1. BirdFlow – unraveling the routes that birds take: A new computer model using machine learning to predict migratory bird movement could open the door to new insights on migration timing, stopover sites, bird response to climate change, light pollution and more, as it learns the patterns and variations in movement for individual species. The model, called BirdFlow, spearheaded by the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, is explained in “BirdFlow: Learning Seasonal Bird Movements From eBird Data,” published Feb. 1 in the journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution. (via Cornell Chronicle)
2. Birds and native plants (wonderful Florida Scrub Jay pic): A Verdin nest tucked deep into a spiny cactus. An American Robin gulping down a berry. An ‘I’iwi probing for nectar. These stunning scenes depict common bird behaviors—breeding and foraging—often difficult to capture. But they also emphasize the important link between birds and plants native to their respective regions—a laudable endeavor. Each year, the Plants for Birds category of the Audubon Photography Awards welcomes photos that place dual focus on the flora and fauna in each shot. Although the 12 images below were not 2022 winners or featured in our Top 100, their perfect pairing of birds and the native plants they rely on still wowed us. (via Audubon)
3. Great birding story from the Amazon: Everyone was quiet as this birding guide looked through the telescope. Then it was like his body had been shocked him with a taser, and as he spoke his voice shook, “IT’S A HARPY EAGLE…!!” The bird flew away, the man snatched up his tripod, and thus began the most impressive nature-related feat I’ve ever seen a human do. This chase lasted a full FIFTEEN MINUTES. Everyone else had long lost sight of the eagle, no one knew how this one guy was keeping up with this bird (not even our own guide Calvin). Around this time, I started hearing whispers among the other birders “Of course, Fred will know…” “Fred will find it…” Apparently this crazy guide running at top speed through the underbrush, hauling his giant telescope and tripod after him, was THE Fred, i.e., the owner and discoverer of Fred Mountain, and a famous birder in his own right. (via Evolution News & Science)
4. Not sure what to make of this effort: Scientists have attempted to bring the dodo back to life after it went extinct 361 years ago. Researchers at Colossal Biosciences, a US gene-editing firm, have pledged to “de-extinct” the flightless bird in a new $150 million project. Pioneering gene-editing techniques will allow scientists to mine the dodo genome for traits which they can effectively reassemble within the body of a living relative such as a pigeon. George Church, a Harvard scientist who founded the company in 2021 with entrepreneur Ben Lamm, hopes to reintroduce the species into the wild. (via The Telegraph)
5. You can see it in their nests: Humans are not the animal kingdom’s only fashionistas. Tits can be fashion-victims, too, apparently. A study published in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology by Sonja Wild and Lucy Aplin of the Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Biology, in Radolfzell, Germany, shows that, given the chance, they decorate their nests with this season’s must-have color. Dr Wild and Dr Aplin were following up work published in 1934 by Henry Smith Williams, an American naturalist. He noticed that when he put various coloured balls of yarn out in his garden, almost always one and only one became popular that season for incorporation into local birds’ nests. But which particular hue was favoured varied from season to season. This suggested that the colour chosen by one of the early birds was spotted and copied by others. (via The Economist)
6. Birds, glass and a simple step that people often miss: A thump on the window, if you’re around to hear it. A dead songbird below. Many people seek to prevent this sorrowful scenario by warning birds away with decals or film applied to windows of homes and office buildings. But there’s a big catch, a new study suggests: These products only work if affixed to the outside of the glass. “People who are buying decals and putting them on the windows, they want to do good, they want to do right by the birds,” said John Swaddle, a professor of biology at the College of William & Mary and an author of the study, published Thursday in the research journal PeerJ. “You do have to take the extra step of putting it on the outside of the window.” (via The New York Times)
7. Eggs and structural molecular analysis: A team of researchers led by Montana State University has recently conducted a comprehensive molecular analysis of large flightless birds such as ostriches and emus to clarify how these birds have evolved. The study shows that structural molecular analysis may complement other tools, such as genetic analysis, in accurately tracing the evolutionary history of various types of animals. In recent years, genetic analyses have allowed scientists to rewrite the evolutionary history of palaeognathae, a group of birds including emus, ostriches, and rhea that are much more adept at running than at flying. However, combining the new genetic information with other modern tools like molecular analysis could provide even more information about how and why these animals evolved their unique features. (via Earth)
8. Looking for a Northern Hawk Owl?: While the winter bird population in Minnesota is less diverse than in other seasons, it's perhaps a less-is-more proposition this time of year. That presents opportunities for the curious and the intrepid to connect and interact with birds and the larger natural world. Many people from all directions head north. Sax-Zim Bog, about an hour northwest of Duluth, is acclaimed as a winter destination. And for good reason: the land attracts boreal forest-loving species like great gray and northern hawk owls, pine grosbeaks and other Arctic breeding species. Red Hill Birding, a Chicago-area tour guide, has a sold-out trip beginning Sunday with the bog as the centerpiece. (via Star Tribune)
