1. “A bit of a Tiki tour”: The hunt is on for a bird tracking device that, instead of logging the bird’s movements, is likely tracking the travels of an unwitting tourist. Researchers are asking for the public’s help to retrieve the tracker so that it can be used to study birds again. An oystercatcher, a black and white bird with a long, red-orange beak for breaking through shellfish, initially brought the tracker from Dublin, Ireland, to Orkney, an archipelago of islands north of Scotland. The bird seemed to have lost the tracker at the beach on one of the islands, Sanday, on April 7th. It stayed there until late May, when the device started tracking unusual movements for a bird. (via The Verge)
2. Falconry to the rescue in Ocean City, NJ: The war between humans and gulls in Ocean City, N.J., reached a turning point in 2019. The town’s populations of great black-backed, ring-billed, laughing and herring gulls had become increasingly comfortable snatching beachgoers’ French fries, potato chips and other finger foods. One day that spring, Ocean City’s mayor, Jay Gillian, watched as a gull swooped into a stroller on the boardwalk and stole a slice of pizza from a toddler’s hands. The town’s brand — its slogan is “America’s Greatest Family Resort” — was being sullied. That was it for the mayor. He asked his business administrator, George Savastano, to find a solution. He happened upon a video showing the use of raptors to deter gulls, crows, pigeons and other so-called nuisance birds from places like airports and garbage dumps. But, Savastano told me, “I couldn’t come across any situation exactly like ours.” He emailed an inquiry to a New Jersey-based outfit called East Coast Falcons anyway. (via The New York Times)
3. Yikes!: In 2014, a wildfire ripped through central Chile, destroying 2500 homes and killing at least 13 people. A year later, a blaze in Idaho burned more than 4000 hectares, an area nearly 12 times the size of New York City’s Central Park. Both conflagrations had one thing in common: Experts believe they were started by birds. Our feathered friends love to perch on power lines, which can be a great place to rest and launch an attack. But if a bird touches the wrong wires together, or somehow forms an electrical pathway to the ground, it can get fried. Falling to the floor like winged Molotov cocktails, birds can spark an inferno if they hit an especially dry, tindered patch of earth. (via Science)
4. Birds of prey have the watch: Three birds of prey hunker down in the light drizzle falling on Bouchaine Vineyards in California’s Napa Valley. Rocky, a beefy Harris hawk with long white-tipped tail feathers gently preens his marbled wings while E.B., a hybrid barbary and saker falcon with a dappled white-and-brown chest, keeps his gaze trained on a row of neatly plaited grapevines. Hootbert’s eyelids flutter sleepily over his big yellow spectacled owl eyes. The trio are the first line of defense against the invading armies of starlings, red-winged blackbirds and house finches that feast in Bouchaine’s ripening vineyards each summer and early fall. (via Atlas Obscura)
5. Saving the Toki from extinction: Starting his car under star-dotted skies unpolluted by light, he works alone in the pre-dawn chill, marking sightings or absences in a planner, interrupted only by the crackle of a walkie-talkie. The bird he is looking for is called "toki" in Japanese, and its presence on his home of Sado island is testament to a remarkable conservation programme. In just under two decades, Japan's population of wild toki has gone from zero to nearly 500, all on Sado, where the bird's delicate pink plumage and distinctive curved beak now draw tourists. It's a rare conservation success story when one in eight bird species globally are threatened with extinction, and involved international diplomacy and an agricultural revolution on a small island off Japan's west coast. (via France24)
6. Back to you, Spain (with the beautiful Red Kite): British-born red kites are being flown abroad in a mission to help rescue the dwindling Spanish population. The birds of prey are threatened in parts of Spain by factors including poisoning and a lack of food. Experts have been given special permission to take 30 red kites from England and release them in the remote mountains of south western Spain. It's hoped the birds will thrive and breed there, rescuing the population. (via BBC)
7. Some good news for endangered Piping Plovers: A new initiative to identify and map Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) in The Bahamas using historical bird population data led to the recognition of three sites by the KBA secretariat in March 2022. This achievement is the result of a collaborative network of national and international organizations and volunteers, among them the National Audubon Society (NAS), Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), the United States Geological Survey (USGS), United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and The Bahamas National Trust (BNT), who have been monitoring Piping Plovers and other shorebirds in The Bahamas for more than ten years. (via Audubon)
