish and evolve to be uniquely suited to their landscapes, where they pollinate and disperse the seeds of many forest plant species. The health of native island birds is therefore representative of the health of island forest ecosystems. Native Hawaiians have a deep kinship with Hawaiian forest birds and revere, honor, and deify them as family, ancestors, guardians, spirits, and gods. Geographical isolation also means that island birds are particularly vulnerable to the threats of invasive species and disease. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) have recently analyzed three decades of forest bird surveys conducted at the Big Island National Wildlife Refuge Complex, which comprises two units: the Hakalau Forest unit and the Kona Forest unit. Analysis of the species over time revealed management actions have been key to historically positive trends. However, recent analysis also suggests additional stressors are negatively influencing forest bird populations. (via U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services)
5. Sibling relationships can be deadly serious: “Human sibling relationships can get pretty complicated, but in the world of birds, siblings can be so impactful that their existence can mean the difference between life and death. That's because avian nest-mates sometimes forge close, collaborative relationships that last their entire lives. Other times, after an egg hatches, a baby bird might immediately get killed by its older brother or sister. That depressing alternative is what fascinated David Anderson of Wake Forest University when he first noticed it a few decades ago. Back then, he was working as a research assistant in the Galápagos Islands, and he'd often pass by nests on the ground made by large white and black seabirds called Nazca boobies. (via National Public Radio)
6. A fun example of the power of Bird Cast - a terrific tool for birders from the Cornell Lab: Experts are warning residents of high volumes of migrating birds overnight Tuesday and into Wednesday morning, urging them to take precautions to keep the animals safe. According to Birdcast, more than 333 million migrating birds are expected to take flight overnight across the United States, but the Midwest is going to see some of the highest concentrations of birds during that time. An estimated 17.4 million birds are expected to migrate over Illinois on Tuesday night, with 7.5 million crossing the state between 8 p.m. Monday and 6 a.m. Tuesday. Blue-Gray Gnatcatchers, Yellow Warblers, and Baltimore Orioles are among the most prevalent birds migrating through the area, according to experts. Each year, thousands of birds are killed when they strike buildings and power lines, with experts urging the public to take steps to protect their health safety. (via NBC Chicago)
By Hap Ellis, Yellow Warbler - Millennium Park, Boston, MA.
7. “Fire is medicine…” - an interesting study on culturally significant birds and prescribed fire: Pacific Southwest ecologist and tribal liaison Frank Lake wondered how the birds he grew up with in northeastern California were faring. As a Karuk tribal descendant with Yurok family, Lake has a deep connection to the land and the birds that inhabit it. Belted kingfishers, woodpeckers, condors, eagles, and other birds have been part of his ancestors' way of life for thousands of years. Their familiar site and distinctive calls have made bird watching a national pastime. But our avian companions are declining. According to the 2022 State of the Birds Report, the U.S. and Canada have lost an estimated 3 billion breeding birds since the 1970s. (via Phys Org)
8. This pair of Peregrine Falcons are doing well on Wall Street (actually 55 Water Street): The population of Lower Manhattan is poised to swell by four in the next few days, as the eggs of a pair of peregrine falcons nesting on the roof of 55 Water Street near hatching. The aerie at the top of the building has welcomed raptors for more than a decade, and the live, 24-hour Falcon Cam allows close-up nest-watching. But this year, apprehension runs high among bird lovers still in mourning over the February death of the uptown owl Flaco. Flaco escaped his enclosure at the Central Park Zoo a year ago and, against the odds, had thrived—but then died after colliding with a building. A necropsy found toxic levels of rat poison in his system. “This probably won’t be an issue for the falcons at 55 Water,” says Lower Manhattan resident Gail Karlsson, the unofficial doyenne of Downtown birders. “Falcons don’t eat rats,” she notes. “They eat birds.” This distinction was vividly imparted to Ms. Karlsson several years ago when she was birdwatching in the Battery. (via The Boradstreet)
9. A “Flamboyance of flamingos” - hope for a Florida foothold?: For the last century, flamingos in Florida were more likely to be spotted on T-shirts and cups in a souvenir shop than flapping around in the wild. Then last summer, a flock of the rare and beautiful birds—a group is fittingly known as a "flamboyance" of flamingos—was blown to Florida on the fierce winds of Hurricane Idalia. Eight months later, they remain on the shores of Florida Bay, delighting scientists and inspiring hope that this could be the year they stick around for good. May is the beginning of their nesting season, and researchers are crossing their fingers that the large, apparently healthy population could start popping out fledglings on Florida soil for the first time in a century. "I am guardedly optimistic," said Jerry Lorenz, state research director of Audubon Florida. "I can only say I hope so.” (via Phys Org)
