1. “If you see a little bird in your garden or in the park during the autumn and you know that it is heading to southern Europe or Africa, it is fascinating to think about why it is taking a break,” (writes) Arne Hegemann, a biologist at Lund University in Sweden…She and her colleagues have new research into why: Researchers once thought that when birds took breaks on long migration routes, they were stopping to build up their fat reserves for the rest of their journey. New research, however, suggests another reason: They’re refreshing their immune systems. In a study published in Biology Letters, researchers found that migratory birds boost their immune systems during breaks from marathon flights. In fall 2021, they studied common redstart, chaffinch and dunnock on Helgoland, an island off the German coast along the North Sea that is a popular stopover for birds on the move each autumn. (via The Washington Post)
2. BirdCast, NEXRAD, Lights Out - A great overview of how scientists are using machine learning to forecast bird migration: With chatbots like ChatGPT making a splash, machine learning is playing an increasingly prominent role in our lives. For many of us, it's been a mixed bag. Machine learning is also changing many fields that may seem surprising. One example is my discipline, ornithology—the study of birds. It isn't just solving some of the biggest challenges associated with studying bird migration; more broadly, machine learning is expanding the ways in which people engage with birds. As spring migration picks up, here's a look at how machine learning is influencing ways to research birds and, ultimately, to protect them. (via Phys Org)
3. Where to find 40,000 egg and nest specimens? If you guessed Harvard, you’d be right, as Harvard Magazine tells us in a fun article: Glossy shells of the Tinamidae in Easter egg bluish-aqua hues; the fluffy indulgence of a feathered Brant’s nest; great auk shells with their conical end (maybe to keep them rolling around in a circle. These highlights of nature exist not precariously on the ground or along rocky shores, but safely underground, along Oxford Street. Beneath the courtyard connecting the newish Northwest Laboratory with the venerable Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard’s holdings of perhaps 40,000 egg and nest specimens are shelved in maroon (okay, crimson) metal cabinets, in the care of Jeremiah Trimble, A.L.M. ’18, curatorial associate in ornithology. A lifelong birder with the ruddy complexion to match, he came to the MCZ in 2000 and, having found the perfect roosting spot, never left. (via Harvard Magazine)
4. “It would have been unheard-of”: If you need proof that climate change has altered the wildlife of the city, look no further than the black vultures soaring above Midtown Manhattan. These hulking, baldheaded scavengers have a wingspan that measures nearly five feet and have traditionally inhabited South America, Central America and the southern United States. But the black vulture seems to be here for the foreseeable future, along with 20 or 30 species that have recently expanded their ranges into New York City. As weather patterns have warped, and habitats have shrunk and food supplies diminished, the migratory patterns of birds have also changed. (via The New York Times)
5. March 20, the first day of Spring, is also World Sparrow Day! Who knew? Alas, not us here at BNI. But what better sparrow to highlight on that day than the Fox Sparrow?: March 20 was the first day of spring in North America; it was also World Sparrow Day. To celebrate, I want to highlight a sparrow that is a favorite among many birders, the Fox Sparrow (passerella iliaca). Fox Sparrows are diverse, with at least four different identifiable forms: red, sooty, slate-colored, and thick-billed. Each differs in coloration, structure, genetics, and song. For anyone who has ever seen or heard one, it is easy to understand why they are so beloved. (via Audubon)
6. Migration studies - Mapping fall migratory pathways and stopover locations in the Eastern U.S.: When the song pauses in a game of musical chairs, everyone jostles for one of the remaining seats. Bird migration today is much the same. When it’s time for a break in their biannual travels, songbirds descend to rest and refuel, searching for respite in a dwindling number of forest patches. Avian research often focuses on forests as breeding habitats, but scientists are working to understand the role that small forest patches play in migration — a vital portion of a bird’s lifecycle when you consider that some species spend as much as half the year in transit. Now, for the first time, a team of researchers from Princeton University and the University of Delaware has created a comprehensive map of migratory pathways and stopover locations in the Eastern United States. (via University of Delaware)
7. With the migratory routes some birds take, why not hop on board a ship – or two? Birds are often unexpected stowaways on ships around the world. Freighter crews have long told stories of sparrows and nightjars, owls, and herons settling on their boats’ decks, some for minutes, others for days. There’s video footage of a whole flock of starlings landing on a fishing boat in the North Sea. And after conservationists tagged a young osprey in Scotland, they watched with bemusement as the bird’s tracking signal showed its voyage to Spain involved riding on a cargo ship. The bird switched to a second vessel mid-journey before finishing the trip on its own. The phenomenon has a name: ship-assisted migration. But few researchers paid much attention to how frequently birds hitchhike on ships—at least in a systematic way—until Maurizio Sarà took a month-long research cruise in the Mediterranean. (via Popular Science)
