1. Four years in the outback: In humid savanna on Cape York Peninsula, February 5, 1922, a man was on the hunt with a local Indigenous guide. They had just heard their quarry calling among the tall grass – a low “oomm, oomm, oomm” – before it burst into view with a flurry of wingbeats. A loud shotgun blast, and the bird dropped to the ground. The bird was a buff-breasted button-quail, and the collector was Australian field naturalist William Rae McLennan. Later that evening he would have skinned and stuffed the bird, turning it into a museum specimen, before describing the encounter in his diary. This skin was the last of the species ever collected. A century later, we have still yet to confirm any sightings of this mysterious, native bird. I’ve spent four years searching for the buff-breasted button-quail, walking hundreds of kilometres and spending months scouring practically every locality where the species had ever been reported. All I’ve been able to find is its more common cousin: the painted button-quail. (via The Conversation)
2. Another (and better!) take on the efforts to transplant Burrowing Owls: As far as wild animals go, the western burrowing owl is a tolerant neighbor to humans. When new houses and roads are built next to the tunnels that they call home, these owls put up with the noise and carry on hunting the insects and rodents that they eat. But the owls are increasingly on a collision course with humanity. Developers are always looking for more land to build on, and in places like Southern California, that means moving into the owls’ habitats. As a result, wildlife officials working with developers are increasingly collecting and transplanting the owls to distant new areas that conservationists think will meet their needs. New research published on Thursday in the journal Animal Conservation shows it can be very effective if the birds are tricked into believing there are already other burrowing owls near the places where they are transplanted. (via The New York Times)
3. Follow-up on the year’s mega rarity: The Steller’s sea-eagle has disappeared. At the time of this writing, the bird had not been reported since January 24, when it was back in Boothbay Harbor and on Southport Island after a few days over at Pemaquid Harbor. Of course, many people are still searching for it on a daily basis. But how far from the last place it was sighted should they search? A paper published back in 2003 that reported the results of a study in which 24 Steller’s sea-eagles were tracked, with satellite transmitters, from where they were raised in and around the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia. The researchers found that the birds made their migratory movements to their wintering areas from September through December. All made stops along the way that lasted from four to twenty-four days. Once on the wintering range, the authors estimated the size of the wintering range to be up to a maximum of about 2,200 square kilometers. (via Boothbay Register)
4. More on NYC’s latest avian visitor, Rover: Visitors to Central Park’s reservoir in New York are taking in a drama filled with feathers. Its star performer, thrilling parkgoers and terrorizing gulls, is Rover, a bald eagle. The city’s birders have been tracking Rover for two years, and some point to his ongoing story as demonstrating the conservation benefits of attaching aluminum bands to the legs of threatened bird species when they are young. Rover’s arrival in the five boroughs also adds to mounting evidence of a return to urban areas by birds of prey. If Rover can make a home in and around Central Park, perhaps even more eagles will fill the city’s skies in the years ahead. (via The New York Times)
5. Peru spill update: Hand fed fish and given gentle yet rigorous baths, penguins and other sea birds are slowly regaining their strength at a Peruvian zoo after a major oil spill that claimed many of their friends. Of about 150 oil-stained birds rescued alive after the January 15 spill of some 12,000 barrels of oil, half later died. The survivors—penguins, cormorants and pelicans—are being nursed back to health and independence at the Parque de Las Leyendas zoo in Lima. With oil on their wings, birds cannot fly or feed, and they lose the insulation they need to keep warm. Even birds not directly contaminated with crude fell ill or died after eating fish that were. (via Phys Org)
6. BNI thinks this is beneath crows, but…: Crows are being recruited to pick up discarded cigarette butts from the streets and squares of a Swedish city as part of a cost-cutting drive. The wild birds carry out the task as they receive a little food for every butt that they deposit in a bespoke machine designed by a startup in Södertälje, near Stockholm. “They are wild birds taking part on a voluntary basis,” said Christian Günther-Hanssen, the founder of Corvid Cleaning, the company behind the method. Södertälje is carrying out a pilot project before potentially rolling out the operation across the city, with the health of the birds being the key consideration given the type of waste involved. (via The Guardian)
