1. They may zip around looking cute and sociable, but the world of hummingbirds is rife with aggression. Now it looks like some female hummingbirds have evolved to avoid this – by adopting the bright plumage of their male counterparts. US researchers captured more than 400 white-necked Jacobin hummingbirds in Panama. Surprisingly, they found that more than a quarter of females had similar ostentatious plumage – iridescent blue heads, bright white tails, and white bellies – to the males. Typically, female Jacobins tend to be duller in comparison, brandishing muted green, grey or black hues that allow them to blend into the environment. (via The Guardian)
2. Good news on a continuing story: Earlier this summer, as birds started mysteriously dying across the D.C. region, Paul Pisano heeded the call from Virginia wildlife officials: He took down his bird-feeder. An avid birdwatcher who lives in Arlington’s Aurora Highlands neighborhood, the 58-year-old said he complied with the rule — an avian social distancing measure, of sorts — to protect the blue jays, grackles and finches that come to snack on birdseed on his front porch. Two months later, no one seems to know what was causing the illness that was making the birds’ eyes swell up or release discharge. But Pisano’s bird-feeder is back out. Last week, officials with the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources gave him and others the green-light: Residents in the northern and northwestern parts of the state should feel free to set out bird-feeders again, they said, as flocks prepare to migrate south in the coming months. (via The Washington Post)
3. This is concerning: Anyone who has ever spent time on a lake in the Kawarthas has heard the plaintive wail or tremulous call of the common loon, with photographers relishing the opportunity to capture the iconic bird’s profile or, if they’re lucky, a mom with her chicks. But new Canadian research reveals something is wrong with the loon, raising a red flag about the health of the species as well as the health of Canada’s lakes. On Monday (August 23), Birds Canada — a non-profit organization whose mission is to conserve wild birds — released the Canadian Lakes Loon Survey, a study based on 40 years’ worth of data submitted by volunteer citizen scientists who have been watching loons on lakes across Canada and submitting their observations since 1981. In the past three decades, the loon has experienced mysterious declines in the number of chicks surviving to adulthood across southern Canada. (via Kawartha News)
4. A little less coal-fired power generation would help too: China and African nations are pushing for the establishment of a multi-billion-dollar "global biodiversity fund" to help developing countries meet goals agreed in a new pact being negotiated to protect nature, U.N. officials and observers said. About 195 countries are expected to finalize a new accord to safeguard the planet's plants, animals and ecosystems at a two-part U.N. summit due to culminate in May next year in the southern Chinese city of Kunming. The difficulty of meeting face to face because of the COVID-19 pandemic meant the summit was postponed three times and then split into two, with the first virtual session scheduled for October and preparatory discussions now underway. (via Thomson Reuters Foundation News)
5. State Bird or not, it’s a cool bird: On a sunny morning this June I stopped at a rest area on I-75 near Grayling, Michigan. Outside, I snapped a photo of a state historical marker labeled, “The Return of Kirtland’s Warbler.” A fellow traveler paused on the way to her car. “Isn’t that so cool?” she asked, beaming. “Do you know about the thing with the jack pines?” The thing with the jack pines is that Kirtland’s Warblers can’t live without them. The birds nest only in large, dense stands of young jack pines, around 5 to 20 years old. The trees thrive in the dry, sandy soils of Michigan’s northern Lower Peninsula. As a result, almost the entire global population of Kirtland’s Warblers spends its breeding seasons in Michigan, my home state. Wisconsin hosts a growing but still tiny population of Kirtland’s Warblers (as does Ontario), but no state can claim the species as part of its heritage the way Michigan can. (via Audubon)
6. Different angle on matters of light pollution: Scientists say light pollution may be contributing to "worrying" declines in insects seen in recent decades. In a UK study, artificial street lights were found to disrupt the behaviour of nocturnal moths, reducing caterpillars numbers by half. Modern LED streetlights appeared to have the biggest impact. "In a local setting we can now be quite confident that light pollution is important, but what's less clear is if we're looking at a whole landscape," said lead researcher Douglas Boyes of the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology."If insects are in trouble - as we believe they are, and have evidence to support that - perhaps we should be doing all we can to reduce these negative influences." (via The BBC)
