Restoring Refuge.
Bird News Items
1. Let's start with a "groundbreaking work nearly a decade in the making": We know that birds are declining globally, but more fine-scale information on population trends is needed to guide conservation efforts. Johnston et al. used participatory data from eBird to track 14 years of population changes across the ranges of 495 birds in North and Central America and the Caribbean. Almost all species showed areas with population increases and areas with declines, often with the strongest declines occurring in areas where species were most abundant. Most species were declining overall, suggesting a worsening situation for birds. However, areas of population increase may offer refuge or point to conditions that could facilitate recover. (via Science)
2. The power of eBird - The Cornell Lab's Executive Director, Ian Owens, on the study: (It) highlights research that is special in so many ways. Our team harnessed 36+ million observations by volunteer birders to demonstrate that participatory science data can be used to generate precise details about where birds are increasing or decreasing in areas smaller than many counties in the United States. This finescale resolution will be critical for helping determine what kind of conservation interventions to use and where on the landscape to deploy them. Alison Johnston, the paper's lead author and an ecological statistician for many years at the Lab, said it best: "The 2019 Science paper told us that we have an emergency on our hands, but this new research is providing us with the tools to create an emergency response plan." This emergency response plan is more important than ever.
As highlighted in the Lab-published State of the Birds 2025 report, bird populations continue to decline and the status quo for conservation work is proving ineffective. However, thanks to this research, ...we have a powerful opportunity to employ new precision tools to help reverse these declines. As Amanda Rodewald said, "Knowledge is power. It's this kind of small-scale information across broad geographies that has been lacking and it's exactly what we need to make smart conservation decisions. These data products give us a new lens to detect and diagnose population declines and to respond to them in a way that's strategic, precise, and flexible." (via Bird News Items)
By Hap Ellis, Painted Bunting - Ellis County, TX
3. The Panama Canal - geopolitical hotspot but also a birding hotspot: “Follow me,” Nando said. “I know where it lives.” It was late morning, hot, humid and quiet. Shafts of sunlight cut through the jungle as we followed a path through the latticed shade. A few hundred yards away, gigantic cargo ships stacked with containers chugged along the Panama Canal. But that was another world. Where we were walking was a strip of loamy-smelling rainforest that lines the canal banks and serves as home to hundreds of species of birds. We were looking for a specific one. At an overgrown spot in the forest that to me looked like any other, Nando, our guide, stopped. A plump little streak-chested antpitta fluttered down onto a stick, a few feet away. I stood, awe-struck, as man and bird softly called back and forth. (via The New York Times)
4. The power - and the promise - of bioacoustics technology: Scientists have found a new way to track forest birds using thousands of microphones, helping them better protect both wildlife and forests in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains. The research, published today in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, demonstrates how emerging bioacoustic technology can enhance wildlife monitoring and forest management. Researchers at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics analyzed more than 700,000 hours of bird sounds recorded across California’s Sierra Nevada. The team deployed microphones at 1,600 sites spanning approximately 6 M acres of Sierra Nevada forest to track 10 important bird species, including owls and woodpeckers, that can tell us about the forest’s health. (via Cornell Lab of Ornithology)
5. No time like the present - Piping Plovers already on nests in Maine: The Coastal Birds Project 2025 season is already in full swing and Piping Plovers are busy foraging along the shoreline, making scrapes in the sand, and starting their nests all up and down the Maine coast. Maine Audubon’s Coastal Birds crew is similarly hard at work, recording newly-arrived plovers, searching for and monitoring nests, and putting up stake and twine fencing, exclosures, and educational signage to protect these tough little birds. To date, we have recorded 122 pairs of plovers and 24 nest attempts on Maine beaches, which is a great sign for a potentially productive breeding season! (via Maine Audubon)
6. So we don't study Warbling Vireos so much?: Silas Fischer, a PhD candidate at the University of Toledo, has been studying Gray Vireos since they were an undergraduate. Gray Vireos, songbirds of the arid woodlands of the Southwest, are very, well, gray, often described in field guides with phrases like “one of North America’s most nondescript birds.” “I can’t think those [labels] would inspire people to want to go out and see that bird or study it,” says Fischer, who’s noticed how birders and scientists alike seem more drawn to “flashy, sexy warblers.” Fischer wondered whether these aesthetic biases influenced what birds ornithologists chose to study. And after analyzing the subjects of more than 27,000 ornithology papers published over five and a half decades, they and their colleagues have determined that the answer is yes—the higher a bird ranks for characteristics humans find beautiful, the more likely it is to be the subject of scientific research. (via Audubon)
By Hap Ellis, Barred Owl - Ellis County, TX.
