1. Possibly irreplaceable: It’s bad enough that Earth could be losing thousands of species each year. Now, two independent studies of birds have concluded the ones most likely to disappear are those that serve unique—and possibly irreplaceable—functions in their ecosystems. Consider the toucan: Its iconic beak lets it eat and disperse seeds and fruit too large for other birds in South American rainforests. Yet these striking creatures, as well as vultures, ibises, and others with distinctive physical traits, are likely to be the first to go extinct, homogenizing the avian world, according to one study. A second paper predicts communities will grow more alike as species flock to cooler regions in the face of climate change. (via Science)
2. NY Times’ take on same study: The giant ibis deserves its name. Adults of the largest bird in the ibis family can grow to almost 3.5 feet in length, weigh more than nine pounds and boast nine-inch beaks that bring to mind a Venetian plague doctor mask. The species has also been critically endangered since 1994, driven to the verge of extinction by hunting, habitat disturbance and deforestation. Today, fewer than 200 mature members of the species are left in its native range in Southeast Asia. The giant ibis, along with other physically distinctive birds of extreme shapes and sizes, is more likely to be lost in the current biodiversity crisis, according to a study published on Thursday in the journal Current Biology. (via The New York Times, IUCN Red List, Current Biology)
3. Not so fast!: Even though the last confirmed sighting of the ivory-billed woodpecker was in 1944, ornithologists believe the bird may still exist in isolated hardwood forests in the Southeast of the United States. Its enormous size gave it the heavenly-sounding moniker "Lord God bird." After ornithologists, including Geoffrey Hill of Auburn University, said there is convincing evidence that the elusive "ghost bird" is still alive, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decided against proposing to declare the bird extinct last year and instead announced a six-month extension to gather more data. (via Nature World News)
4. Puzzling mystery solved?: A new study helps reveal why tropical mountain birds occupy such narrow elevation ranges, a mystery that has puzzled scientists for centuries. While many assumed temperature was responsible for these limited distributions, the latest research suggests competition from other species plays a bigger role in shaping bird ranges. The researchers looked for connections between elevational range size and two factors: temperature stability throughout the year, and range overlap with other species. (via EurekaAlert)
5. Making islands higher: Off the Texas Gulf Coast, a string of tiny islands – many uninhabited by people – provide important habitat for waterbirds. Egrets and herons make nests in trees and shrubs, while terns and black skimmers nest on the shores. Audubon Texas owns or leases more than 175 of these islands so they can be maintained as bird sanctuaries. Over the decades, birds have increasingly used them as nesting grounds, because they are safe from predators and human disturbance. But the islands are losing ground to erosion, heavy storm damage, and sea-level rise. So Audubon and its partners are adding more dredged sediment to some of the islands to increase their elevation and keep pace with sea-level rise. (via Yale Climate Connections)
6. Helping where help is urgently needed: Hunting is about more than just killing, it is about saving. Shortly after the Civil War, private citizens of Utah began buying up land around the shores of the Great Salt Lake to not only farm, but to protect its wetlands. The land holdings of an estimated 40,000 acres ultimately grew into private duck clubs, of which many continue to exist today. Back then, duck was a delicacy, and hundreds of ducks darkened the sky, with early accounts describing their sound as that of a freight train. But as the Great Salt Lake continues to shrink — it dipped to a new historic low just this summer — so do its wetlands, imperiling millions of migratory birds and other wildlife. (via Salt Lake Tribune)
7. Tourism to blame: Irresponsible tourism is a major factor in the decline of flamingos in nesting grounds in northeastern Yucatán. There are currently about 1,000 to 2,000 flamingos at Ría Lagartos, according to experts, whereas there were some 30,000 at the same time last year, when the pandemic was still keeping tourist numbers down. Flamingo numbers are also severely diminished in places such as San Felipe, El Cuyo and Las Coloradas. José Cruz Hoil Rajón, a biologist who has collaborated with environmental authorities at all three levels of government, told the newspaper Por Esto! that he attributes significant blame to tour guides for taking tourists too close to the long-legged pink birds and disturbing their ecosystem. (via Mexico Daily News)
8. Reconstructing 60 million years of evolutionary history: Penguins lost their ability to fly more than 60 million years ago, long before polar ice sheets formed. The seabirds became capable of wing-propelled diving in the ocean, which became their major food source, according to joint lead author of the study, Zhou Chengran, of Shenzhen-based BGI-Research. “Penguins’ wings are similar to fish fins and unlike the foldable wings of other water diving birds. That way they can reduce water resistance and save energy while swimming. Losing their flying ability helped them live in the ocean.” While penguins are at the front line of global temperature changes, their past adaptability has researchers buoyant about their future survival prospects. (via South China Morning Post)
9. This week’s avian flu angle: Georgia wildlife officials counted a record number of active bald eagle nests in the state this year, but an outbreak of bird flu on the coast has scientists worried for the iconic species’ fragile recovery. The first bald eagle nesting survey in five years found 229 active nests, an increase over the previous high of 218 in 2017, according to the Department of Natural Resources. Of the nests surveyed this year, 146 produced eaglets, with 227 eaglets total counted. On the coast, the number of successful nests plummeted by about 30 percent, a drop scientists attributed to highly pathogenic avian influenza, commonly known as bird flu. (via Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Atlanta Journal Constitution)
10. Nomadic pine siskins: If you spend as much time outside on British Columbia’s rural Galiano Island as professional gardener Ana Todorović does, it’s a sad inevitability that you will encounter dead birds. But when Todorović returned home from work on May 16, she noticed something distinctive about the goldfinch-size, streaky-brown bird corpse on her lawn: It had a metal ring on one leg. The unique code on that band would later reveal that the bird had completed an amazing cross-continent journey. Scientists last week reported in a Facebook post that this particular Pine Siskin had traveled 2,403 miles west from where they banded it in Maryland in 2020—an impressive feat, but not unheard of for this far-ranging species. (via Audubon Magazine)
11. That is a lot of pictures: For his 60th birthday on June 16, Joel Sartore celebrated with another milestone: Photographing the 13,000th species in National Geographic’s Photo Ark. He captured photos and video of the critically endangered spoon-billed sandpiper, a European and Asian shorebird with a distinctive spoon-shaped beak, at the Slimbridge Wetland Centre in England. The birds’ caretakers spent more than a month training the animals to walk on a blackboard by covering it with sand (to imitate its natural habitat) and feeding them baby crickets as treats. Sartore was then able to photograph the birds against the Photo Ark’s signature black-and-white backgrounds, which puts all species on the same footing, so to speak. (via National Geographic, WWT)
12. And finally…yes…swan “upping”: The annual count of the Queen's swans has taken place on the River Thames. Each year a special team get in boats and get out on the river to check how many of the birds there are. Usually, the baby swans would be removed from the water and taken ashore to be weighed, measured and examined for any problems. This time, due to the hot weather, the birds were just taken on board small boats. On certain parts of the Thames, swans called mute swans are owned by the Queen. They are counted by the Royal Swan Marker and his team. This tradition has been going on for the last 800 years. (via BBC)
Bird Photo of the Week
Photo by Hap Ellis, Least Tern, Kennebunkport, MA.
Bird Videos of the Week
By NASA, “How Climate Patterns Thousands of Miles Away Affect US Bird Migration”.
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Albatross Overlook.
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Albatross Weigh-in.