7. Do not share with young kids: It may be time to retire the phrase “gentle giant.” Researchers in the Seychelles have filmed a giant tortoise hunting and devouring a tern chick in a single gulp. The scientists involved in the discovery say it is the first time such an act has been caught on camera. Even they are shaken up. “It’s totally surprising and rather horrifying,” said Justin Gerlach, an island ecologist at Peterhouse, Cambridge in England. “The tortoise is deliberately pursuing this bird and kills it, and then eats it. So yeah, it’s hunting.” Giant tortoises, now found only in the Seychelles and the Galápagos Islands, were believed to be herbivorous. In fact, their vegetarian diets are thought to have shaped their ecosystems, similar to elephants or bison. (via The New York Times)
8. Budding birders are flocking to nominate their favourite feathered friends for Guardian/BirdLife Australia’s 2021 Bird of the Year. “This is done kind of for fun. But it also demonstrates how connected so many of us are to our birds.”Sean Dooley from BirdLife Australia. There is a great diversity among the nominations received so far. From exotic and colorful nominations to less glamorous birds to the glorious little ones that are common and fly under the radar. This year there will be a special focus in the shortlist on the birds many of us are likely to see in lockdown in our backyards and while out for exercise, as well as a few endangered species specially selected by BirdLife Australia to draw attention to their plight. (via The Guardian)
9. Every April, like clockwork, hundreds of Caspian Terns descend upon an abandoned concrete factory in West Seattle and nest on its flat, sandy roof. Ordinarily the birds raise their chicks on this faux beach in relative peace. But not this year. On June 28, as temperatures broke records across the Pacific Northwest, scores of tern chicks leapt from the roof in a desperate search for relief from the heat. “A lot of them ended up on the ground with broken bones, and their feet were burning from the concrete,” says Kersti Muul, a conservation scientist with Seattle Audubon. The temperature that day was 108 degrees Fahrenheit; closer to the pavement, it may have spiked to 145 degrees. (via Audubon)
10. Seems like there might have been a better way: Two juvenile ospreys were taken from their nest on a light pole at a park in Calvert County, Md., and euthanized, causing a stir among local wildlife enthusiasts and birders. County officials said they followed all protocols and federal laws protecting birds in removing the young ospreys from the pole to replace a light fixture on it at Cove Point Park in Lusby, but that is little comfort to local wildlife rehabilitation experts and birders. Supporters of the ospreys said officials should have consulted a wildlife sanctuary to take the birds or relocate them rather than kill them. Birders said the animals were about to fledge from their nest and appeared to be perfectly healthy, but a federal wildlife official said the ospreys weren’t close to fledging. (via The Washington Post)
11. BNI Book Review of the Week: Hummingbirds, whose psychedelic feathers cover even more remarkable physiological adaptations, are dying out at alarming rates owing to climate change, but humans have long had a deadly fascination with these startling creatures. For beauty is only half the hummingbird story. Their impact is doubled somehow by the minuscule size of the creatures. How could anything so small, you wonder, embody so much life force? Even in ordinary flight the wings beat at 80 times a second, and in certain display modes this can rise to 200. The old name — ‘humbird’ — better expresses the electric fizz which those limbs create. However this lifestyle comes at a cost. The birds are famously aggressive and fight among themselves for food resources, which is a reflection of a life passed permanently on the edge of starvation. A good place to begin to understand the birds’ dramatic pleasures is with this Jonn Dunn’s entertaining book The Glitter in the Green: In Search of Hummingbirds. (via New York Review, The Spectator)
12. Fun post from “Asking Amy”: The other evening, I was early for a meeting and found myself lounging around our village school’s playground — basically, swinging aimlessly and without real commitment on the small swing set. My twirling gave way as I realized that I was being watched. A small flock of pigeons was perched up on the most perch-able and highest point in town — the upper roof of our church. On their own avian schedule, they would take off as a flock and wheel over my head — flying low — before circling back to the church roof. I was on the verge of being swallowed up in fear by my memories of that awful schoolyard scene from The Birds, when I realized that these birds are more or less old friends. The flock belongs to my brother-in-law Tim Gallagher, who lives about 100 yards away from the old church. They are a gorgeous sight as they wheel around overhead, circling the schoolyard. The silver undersides of their wings flash in the sun. (via Asking Amy)
Bird Photo of the Week
Photo by Hap Ellis, Eastern Phoebe.
Bird Videos of the Week
By Cornell Lab of Ornithology, “Two Years of Black Birders Week”.
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Barred Owl Nest.
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Energetic California Condor Chick.