1. Let’s start with a great article from “Living Bird” on hunting Great Gray Owls: Perhaps no species of owl is as superbly adapted for hunting in snow as the Great Gray. Found throughout the boreal forests of the Northern Hemisphere, Great Gray Owls dine primarily on small mouselike rodents called voles. In winter, voles retreat to tunnels deep under the snow—but that doesn’t stop Great Grays. Hunting from an exposed perch, an owl listens intently for its target, then swoops down from above, punching through the crust of snow with its long, powerful legs. Able to reach prey almost 18 inches below the surface of the snow, Great Gray Owls have been known to penetrate snow crusts thick enough to support a 175-pound person.
What hasn’t been clear, despite decades of research about Great Gray Owls, is how they do it—how do Great Grays hunt prey animals no longer than a ballpoint pen, which they can’t see, using only faint burrowing sounds more than a foot under the snow to guide them in plunging strikes with surgical precision? (via Living Bird Magazine)
2. A fun look back on Flaco’s first year of freedom in New York: It started with a brazen act in the heart of Manhattan. After dusk on a frosty evening at the Central Park Zoo, someone shredded the mesh on an enclosure that was home to a Eurasian eagle-owl named Flaco. Before long, Flaco was spotted a few blocks away on Fifth Avenue. Nobody knew where this bird with fiery orange eyes had come from, and soon he was off to a tree by the Pulitzer Fountain, outside the Plaza Hotel. A tourist with wings. Call it an escape, a release, a departure, a crime — Flaco was free. Could he fend for himself after a lifetime in captivity? A year later, the answer is definitely yes. He has spent most of his time in Central Park, though he has wandered all over Manhattan, peering into apartment windows with his striking eyes. (via The New York Times)
3. The Birdsong Project is a GRAMMY winner: We are proud to celebrate official GRAMMY Award Winner for Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package, For The Birds: The Birdsong Project. Congratulations to Jeri and John Heiden of SMOG Design, GRAMMY winners and designers behind this one-of-a-kind boxed set; to co-creators Randall Poster and Rebecca Reagan; and to the massive flock of people involved in bringing The Birdsong Project to life. The Birdsong Project has been a historic and unprecedented outpouring of creativity by more than 220 music artists, actors, literary figures, and visual artists, all coming together to celebrate the joy birds bring to our lives and elevate the message they have for us about the environmental threats we all face. (via Audubon)
4. Audubon name takes another hit: After 121 years of environmental advocacy, the group formerly known as Portland Audubon is changing its name to the “Bird Alliance of Oregon.” The conservation group took its original name from John James Audubon, the American artist, adventurer and naturalist best known for the book “The Birds of America,” published in 1827. That work includes 435 stunning, life-sized watercolors of birds, and original copies are now sold for as much as $7 million. But Audubon was also a slaveholder who criticized the abolitionist movement, saying the British had “acted imprudently and too precipitously” in emancipating people. (via Oregon Public Broadcasting)
5. And then there is the Madison (WI) chapter’s misadventures with changing names: The Madison-based chapter of one of the oldest conservation groups in the country has a new name — again. The Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance (formerly Badgerland Bird Alliance, formerly Madison Audubon, formerly Madison Bird Club) announced the new name last week after going by Badgerland Bird Alliance for only a few months. While disagreements with the Waukesha-based group Badgerland Birding prompted the latest change, the search for a new name began over three years ago. The Madison Bird club was founded in 1935 and adopted the moniker Madison Audubon in 1949 as a chapter of the National Audubon Society. In recent years, several chapters of the national organization have changed their names over concerns about John James Audubon’s legacy. Audubon wrote "Birds of America," a foundational text of bird conservation — but he also bought and sold enslaved people and opposed emancipation. (via Madison Magazine)