7. Don't mess with cavity-nesting females: "Get off my lawn!" Funny as a meme but maybe scary in real life, this short sentence is synonymous with an elderly man shouting at kids whose bikes have gotten too close to a well-manicured front yard. But it could just as well represent a female bird, aggressively chasing whatever intruder gets too close to her nest. Not any female bird, though. An international team of researchers led by Sara Lipshutz, assistant professor of Biology at Duke University, found that female birds who can only nest in cavities are far more aggressive than those who don't have this restriction on their nesting real estate. Called obligate secondary cavity nesters, these are species that build their nests in pre-existing cavities in tree trunks, fence posts or rocky outcrops. "They can't excavate that cavity themselves, and they can't just build a nest anywhere," explained Lipshutz. "They have to find a hole in a tree, and this is the only way they can reproduce.” (via Phys Org)
8. A complete and dynamic tree of birds - a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences: In the Northern Hemisphere, birds of many a feather are currently streaming northward, from tropical wintering grounds to summer feeding and breeding areas. These avian migrators may be blissfully unaware of the minutiae of scientific publication, but ornithologists are atwitter with a new paper detailing the evolutionary relationships between every known bird species. The authors of the new study in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences constructed an evolutionary tree for all birds using data on more than 9,200 species previously published in hundreds of studies between 1990 and 2024. They merged this information with curated data on an additional 1,000 species to build an open database that reveals how every known species of bird is related through evolutionary time—and that researchers can share and update with new findings. (via Nautilus)
9. Hopefully drones will be the answer: South Korea will begin deploying drones at airports in the first half of this year to help prevent bird strikes, part of an overhaul of aviation safety that was announced four months after the deadliest aviation disaster in the country. The government also said it aimed to rebuild some crucial infrastructure at six airports by the end of the year, devise measures to combat pilot fatigue, and increase the number of safety supervisors. On Dec. 29, the pilots of Jeju Air Flight 2216 declared “Mayday” and told air traffic controllers there had been a bird strike as the plane was descending into Muan International Airport in the country’s southwest. After making a sharp turn, the jet landed on its belly, slid down the runway and rammed into a concrete barrier, exploding into a fireball that killed 179 of the 181 people on board. (via The New York Times)
By Hap Ellis, Grasshopper Sparrow - Ellis County, TX.
