1. In an attempt to save a rare bird species, a New Zealand village is trialling an innovative strategy: it is switching off all its street lights to stop baby birds becoming confused and crash landing on to the road. Westland petrels, which are blackish-brown with ivory beaks, breed only along an 8km stretch of coastal forest in the foothills near Punakaiki, a South Island town of fewer than 100 people and popular with tourists for its pancake rock formations and gushing ocean blowholes. The 6,000 breeding pairs arrive from South America each March, an event celebrated by locals with a festival. (via The Guardian)
2. Poisoned, poached, persecuted – iconic raptors such as the Andean Condor, Secretarybird and Martial Eagle have moved to higher threat categories in this year’s update to the IUCN Red List, sparking fears that the crisis that brought many Asian and African vultures to the edge of extinction has spread to new continents and species. (via BirdLife)
3. When Jessica Yorzinski chased great-tailed grackles across a field, it wasn’t a contest to see who blinked first. But she did want the birds to blink. Dr. Yorzinski had outfitted the grackles, which look a bit like crows but are in another family of birds, with head-mounted cameras pointing back at their faces. Recordings showed that the birds spent less time blinking during the riskiest parts of a flight. The finding was published in Biology Letters. Dr. Yorzinski, a sensory ecologist at Texas A&M University, had been wondering how animals balance their need to blink with their need to get visual information about their environments. (via The New York Times)
4. This year’s Audubon Christmas Bird Count is anything but usual: Since gatherings are unsafe, it’s up to individuals to count what they can, where they are. But eager birders are still out there counting crows, chickadees, and grosbeaks in the name of community science. National Public Radio’s Ira Glass joined a flock of bird nerds—Audubon’s Geoff LeBaron and Joanna Wu, and author and nature photographer Dudley Edmondson—to talk about the wonders of winter birding, and what decades of data show about how birds are shifting in a warming, changing world. Plus, how to make the most of birding while sheltering in place. (via Science Friday, Audubon)
5. Excerpt: I moved to North Berwick, Maine, a couple years ago and while getting to know my immediate neighborhood I’ve neglected visiting the beach. Especially in winter, my favorite time, because it isn’t crowded and the bracing wind and ice-lined shore is an exercise in exhilaration. So, I’m trying to visit at least once a week. During a recent trip to catch the sunset, some long-tailed ducks were also out hunting. They are on the small size and get their name from the two long tail feathers that stream from behind the males. Of all the sea ducks, long-tailed ducks spend the most time in and under water. They are the only ducks to use their wings, not their feet, to propel them through the water, allowing them to dive deeper than other ducks - to depths of up to 200 feet! (via Seacoast Online)
6. The mass die-off of thousands of songbirds in southwestern U.S. was caused by long-term starvation, made worse by unseasonably cold weather probably linked to the climate crisis, scientists have said. Flycatchers, swallows and warblers were among the migratory birds “falling out of the sky” in September, with carcasses found in New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, Arizona and Nebraska. Muscles controlling the birds’ wings were severely shrunken, blood was found in their intestinal tract and they had kidney failure as well as an overall loss of body fat. Nearly 10,000 dead birds were reported to the wildlife mortality database by citizens, and previous estimates suggest hundreds of thousands may have died. (via The Guardian, Wildlife Health Information Sharing Partnership)
7. A federal agency is seeking public comment through Jan. 15 before it potentially authorizes the deaths of double-crested cormorants or destruction of their nests across Ohio. "Double-crested cormorants can be extraordinarily beautiful. They are smart, clever, really kind of funny birds," said Stanley Senner, vice president for bird conservation for the National Audubon Society. But the birds, which have historically come close to being wiped out, are now considered a nuisance. The U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Service is seeking comments after the agency "received 161 requests for assistance with managing double-crested cormorant damage in Ohio. (via The Canton Repository)
8. NY Birders take note: The appearance of not one, but two rare birds around the East Side of Manhattan in recent days has set birdwatchers' hearts aflutter. The first arrival was the western tanager, a yellow-colored songbird that has been spotted at Catbird Playground in Carl Schurz Park nearly every day since Dec. 11, according to the park conservancy. Western tanagers are only spotted in New York City once or twice a decade, according to David Barrett, a birder who runs the popular Manhattan Bird Alert Twitter account. On Monday afternoon, Barrett got wind of yet another surprising sighting: a greater white-fronted goose had been spotted on a Randall's Island ballfield. (via Patch)
9. Backyard bird feeders have offered some peace and beauty in a year that’s been anything but. This year, pine siskins are everywhere and that includes our yards and feeders. Right now these little birds need the public’s help. The Portland Audubon is seeing a lot more pine siskins coming into their care this season with symptoms of salmonella. Salmonella spreads easily between birds at feeders. Birds return to the same spot repeatedly, rather than moving about from food source to food source. The public can do their part to help curb the outbreak. The best way is to get ahead of it. (via KGW News)
10. Jason Ward was a teen when he saw a peregrine falcon eating a pigeon. That was the moment he fell in love with birds, and now he does outreach for the Audubon Society. Please enjoy this delightful bird-centric interview and “Angry Birds” quiz by Bill Kurtis and Peter Sagal from NPR’s “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me!” broadcast on Oct. 10, 2020. (via National Public Radio)
Bonus: While the Yellow Warbler is best known for its cheery song, the birds also produce a seet call that many birders might recognize. Research has shown that these calls are distinct from the bird’s alarm call for predators such as Blue Jays, which prey on their eggs, and are specifically meant to warn against Brown-headed Cowbirds, brood parasites that often target Yellow Warbler nests. When a female hears the call, she rushes back to the nest to prevent the cowbird from laying an egg. Now, according to research published last year in Communications Biology, it turns out another species might also benefit from these seet calls: Red-winged Blackbirds who nest near Yellow Warblers. (via Audubon)
Bird Photo of the Week
By Hap Ellis, American Goldfinch.
Bird Videos of the Week
By SLR Lounge, “Beginner’s Guide to Photographing Wild Birds”.
Cornell Live Bird Cam, Yellow-shafted Northern Flicker.
Cornell Live Bird Cam, Common Ravens.