9. “A bit of a mystery”: A bird conservation charity said it had been locked out of its Twitter account for eight days after posting several tweets about woodcock. The Norfolk-based British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) said it lost access to its account during the Big Garden Birdwatch. "It's all a bit of a mystery," said the BTO's Tom Stewart. Twitter has yet to respond to a BBC request for comment, but Elon Musk tweeted to say the story was "ironic". The charity, which has its office in Thetford, said it was asked by Twitter to verify its account, but "it was all downhill from there really, as the age we put in didn't tally with Twitter's (very under-publicised) age verification policy", he said. (via BBC)
10. Comeback story!: A breeding program that began in the East to reverse the extinction of cranes has seen numbers bounce back. The common crane became extinct in the UK in the 1500s but re-emerged in the Norfolk Broads in 1979. A survey by the RSPB has revealed 71 pairs across the UK in 2022, with the population estimated at more than 200 birds. Conservation scientist Andrew Stanbury said the government must now "choose to strengthen, not dismantle" laws protecting wetland habitats. After returning to the Norfolk Broads in 1979, the RSPB said numbers of the birds were steadily increasing with populations found in South Yorkshire, the Fens and, with assistance of a crane introduction project, the Somerset Levels and Moors. (via BBC)
11. Early nesters – a nice piece on Great Horned Owls in the Great North Woods (that would be Maine): There’s something magical about stepping outside at 6 in the morning to the sound of a great horned owl. Adding to the mystique, the hooting was just outside my log cabin, a cabin named Partridge Chalet at Big Machias Lake Camps. Never mind that this magical brush with nature was triggered by the necessity of a predawn trip to the outhouse. It was still magical. Owls start their mating season early, and great horned owls start earliest. By starting early, owls get the jump on the competition. Great horned owls often steal the nests of ospreys, red-tailed hawks and great blue herons before the rightful owners return in the spring. An early start is also essential for successful chick-raising. Our tiny northern saw-whet owls incubate for nearly a month, then linger in the nest for another month before fledging. If all goes according to plan, owlets will be at their hungriest when prey is at its most plentiful. (via Bangor Daily News)
12. The drought, the Great Salt Lake and the Shorelands Preserve: The 22-year drought in Utah has been the harbinger of bad news, with everything from the Great Salt Lake dropping to a historic low, Lake Powell threatening to all but disappear, farmer fields fallowed and small towns buckling under the improbable reality of having their water supply dry up. What has seemed like an insurmountable challenge, a dreary road full of potential dramatic changes in Utah’s quality of life, has nevertheless turned the faucet on for positive changes. A three-year science-based bird count tapping 40 locations inside the preserve each year from April to early June saw a 25% increase in the number of birds using the area as local habitat. The count did not include flyovers at one of the most important stops along the Pacific Flyway for the more than 250 species of birds that have been documented at the area. (via Deseret News)
13. Rare bird alert – Denver, CO: Birdwatchers walking along the High Line Canal during an annual bird count last Christmas got a surprise gift when one of them spotted a Bohemian waxwing among the juncos and blue jays. The beautiful bird, so named because of the bright red and yellow waxy secretions that decorate the tips of their wings, was embedded with a flock of its cousins, cedar waxwings, which are much more common in Colorado. It was the first time in 35 years that a Bohemian waxwing had been recorded along the canal during the Christmas count, according to the volunteer birders. Since then, birdwatchers have looked up in amazement as groups of dozens or even a flock of a hundred or more have been spotted in neighborhoods from east to west and north to south. (via The Denver Post)
14. This week’s Avian Flu story: There’s some comfort in the name, avian influenza. The virus that’s been tearing through poultry farms, known as H5N1, typically targets birds, not humans. But a recent outbreak of H5N1 at a mink fur farm in Spain has some scientists worried. Farms with dense populations of minks — which are mammals, like us — are ideal places for this virus to acquire new mutations or other genetic changes that could help it spread more easily between humans. This makes us wonder: Is bird flu creeping closer to humans? The short answer: no. In its current form, H5N1 doesn’t have the machinery to easily infect humans or spread quickly among us. That’s the good news. What is concerning is that avian influenza viruses are known to change quickly — especially when they’re abundant and spreading among certain animal populations. Hence why some scientists are worried now. (via Vox)
15. Finally, we’ll close with “Adventures in Eco-mythology”: The ancient and cross-cultural belief that birds contained the souls of ancestors may have played a key supporting role in one of the greatest adventures in human history – crossing the Pacific Ocean and populating the Americas. At least 14,000 years ago the closest known genetic relatives of Native Americans were living in Ust-Kyakhta, on the Russian side of the border with Mongolia, according to a 2020 genetic study by the Max Planck Institute. Ust-Kyakhta is located where three global bird flyways overlap, a rare global phenomenon that produces a huge and diverse avian population including more than a thousand different species. (via Patheos)
Bird Photo of the Week
Photo by Hap Ellis, Northern Cardinal, Arnold Arboretum, Boston, MA .
Bird Videos of the Week
By Badgerland Birding, “Birding in Louisiana”.
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Tanagers
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Nocturnal Visitor.
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Excellent as always