Lifelong Birder.
Bird News Items
1. This week saw a farewell to President Carter, so let's start with Audubon's tribute: As the nation remembers President Jimmy Carter, it bears mentioning by this organization that among his many attributes and achievements in public service, Jimmy Carter was a lifelong birder. He went birding on all seven continents, and spoke about the importance of protecting birds. In 1994, he received the Audubon Medal, given in recognition of outstanding achievement in the field of conservation and environmental protection. It makes sense that a president whose environmental legacy is so significant would appreciate both the beauty and the importance of birds. During his presidency, the size of the national park system doubled. Eleven new national parks created, eight of which were in Alaska alone. The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, passed during his presidency, designated 56 million acres of wilderness in Alaska. These included regions like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the Tongass National Forest, and Chugach National Forest. He also designated 39 wild and scenic rivers, tripling the size of the official national system. (via Audubon)
2. More on our 39th President - remembering a 2000 visit to Alaska to celebrate his landmark conservation law: Former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral Thursday at Washington, D.C.’s National Cathedral was as formal a ceremony as any this country has produced, with a motorcade, honor guard and presidential colors. Formality was exactly the opposite of what Buzz Scher experienced when he spent three days with Carter in Anchorage 25 years ago. “The second we met him, he was just so — it's not really a good term, but down to earth,” said Scher. “He was just so open, friendly.” Carter was in Anchorage in 2000 to celebrate the anniversary of his landmark conservation law, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. The 1980 law left a historic mark on Alaska, by greatly expanding its national parks, refuges and other conservation system units. (via Alaska Public Radio)
By Hap Ellis, Northern Cardinal - Millennium Park, Boston, MA.
3. Now this really is good news: Birds have nearly stopped colliding into the McCormick Place Lakeside Center. Since bird-safe film was installed on the building’s windows last summer, collisions into the mostly glass structure are down over 95% during the recent fall migration compared with previous seasons, the Field Museum said. The news is a victory for birds, bird advocates and McCormick Place. The building is Chicago’s easternmost structure on the lakefront, sitting squarely along one of the region’s busiest migratory pathways for birds. It’s tough for birds to see a glass surface as a solid object. They also rely on the moon and stars to travel, and bright lights from glass structures at night throw off their navigation. Pulled toward the light, they often can’t perceive the glass and think they can fly straight through. (via NBC 5 Chicago)
4. More good news - A new national monument for California's Chuckwalla region: The National Audubon Society today celebrated the designation of more than 624,000 acres of California desert as the Chuckwalla National Monument, public lands just south of Joshua Tree National Park in southeast California. Located at the junction of the Mojave, Sonoran and Colorado Deserts, the Chuckwalla region is home to astonishing biodiversity, including birds like the Phainopepla, Western Tanager, Verdin, Cactus Wren and Greater Roadrunner -- along with bighorn sheep, desert tortoises, American badgers, desert pupfish, and other imperiled wildlife. (via Audubon)
5. An interesting study from Yale's Center for Biodiversity and Global Change: It may not be immediately obvious, but continental and global-scale maps of biodiversity patterns can be built from hundreds or thousands of individual estimates of species’ spatial distributions. Each of these distributions is modelled by connecting a set of occurrence points with multiple environmental variables, such as rainfall, temperature, and land cover type. With so much data feeding into one product, how can we be confident in the accuracy of large-scale biodiversity estimates? Grain size, or modeling resolution, is an important factor in understanding the accuracy of these maps, according to Yale BGC Center researchers who recently published a paper titled “Fine-Grain Predictions Are Key to Accurately Represent Continental-Scale Biodiversity Patterns”. (via Yale Center for Biodiversity and Global Change)
6. Avian flu update - sad news: The U.S. has recorded its first death of a person infected with bird flu. The patient was a resident of southwest Louisiana who was hospitalized last month with the first known severe case of bird flu in the country. On Monday, the Louisiana Department of Health said the person had died from the illness but shared few other details because of patient privacy rules. The patient was over 65 and had underlying medical conditions. The patient contracted the illness after being exposed to "a combination of a non-commercial backyard flock and wild birds," according to a news release. An "extensive public health investigation" did not turn up any other cases of H5N1 in a person or evidence of human-to-human spread. (via National Public Radio)
By Hap Ellis, Common Raven - Millennium Park, Boston, MA.
7. And then this take on the virus - a "national embarrassment": Three years ago, when it was trickling into the United States, the bird-flu virus that recently killed a man in Louisiana was, to most Americans, an obscure and distant threat. Now it has spread through all 50 states, affecting more than 100 million birds, most of them domestic poultry; nearly 1,000 herds of dairy cattle have been confirmed to be harboring the virus too. At least 66 Americans, most of them working in close contact with cows, have fallen sick. A full-blown H5N1 pandemic is not guaranteed—the CDC judges the risk of one developing to be “moderate.” But this virus is fundamentally more difficult to manage than even a few months ago and is now poised to become a persistent danger to people. (via The Atlantic)
* Maybe a good step then: The U.S. will rebuild a stockpile of bird flu vaccines for poultry that match the strain of the virus circulating in commercial flocks and wild birds, the Department of Agriculture said on Wednesday, in a sign of the widespread and devastating nature of the nation's persistent outbreak. The outbreak, which began in poultry in early 2022, has killed more than 130 million commercial, backyard and wild birds in all 50 states, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Deaths of millions of egg-laying hens pushed wholesale egg prices to record highs last month. (via Reuters)
8. Audubon released its offshore wind report, which we are digesting: Birds and people face unprecedented challenges from climate change, with two-thirds of North American bird species at risk of extinction. Transitioning to clean energy is one of the quickest and most effective ways to protect them from climate impacts, and offshore wind offers key advantages over other clean energy sources. For example, wind speeds are generally higher, more frequent and more constant offshore, which generates more electricity over longer periods. Audubon's January 2025 report, Birds and Offshore Wind: Developing the Offshore Wind that Birds Need, shares the latest research, offers policy recommendations, and outlines a science-based path to environmentally responsible development amid a changing climate. (via Audubon)
9. No surprise here - the industry press likes it: The National Audubon Society has released a report that shares clear strategies and policy recommendations for balancing clean energy demand with conservation in order to combat climate change while protecting birds and their habitats. The report, titled Birds and Offshore Wind: Developing the Offshore Wind that Birds Need, makes the case for responsibly sited offshore wind development that addresses potential risks to birds based on the best available science. Audubon calls for advancing offshore wind energy using a four-step process - remove critically important bird habitat from consideration, implement known minimization measures and research new ones, offset unavoidable impacts when necessary, and conduct monitoring before and after construction. (via Offshore Engineer)
By Hap Ellis, Mute Swan - Millennium Park, Boston, MA.