7. In case you were wondering: Several cases of “bird flu” have been detected in North Carolina and other eastern states. But what exactly is bird flu? Why is it important? Does it affect humans? What can we do about it? To answer all of these questions, we reached out to Matt Koci, a virologist and immunologist whose work focuses on host-microbe interactions in birds. Koci is a professor in NC State’s Prestage Department of Poultry Science. “Bird flu,” sometimes called “avian flu” or “avian influenza,” is essentially the slang term the media uses to differentiate influenza viruses in birds from seasonal flu viruses in people. This term can be used to refer to any one of over 140 different virus subtypes of the virus in birds. These viruses are also called highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses. (via NC State University)
8. At night, hummingbirds lower their body temperature and metabolism drastically by dropping into an energy-saving state of inactivity called torpor. Scientists from multiple universities now find there’s more than one level of torpor: shallow and deep, plus the transition stage between levels of torpor and the normal sleep state. Their study, “A Heterothermic Spectrum in Hummingbirds,” published Jan. 27 in the Journal of Experimental Biology. “There have been a few hints that this ability to fine-tune thermoregulation was possible,” said lead author Anusha Shankar, currently a Rose Postdoctoral Fellow at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. “But the studies were done under laboratory conditions, not the conditions a bird would encounter in the wild. It was really exciting to see that hummingbird torpor could be variable and flexible.” (via Cornell Chronicle)
9. Pretty cool: Nature-lovers know that there's an abundance of bird species in the world. While it may be hard to see many of these in person, artist Paulina Bartnik (aka Embirdery) immortalizes their portraits in exquisite embroidered brooches. She uses her meticulous stitching techniques to render the unique appearance of each feathered creature—from barn owls to hummingbirds. Beginning with a background of felt sheets, the artist creates a combination of short and long stitches in a variety of colors to produce a textile effect. In this way, Bartnik is able to give her brooches a sense of volume and depth. The faces of her embroidered birds feature all of their distinct markings, which make them appear incredibly real. You can purchase original embroidered brooches via Bartnik's Etsy shop and keep up to date with her latest projects by following her on Instagram. (via My Modern Met)
10. Some good news: Michigan’s duck and geese populations are soaring as receding water levels created the perfect wetland breeding conditions last year, even as most bird species struggle. Waterfowl are breeding in record numbers: A recent state study found duck populations are up 191 percent and Canada goose populations are up 21 percent from 2019. That’s thanks largely to Great Lakes water levels that have fallen since 2020 but remain above long-term averages. (Bridge Michigan)
11. More games: There I was — down to my last turn, sitting on a cache of rodents, and holding the pair of eggs needed to activate a bird of prey that I’d been hoping to slot into my forest habitat. “I will play my great horned owl, and I’ll pay for it with my army of rats,” I announced. Proudly, I drew the owl and set it on its spot on the board. Lex, my partner, laughed. “Okay, weirdo,” she said, grabbing a pencil and scorecard. I’ve always struggled with board games. If the gameplay is even remotely involved, I’ll quickly lose interest. Headier “hobby” titles like Settlers of Catan, or even a mass-audience legacy game like Monopoly, require levels of time and commitment that I find overwhelming, and I’ve seen how they can feed stressed-out competitive tendencies and otherwise kill a vibe. I’d rather listen to a record. But I’ve found myself delighted by Wingspan, the hit board game that has turned a multimillion-dollar industry on its head since its release in 2019. (via Vox)
12. If you’re headed to Scotland: Cooped up in lockdown, many of us looked to the skies and truly took note of what had been there all along but we had perhaps been too busy to fully appreciate – the flight of the birds above us, the nests in the branches and the chirping and singing of our avian acquaintances. Scotland is widely regarded as an amazing location for birdwatching, with its varied landscapes offering a rich range of ecosystems for birdlife. With this in mind, here are some of the best birding spots across the country, to mark the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch which takes place this weekend. (via The Herald)
Bird Photo of the Week
By Hap Ellis, Snowy Egret.
Bird Videos of the Week
By Vice News, “The Truth Behind ‘Birds Aren’t Real’”.
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Albatross chick!
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Albatross egg incubator.