By Hap Ellis, Rose-breasted Grosbeak - Arnold Arboretum, Boston, MA
Smart parrots!: Pet parrots given the choice to video-call each other or watch pre-recorded videos of other birds will flock to the opportunity for live chats, new research shows. The study, led by animal-computer interaction specialists at the University of Glasgow, gave tablet devices to nine parrots and their owners to explore the potential of the video chats to expand the birds' social lives. Their results suggest that the clever birds, who often suffer from loneliness in captivity, may be able to tell the difference between live and pre-recorded content on digital devices, and strongly prefer interacting with other birds in real time. The paper, titled "Call of the Wild Web: Parrot Engagement in Live vs. Pre-recorded Video Calls," will be presented at the Association of Computing Machinery's CHI conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2024) held in Honolulu May 11–16. (via Phys Org)
10. How you can and can’t catch bird flu: Scientists are on alert for changes in the H5N1 or bird flu virus that could signal it is adapting to spread among humans. The virus has caused serious, sometimes fatal, infections among people and has long been on the list of viruses with pandemic potential. Any expansion to a new mammal species is concerning. An outbreak of bird flu among cattle herds in the United States led to the first known case of transmission between a cow and a human, after a Texas farm worker caught the virus. Previously, the virus had mostly been passed to humans through close contact with wild birds or infected poultry. (via Reuters)
11. We can only hope - more on wind power and birds from the BBC: While wind power is a crucial weapon in the fight against climate change, as Tavares points out, it can clash with efforts to protect and bring back endangered birds. "A [vulture] needs to be alive for 10 years before it can start to breed," says Tavares. "This makes captive breeding expensive. It seems silly to spend millions of euros trying to save a species, only to put a wind farm or electric pylon in the wrong place – and kill all these years of effort.” A range of solutions in different countries, paired with new research on how birds actually travel and perceive the world, aim to reduce this risk – and help struggling species cope better with our changing energy landscape. (via BBC)
By Hap Ellis, Wood Duck - The Country Club, Chestnut Hill, MA
12. Earth Month success in D.C.: Earth Month 2024 brought big conservation wins at the White House and Congress -- and new campaigns to protect the lands and waters that are critical to our communities, our wildlife, and our future. This isn’t just good policy -- it honors the demands of more than 80 percent of voters who say that conserving America’s lands and waters must be a national priority. The new efforts come at a critical moment. North America’s bird population has declined by 3 billion birds since 1970, a loss of more than one in four birds. Whether the threats come from habitat loss or a changing climate, what depletes bird populations threatens all of us. (via Audubon)
13. Rare bird alert (and this one is truly rare): Call it beginner's luck. On a trip to the Oregon coast in late April, amateur photographer Michael Sanchez took his new camera out to Hug Point State Park to snap pictures of waterfalls. Sanchez, a 41-year-old middle-school band director from Vancouver, Wash., recently picked up photography and, by his account, is by no means a bird-watcher. But his trip turned into an impromptu photo shoot that made him the envy of birders. "I got all the shots that I needed and when I was finishing up, I looked behind me and, still before the sun's fully up, I see this little bird with black feathers. I said, 'Oh, well, what a cute little bird, why don't I practice shooting that bird?" Sanchez, 41, told NPR on Thursday. "When I got home, I started to process the pictures from my trip and I saw that it wasn't a little black bird — it was actually a beautifully colored blue and a chestnut bird.” It wasn't until he posted his pictures to Facebook that he learned his bird sighting was extremely rare: a blue rock-thrush, far from its native breeding habitat in parts of Europe, Africa and Asia. (via National Public Radio)
14. License Plate of the Year:
15. Chris Cooper on Kenn Kaufman’s new book on John J. Audubon: For better and worse, the name Audubon has become almost synonymous with birds. The reason, of course, is John James Audubon, whose “Birds of America” project, published from 1827 to 1838, catalogued more than 400 birds in life-size prints. The works captured the avian world in a breadth and detail never before seen, turning its French American creator into a celebrated naturalist. In recent years, questions have been raised about Audubon’s legacy, starting with the ethics of his work — the Audubon Society has conceded that he “most certainly committed” plagiarism and academic fraud. Given this complicated biography — ably explored by naturalist Kenn Kaufman in his new book, “The Birds That Audubon Missed: Discovery and Desire in the American Wilderness” — should Audubon still get “credit for the good work he did, while acknowledging all that was wrong?” Kaufman asks. (via The Washington Post)
16. Finally please take a listen to Harrison Ford talking about “the Quiet”:
Bird Videos of the Week
By ABC News, “‘Very rare’ bird spotted in Oregon, first reported sighting in U.S. history”.
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Greater Whitethroat.
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Indigo Bunting.