10. OK, then - 2025 is "The Year for NYC Birds" says Lights Out Coalition: Lights Out Coalition, an alliance of New Yorkers dedicated to protecting Gotham City’s wildlife, kicked off its “2025: The Year For NYC Birds” campaign on National Bird Day on Jan. 5. Dinosaur, the colossal sculpture of a pigeon, currently on display on the High Line, provided the fitting background for the gathering of bird lovers holding up signs, calling on the New York City Council to pass Intro 896 and Intro 1073. The laws are part of a package titled “Flaco’s Law,” named after the male Eurasian eagle-owl who escaped from the Central Park Zoo in 2023 and died on Feb. 23, 2024, after a window collision. A necropsy revealed that Flaco also had high levels of rat poison in his system, which would have killed him eventually if he hadn’t been killed after sustaining traumatic injuries after flying into the window. (via AM NY)
11. The first-ever global study of the factors that influence bird sound: Birds make sounds to communicate, whether to find a potential mate, ward off predators, or just sing for pleasure. But the conditions that contribute to the immense diversity of the sounds they make are not well understood. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have conducted the first-ever global study of the factors that influence bird sounds, using more than 100,000 audio recordings from around the world. The new study, recently published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, revealed insightful patterns for why birds make certain noises and at what frequency. (via Phys Org)
12. Looking at why birds divorce: For many bird species, staying with the same partner can lead to better breeding outcomes. Familiarity and teamwork in raising chicks can make a big difference. However, switching partners can also offer benefits, such as finding a higher-quality mate or a better nesting spot, which can enhance the chances of survival and successful reproduction. Divorce among birds is surprisingly common, occurring in over 90% of socially monogamous species. Studies have shown that in some cases, this separation can lead to better breeding success and longer lifespans. Researchers are keen to understand the reasons behind these break-ups and their impact on the birds' lives. (via Phys Org)
13. "As I walked out in the streets of Loredo"... the old Marty Robbins song wasn't about birds. But Loredo is about birds, at least next month, if you happen to be in West Texas: With the start of the new year just a month away, the 13th annual Laredo Birding Festival — one of South Texas' largest birding events — is approaching. Hosted each February, the Laredo Birding Festival welcomes bird watchers and experts from across the United States to see prized birds such as the Morelet's seedeater, scaled quail, gray hawk, Audubon's and Altamira orioles, green parakeets, Muscovy duck, red-billed pigeon, and clay-colored thrush. From Feb. 5-8, birders will have the opportunity to participate in guided, full-day scenic trips; mingle and network during feasts; and view the 13th annual Birds of the Brush Art Contest submissions. (via LMT Online)
By Hap Ellis, White-breasted Nuthatch - Millennium Park, Boston, MA.
14. Low temperatures and even snow in the southeast? No problem, North Carolina's Department of Environmental Quality right there to explain how birds cope: Dr. Zuluaga is a recent graduate of Dr. Ray Danner’s lab at UNC Wilmington. His recently published research found that through acclimatization, birds can use less energy to keep cool in the summer. With the N.C. Sea Grant and N.C. Coastal Reserve Coastal Research Fellowship, he’s building on his previous research, which identified two new ways that birds seasonally adjust to changes in heat (called acclimatization). With this fellowship, he is studying these processes at the Bird Island Reserve. (via North Carolina Environmental Quality)
15. Finally, get a second cup of coffee and enjoy this nice piece from a local nature writer we like: The final week of 2024 was particularly calm and delightful for me. After the hustle and bustle of hosting a family gathering, my wife and I were able to nestle down into the “holiday bunker” and enjoy some much-needed R&R. For one solid week we were able to sleep as late as we wanted, drink coffee and read for as long as we wanted and basically disengage from the world in our comfortable home in the country. Of course, this meant that I had a solid week of unfettered access to the birds. Still somewhat stuck on “teacher time,” I found myself waking up at 5 a.m. and being somewhat restless. This slowly abated over the week without any responsibilities and I eventually found that I was able to sleep until about 7 a.m. Fortunately, even this “late” hour still gave me plenty of opportunity to get ready for the arrival of the day’s first birds. That is the nice thing about winter birding; the sun doesn’t rise until such a late hour. (via Daily Hampshire Gazette)
Bird Videos of the Week
Video by WGAD News 8, “Winter Birding: How to enjoy Iowa’s feathered visitors this season”.
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Pileated Woodpecker.
Cornell Live Bird Cam.- Keel-billed Toucan.