8. Practicing while sleeping: Research on birdsong has historically focused on what these animals do while awake to imitate and memorize their song, but biologists Amish Dave and Daniel Margoliash wondered whether sleep might also play a role in song acquisition. Could sleep help juvenile finches internalize the acoustic patterns they hear from their family members and commit them to long-term memory? Could these birds learn their song at least in part by rehearsing it in their minds while asleep? To test this possibility, Dave and Margoliash performed an experiment in which they mapped the patterns of neural activation elicited in the “birdsong system” (the forebrain nucleus robustus archistriatalis) of a group of juvenile finches while they slept. (via Lit Hub)
9. And speaking of songs, fun stuff from an expert birder: Bird listening can bring just as much fascination as bird watching, and part of the reason is that most species make a wide variety of different sounds. This is especially true among the Passeriformes, the so-called perching birds or songbirds, which make up more than half the total bird species in the world (or pretty much everything in the latter half of your favorite field guide). Most of these have impressive playlists of sounds. For example, the Black-capped Chickadee has at least 16 distinct categories of vocalizations, most of them with multiple variations. But only one (or possibly two) of these could be classified as a song. All the rest would be best considered calls. So, yes, there are reasons to make a distinction between songs and calls. (via Audubon)
10. Queen of the corvids: Leo, an 18-year-old rook, is playing mind games. It’s a street-corner classic – cups and balls. Only this time the venue is the Comparative Cognition Laboratory in Madingley, Cambridge, and the ball is a waxworm. Leo – poised, pointy, determined – is perched on a wooden platform eager to place his bet. A wriggling morsel is laid under one of three cups, the cups shuffled. Leo cocks his head and takes a stab. Success! He snatches the waxworm in his beak and retreats to enjoy his prize. Aristotle, a fellow resident donned in a glossy black feather coat, who has been at the aviary almost as long as the lab itself, looks on knowingly. Watching alongside me is Professor Nicola Clayton, a psychologist who founded the lab 22 years ago. Clayton studies the cognitive abilities of both animals and humans, but is particularly known for her seminal research into the intelligence of corvids (birds in the crow family, which includes rooks, jays, magpies and ravens). (via The Guardian)
11. Some musings on “mobbing”: Mobbing is a defensive behavior birds undertake to protect their nest or young from potential predators. Individual birds may go after another bird, mammal, snake, or even vehicle. But that’s not mobbing. True mobbing occurs when more than just the local male and/or female go after an intruder. Mobbing occurs when other individuals from the neighborhood join the fray. Wikipedia defines mobbing as, “… an assemblage of individuals around a potentially dangerous predator.” So, the attached photo by Ken Miracle of a Cooper’s hawk going after a turkey vulture and by Ceredig Roberts of a red-winged blackbird chasing a golden eagle, qualify as nest defense, but not mobbing. (via Idaho Free Press)
12. Grim: Hundreds of dead birds washing up on Martha’s Vineyard. Animal control officials in Tisbury say a strain of bird flu may be responsible for killing hundreds of birds on the island. Officials wrote in a Facebook post that hundreds of dead cormorants have been washing up all over the island, and animal control officers have collected them and sent them to the state for testing. “This is extremely dangerous to us as a small island. PLEASE inform your local ACO [animal control officer] if you find any dead birds,” the post said. “MOST IMPORTANTLY: DO NOT TOUCH THEM!!! Keep your dogs leashed if on beaches so they do not get contaminated. Take care when going in water, many are floating in seaweed etc.” (via Boston Globe)
13. All you need to know about Gray Catbirds: The Gray Catbird is a medium-size songbird that can commonly be found across the eastern United States and Midwest. A frequent visitor to backyards, catbirds are often heard before they are seen, either flitting about in the brush or perched out in the open, singing proudly and loudly. Curious and active, these birds also have a feisty side when defending their territory—or the occasional bird feeder—from intruders. Their big personalities make them a favorite of birders, so whether you're already familiar with this species or just looking to learn more, enjoy these fascinating Gray Catbird facts. (via Audubon National Magazine)
Bonus. Photography tips: You have to get up pretty early in the morning to photograph the early bird getting the worm. That’s how Wirecutter reporter Phil Ryan discovered bird photography to be one of the most rewarding types of image making he’s tried—even if he’d usually rather sleep in. Ryan interviewed three professional bird photographers to find out how to get started. Wildlife photographer, writer, and conservationist Melissa Groo; photographer and blogger Melissa Hafting; and biologist, freelance conservation photographer, and Wild Bird Research Group co-founder Sean Grasser shared advice that he put to work to get the images you’ll see below. One thing they all agreed on is that any would-be bird photographer should follow Audubon’s guidelines for ethical bird photography to help maintain a healthy environment where birds are allowed to thrive. (via Wirecutter)
Bird Photo of the Week
Photo by Hap Ellis, Red-tailed Hawk, Kennebunkport, ME.
Bird Videos of the Week
By Maya “This is it”.
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Cornell Hawks.
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Hummingbird Gathering.