6. Rhode Island birders symposium: The Eastern Towhee is a sparrow that doesn’t look like a typical sparrow. With its ink-black hood and sepia sides, the male especially stands out in the landscape. But it’s getting harder to spot the towhee or hear its distinctive “chewink” calls in Rhode Island and elsewhere across its range in the eastern half of the country. The bird’s numbers have plummeted by half in the last 50 years or so. It’s an all-too-familiar story playing out with countless species in the avian world. Over the same time period, North America has lost nearly 3 billion birds – 30% of the total population. It was against this backdrop that 200 people came out to Newport on Sunday for the Audubon Society of Rhode Island’s second annual Birds Across New England symposium. (via The Providence Journal)
7. “Remarkably high” – Interesting Adirondack winter waterfowl count: The final figures are in for the Region 7 Waterfowl Count and with all the open water during the count, I think it was remarkably high. The coordinators did an excellent job getting many volunteers together to cover many areas during the count as well as doing count areas themselves. [The] areas covered were Lake Champlain, Schroon Lake, Tupper Lake, Long Lake, Raquette Lake, Newcomb, Inlet, Saranac Lake, Lake Placid, and any open pond in between [those areas.] Species count: Snow Geese 1,146, Canada Geese 2,012, Gadwall 4, American Widgeon 1, American Black Duck 185, Mallard 1,891, Mallard x Black 3, Northern Pintail 7, Redhead 5, Ring-necked Duck 40, Tufted Duck 1, Greater Scaup 1,960, Lesser Scaup 4,449, Not to Species 567, Harlequin 1, Long-Tailed Duck 6, Bufflehead 65, Common Goldeneye 2,845, Barrow’s Goldeneye 2, Hooded Merganser 34, Common Merganser 839, Red-Breasted Merganser 30, Common Loon 21, Horned Grebe 23, American Coot 1, and unidentified 1…for a total of 16,138 birds seen. (via Adirondack Almanack)
8. “Non-Stop” – a quick look at adult and juvenile Whimbrel migration routes from Iceland to wintering grounds in West Africa: Researchers have used GPS trackers to reveal how juvenile Whimbrel undertake their first migration to West Africa. Iceland hosts a high percentage of the world's breeding Whimbrel, with a 2016 estimate putting the number of breeding pairs in the country at 256,000. Research over the last few years has revealed that adult birds routinely undertake a non-stop journey over the ocean between Iceland and the coast of West Africa in the autumn, a distance of up to 6,000 km. Spring migration can be undertaken with a similiar non-stop flight, but the birds usually rest for a week or two in a stopover area before completing the migration. (via BirdGuides)
9. “A paradise for birding” – the “backwaters” behind the Almatti Dam on River Krishna in southern India: As November approaches South India, the backwaters of the Almatti Dam, built across River Krishna in Vijayapura and Bagalkot districts, turn into an abode for birds, making it a visual treat for birdwatchers and ornithologists. There are a range of species that arrive from different regions of the world. Some perch themselves over the green patches, while others can be spotted wading around in the water body, or just waddling about. And they come in different sizes, motley colours and varied anatomical features -- a paradise for birding. Spending their time feeding on small fish, crabs, insects or smaller creatures found in the river, these birds make the backwaters their home till March, before flying back to where they came from. (via New India Express)
10. “…one of Egypt’s most promising grassroots environmental initiatives” – a brief look at the Aswan Birding Club: While exploring the muddy wetlands along the Nile River in Aswan, the future founders of the Aswan Birding Club (ABC) shared a genuine moment of friendship that would later turn into one of Egypt’s most promising grassroots environmental initiatives. “During the tour, two of us had their legs stuck in a marsh,” Ismail Khalifa, co-founder of the ABC, tells Egyptian Streets. “Something about that incident brought us closer. We laughed and talked. Bonds were made, and the rest was history.” The idea of creating the ABC came on that bird-watching tour on 14 May, 2022, which coincided with the World Migratory Bird Day. The group decided to create a community where bird enthusiasts could share experiences and discuss everything related to the bird scene in Aswan. (via Egyptian Streets)