8. Success! The re-introduction of the endangered Cinereous Vulture leads to first sighting in Bulgaria in 38 years: The Cinereous Vulture (Aegypius monachus) - also known as Black Vulture, Monk Vulture or Eurasian Black Vulture - is the largest bird of prey in Europe. Its populations in southern Europe, once abundant, have been experiencing a dramatic decline since the late 1800s. So dramatic, in fact, that by the mid-1900s, these birds had already been nowhere to be seen throughout most of their distributional range across the Old Continent. In Bulgaria, the species has been considered locally extinct since 1985. Thanks to the re-introduction initiative that was started in 2015 by three Bulgarian non-governmental organizations: the leading and oldest environmental protection NGO in Bulgaria: Green Balkans, the Fund for Wild Flora and Fauna and the Birds of Prey Protection Society, the species is now back in the country. (via EurekaAlert)
9. No bringing this raptor back (but it must have been magnificent 50,00 years ago): An ancient hulk of an eagle that once soared over Australia shares similarities with the fictional giant eagles from J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy epic "The Lord of the Rings". While the real-life giants weren't as enormous as their fictional counterparts (and almost definitely couldn't be ridden by a wizard), they were probably hefty enough to pick up hobbit-size prey with their colossal talons. The newfound species, named Gaff's powerful eagle (Dynatoaetus gaffae), was described from a collection of fossils found between 1959 and 2021 in a 56-foot-deep (17 meters) vertical cave in the state of South Australia. The bones reveal that the giant bird likely had talons measuring around 12 inches (30 centimeters) long and a wingspan of around 10 feet (3 meters), which makes it Australia's largest bird of prey on record. (via Live Science)
10. Sadly, many islands have this problem and it requires painstaking field work to eradicate it, and occasionally it seems, a Royal: Populations of rare seabirds found nowhere else but on a sub-Antarctic island have been pummelled by generations of carnivorous mice. Left unchecked, the mice are predicted to cause the local extinction of most of the species of breeding seabirds found on Marion Island within 30 years, by feeding on their eggs and chicks. To tackle the problem, South Africa, which administers the island, has launched the world’s most ambitious rodent eradication project in the hope of reversing the decline. The government has recruited the Duke of Edinburgh to be a public face of the project. (via The Times)
11. What’s not to love about Bird-Friendly Maple Syrup?: March is arguably the sweetest month of the year. All throughout Maine, sugarmakers are busy boiling maple sap into syrup. The same forests that make Maine one of the top three maple producing states also support some of the highest diversity of nesting birds in the country. In an effort to bring together Maine’s maple industry with bird conservation, Maine Audubon has partnered with Audubon Vermont, University of Maine Cooperative Extension, and the Maine Maple Producers Association to bring the Bird-Friendly Maple program to the Pine Tree State. (via Maine Audubon)
12. And then there is the importance of Bird-Friendly Coffee, as this study of bird diets in Costa Rica’s changing ecosystems highlights: A new study led by researchers at the University of Utah explores a record of birds' diets preserved in their feathers and radio tracking of their movements to find that birds eat far fewer invertebrates in coffee plantations than in forests, suggesting that the disturbance of their ecosystem significantly impacts the birds' dietary options. "Growing human ecological impact on the planet, especially via habitat loss and degradation and climate change, often impacts bird diets negatively as well," said Çağan H. Şekercioğlu, the study's lead author and an ecology and ornithology professor in the U's School of Biological Sciences. (via Science Daily)
13. What to do with “millions of incompatible male mosquitoes”? Release them! Read on to find out where and why: State and federal officials are moving forward with a plan to release millions of incompatible male mosquitoes into the East Maui wilderness in an effort to save the region's threatened and endangered forest birds. The National Park Service announced Thursday that it signed off on a Finding of No Significant Impact document following the approval of the project's environmental assessment. The campaign has been described as the last best effort to save at least a couple of species on the brink of extinction and prevent most other Hawaiian honeycreepers from eventually suffering the same fate. (via Yahoo! News)
14. And finally, two weeks ago we began with an endearing story about an injured (Sarus) crane and a villager in India who nursed it back to health. Sadly for the villager, local officials have stepped in: A rare Sarus crane has been confiscated from the Indian man who nursed it back to health from injury after the story of their bond made headlines. Officials in Uttar Pradesh moved the protected bird - featured in a recent BBC video - to a wildlife sanctuary. The farmer who found it in his field a year ago said he'd expected it to fly back to the wild - but it never did. Reports say the crane flew away from its new home after being moved but sanctuary officials deny it is missing. Local media reported it had been found by villagers who were seen feeding a crane in a video that went viral. But officials denied the reports, saying the crane remained "within the boundaries" of Samaspur bird sanctuary where it was taken. "It's not been confined to a room, but has been released in the sanctuary. It's finding food on its own, but we are also giving it wheat, bread and water," forest official Rupesh Srivastava told BBC Hindi. (via BBC)
Photo of the Week
Photo by Hap Ellis – Hooded Merganser, The Country Club, Brookline, MA.
Videos of the Week
By Badgerland Birding, “Ross’s Gull in Illinois: A Birder’s Dream Come True”.
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Manakin Cam.
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Barred Owl.