10. Lights out Texas! And the importance of maps: The rufa red knot is carried by the wind, its wings spread as it soars above the night skies of Texas. Suddenly, the tiny bird notices a series of bright lights. Curious, it flies downward in the light’s direction. As it gets closer, however, the light turns off. Confused but unbothered, the tireless bird turns upward and resumes its long migratory journey. What this rufa red knot doesn’t realize is that it just survived a very close call. Those bright lights came from a building with glass windows. Flying into those windows would likely have been fatal for a tiny bird flying at high-speed. Defenders of Wildlife’s Center for Conservation Innovation has harnessed the power of maps to use alongside our knowledge of imperiled bird species to dive into which areas of Texas are most critical for bird conservation efforts, and how everyday citizens like you can help protect endangered birds like the rufa red knot. (via Defenders of Wildlife)
11. Some basic "how to" tips from Scientific American on experiencing bird migration: The spectacle of spring bird migration is in full swing, and you can get in on the action. The spring migration of birds from their southern wintering grounds to their breeding grounds in the North is about to reach a fever pitch. Over the next few weeks, most of the U.S. is heading into peak migration, when hundreds of millions of birds can wing their way across the sky in a single night on a mission to claim a prime bit of real estate, attract a suitable mate and get to work raising the next generation. For bird-watchers, this is the most thrilling time of the year. (via Scientific American)
12. This study looks at the effects of microplastics on seabirds, specifically: Northern Fulmars: New research shows that microplastics can harm birds in much the same way they harm humans, possibly threatening these species’ survival and their ecosystems. In a new study published in the journal Environmental Pollution, researchers from UC Santa Cruz and the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance (SDZWA) found that plastic swallowed by northern fulmars— seabirds found in the North Atlantic and North Pacific Oceans—can leach chemicals inside the birds’ stomachs that interfere with their hormones. This is the second study from a collaboration between UC Santa Cruz and SDZWA to reveal how plastic exposure may cause endocrine disruption in wild seabirds. (via Technology Networks)
* Don't know Northern Fulmars? Cornell Lab's Birds of the World can help: Northern Fulmar - Fulmarus glacialis (via Birds of the World)
By Hap Ellis, Barn Swallows - Ellis County, TX.
13. For (older) photographers among us a tip from a sedentary photographer (and a favorite bird columnist): Full confession, I am a boudoir bird photographer. Birding on Cape Cod is certainly one of the top ten outdoor activities on Cape Cod. But, after years of lugging around a nine-pound lens on a three-pound camera with a six-pound tripod over hill and dale looking for bird portraits, my infrastructure is wearing out. Just outside my bedroom window, Mother Nature sends along all kinds of photo possibilities, no lugging required. The only tedious part of photographing through windows, keeping them squeaky clean. A well-positioned bird feeder and nearby dormant lilac shrub, provide a winter full of viewing and photo opportunities, think cardinals in a snowstorm. (via Cape Cod Times)
14. For backyard birders, the NYT's Wirecutter chimes in with best small feeders: You may not know the difference between a bunting and a bobolink yet, but you do know when something has swung by your bird feeder just from the carnage left behind: the drained seed bin, the mess of hulls, the unimaginable spread of poop. Some people have time to camp out with a pair of binoculars to spy on their feathered friends, but for backyard birders, there’s the smart bird feeder. These devices entice the pretty birdies with the promise of food but also contain a small wireless camera that gives you an up-close view of live and recorded visits. Some even have bird-recognition technology that can tag the types of species that appear. It’s like having your own private on-demand nature channel. (via The New York Times: Wirecutter)
15. Let's wrap up this week with the tale of Peter the racing-turned-hitchhiking pigeon: On March 24, Kristina Penn, operations coordinator with Parks Canada, along with other Parks staff, found a pigeon on Sable Island National Park Reserve, a remote Nova Scotian island 290 km from the mainland. There is no native pigeon population on Sable Island, so sightings are rare—especially if the pigeon is from Spain. Staff spotted the bird near a Parks Canada building. After a few rainy days, they assumed it was seeking shelter from the weather. Following Sable Island policy, they left the bird alone. Upon closer inspection, however, this pigeon warranted an exception. “We see wild animals that are injured on Sable Island on an ongoing basis and we don’t interfere with them,” says Penn. ”But, with this pigeon, I noticed that he had tags around his ankles.” The tags listed the pigeon’s identification number and birth year, which Penn’s online search linked to a non-profit comprised of national pigeon racing member associations. From there, she traced the pigeon further to a federation from the Spanish Balearic Islands. (via Cottage Life)
Bird Videos of the Week
Video by Wildlife World, “Cuckoo Bird Sounds and Call in Spring”.
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Cracked Egg!
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Horned Owl Cam.