11. Congressional news – the Migratory Birds of the Americas Conservation Enhancements Act introduced in the House: For birds, political boundaries are for the birds, which is precisely why the Migratory Birds of the Americas Conservation Enhancements Act has our attention. Representatives Maria Salazar (R-FL), Rick Larsen (D-WA), Dave Joyce (R-OH) and Mary Peltola (D-AK) have introduced the bipartisan bill torenew the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act, which conserves habitat for America’s birds, much of it outside the country. It’s a little known program that’s doing good things. Since 2002, it has supported 717 projects in 43 countries. (via Environment America)
12. Maybe! Lasers, crop damage and birds: Automated laser beams designed to be a nonlethal way to stop birds from damaging crops might be improved to reduce the chance of retinal damage. “Lasers are being promoted as one of the safer deterrents,” said TWS member Morgan Chaney, a PhD candidate at Purdue University, at a presentation at The Wildlife Society’s 2023 Annual Conference in Louisville. But it’s unclear how much birds’ eyes are expose to the lasers. Chaney is currently developing a model to better predict this, in order to determine ways to improve the safety of the devices. (via The Wildlife Society)
13. So that’s why they sing! (Didn’t we know this?): Why birds sing intensely in a dawn chorus during the early morning has long been debated. Evidence gathered from observing birds in the wild offers a fresh perspective on what might drive this phenomenon. Although it is widely recognized that solitude can boost artistic production, few people would have guessed that this might apply to animals, too. Writing in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Schlicht et al.1 support this idea by showing that the intense dawn chorus of male birds can be explained by the absence of female partners. (via Nature)
14. A nice piece on ducks from a wildlife writer on Martha’s Vineyard: The late, great Vern Laux, perhaps the best birder ever to trespass his way across the Vineyard, had little patience with ducks. Oh, he’d add them to the day’s checklist. But if a distant or otherwise problematic duck defied identification for more than a few seconds, Vern would say, “Ah, who cares? It’s just a duck!” And it was on to something more interesting. I understand Vern’s perspective, and indeed, for many years, I have to admit, I shared it. Ducks are large birds, and generally sedate ones; they spend a good portion of their existence bobbing on the water with the vigor of lobster pot buoys. For a birder with even a modicum of experience, the vast majority of ducks seen in the field are instantly identifiable. So watching ducks can generate all the excitement of selecting vegetables from the frozen foods case, and it’s natural for skilled birders to prefer groups like sparrows, shorebirds, and flycatchers, which are active and challenging. (via Martha’s Vineyard Times)
15. A most unusual tourist shows up in southern Australia: A King Penguin has caused a stir following its shock discovery in southern Australia. The bird was recently found by a group of birders undertaking a survey on a beach in the Coorong area of South Australia. King Penguin breeds on subantarctic islands at the northern reaches of Antarctica and is a major vagrant to the Australian mainland, with this only the third national record – and the first since 2004. As a result, the birders – a group from Friends of Shorebirds South East – were left in shock, and speculated that the penguin had arrived to moult. (via BirdGuides)
16. Finally, next weekend is the Great Backyard Bird Count 2024: The annual Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) is Friday, February 16 through Monday, February 19. The GBBC was one of the first online projects to collect information on wild birds and was also instrumental in the creation of eBird back in 2002. Now there are more ways than ever to participate and share your love of birds! If you’re new to birding, participate with Merlin: beginning bird admirers can participate in the GBBC using Merlin Bird ID—simply identify birds and save them with the app anytime February 16-19. If you’re already eBirding, participate with eBird: go birding for at least 15 minutes anytime February 16-19, count all the birds you see or hear, and enter your observations via the GBBC website or eBird Mobile app. If you haven’t used eBird since the last GBBC, take the free eBird Essentials course for a refresher. (via eBird)
Bird Videos of the Week
Video by CBC News, “How do birds learn to build nests? And what does it mean for us?
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Albatross Cam.
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Test Bird ID Skills.