1. Let's start with a very cool video on bird illustration at the Cornell Lab: Jillian Ditner lightly pencils in a circle for a head and sketches the eye. She places the beak, wing and tail. Just shapes at first, gradually a Cape May warbler emerges. “I’m always paying attention to the posture and the angle of the body when I’m drawing,” said Ditner, a nature illustrator with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. “You can see that from the tip of the tail to the bill, the whole bird is on a bit of a forward lean. Capturing that is going to get the dynamic part of that pose to come through.” Once she has the proportions perfect, she adds detail with a sharp pencil before layering in color in watercolor. Getting the eye just right comes toward the end. (via Cornell Chronicle)
2. Jared Diamond and the Golden-fronted Bowerbird: During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, opulent hats adorned with exotic bird feathers became a major trend in American and European fashion. But the lucrative plume trade came at an enormous ecological cost, with many fearing that overhunting would drive numerous bird species to extinction. The golden-fronted bowerbird was one such threatened species. Previously known from only four skins found in a Paris feather shop in 1895, this New Guinea bird, which boasts a brilliant crest atop its head, was presumed for nearly a century to be a relic — and a victim — of Victorian fashion sensibilities. These specimens were proof of the birds’ existence, but other than being brought to France by Dutch Indie East plume traders by way of New Guinean hunters, little else about its origin was certain. (via UCLA)
By Hap Ellis, Looking for Snowy Owls - Parker River NWR, Newburyport, MA.
What it takes ...if you are looking for Snowies - scanning miles of frozen landscape in frigid temps searching for this illusive Arctic owl.
3. Enter H5N9 - should you be worried?: In late January, U.S. health officials announced that a new strain of avian flu, H5N9, was discovered on a duck farm in Merced County, California. They quarantined the farm, and destroyed nearly 120,000 birds. Disclosure of this new strain comes amid rising concern about the earlier strain, H5N1, which first appeared in the U.S. early last year. That outbreak has infected dairy cows and poultry farms around the country, causing thousands of animals to be killed. It continues to spread. The good news is that there have been fewer than 100 cases in humans around the world, with one death. The cases have primarily occurred among workers exposed to infected animals. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says no cases of bird flu have yet been passed from person to person in the U.S. (via Berkeley Public Health)
4. And then there is the H5N1 variant known as the D1.1 genotype: A variant of H5N1 bird flu that has circulated widely in wild birds — and in several instances led to severe illness in humans — has turned up in dairy cattle for the first time. The findings were relayed in a short update from the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Wednesday which traced the new variant back to dairy herds in Nevada. While the implications aren't entirely clear, scientists say it's a concerning development that could mark a new chapter in the outbreak. The news comes at a time when a pause in routine communication from federal health agencies has made it hard to discern exactly what's going on. (via National Public Radio)
5. How the L.A. fires are affecting birds, snakes and fish: On January 23, dozens of biologists laden with electrified backpacks, nets and buckets marched into the smoldering moonscape that the Palisades Fire had created in the Santa Monica Mountains. A rescue mission was afoot, with no time to waste—rain was coming. While moisture would help quell the fires that had been burning for weeks, water flowing over denuded slopes would wash toxic ash into Topanga Creek, suffocating much of the life within. This waterway was home to precious steelhead trout, the genetically unique southern population that persists in only a few creeks in Southern California—hence this massive and heroic deployment by the Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, California State Parks and others. (via Smithsonian)
6. Daily Kos highlights the amazing Skagit Valley (WA): My younger daughter and I have now spent several weekend days visiting the area in Skagit County, Washington near La Conner, especially Fir Island Farm Reserve on Puget Sound. The birds have been fantastic, but often too distant for the best photography. I have though never seen as lage assemblages other than at Union Bay on Lake Washington. The numbers of ducks, Bald Eagles, Trumpeter Swans, and Snow Geese were often difficult to even estimate, with the geese probably close to a thousand birds. Our first trip to the area was in September of 2023. During our first visit to Fir Island we spotted a Greater Yellowlegs, numerous Gulls and a Great Blue Heron capturing a Starry Flounder. The Tide was low. We went in to La Conner for lunch and, as luck would have it, spotted a Cooper’s Hawk across the street where we parked! (via Daily Kos)
By Hap Ellis, Snowy Owl - Parker River NWR, Newburyport, MA.
Sometimes all you get and see is a distant owl, too far for anything other than a confirmatory pic.
7. From Antarctica, "...(may be) the oldest modern bird ever found": Scientists in Antarctica have discovered what may be the oldest modern bird ever found. The 69 million-year-old fossil could finally put a longstanding debate about the origin of modern birds to rest. The nearly complete skull belongs to Vegavis iaai, a waterfowl species believed to be the ancient relative of modern-day ducks and geese. The species lived at the same time as dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus rex and may have survived the end-Cretaceous mass extinction, the new study suggests. Study co-author Julia Clarke, a paleontologist at the University of Texas, Austin reported the first V. iaai fossil found on Vega Island in Antarctica in 1992. But not everyone was convinced as scientists were missing a key piece of the puzzle — the creature's skull. (via Live Science)
8. "Any modern biologist would"... say what? Read on: Anyone who has watched a rooster stalking around a farmyard might agree that there is something very dinosaur-like about birds. That may come as no surprise, given that birds are dinosaurs. But in terms of classification, this raises a question: Since dinosaurs are reptiles, does that mean that birds are reptiles, too? "I would say that any modern biologist would, or should, say that birds are reptiles," Martin Stervander, an evolutionary biologist and senior curator of birds at National Museums Scotland, told Live Science. It wasn't always this way. (via Live Science)
9. 30,000 cranes - French birders happy; local farmers not so much: The Lac du Der was once just a passing glimpse for hundreds of thousands of cranes flying from Scandinavia in search of sunshine, but with global warming the French reservoir has become an attractive winter retreat. Tens of thousands of the majestic birds now spend Europe's coldest months around the 48 square kilometre (19 square mile) expanse of water south of France's champagne capital of Reims. Each year, the number increases and, every dawn, clouds of thousands of birds rise up to fly off in search of food in nearby fields. (via SW Iowa News)
By Kienan Reilly, Snowy Owl - Parker River NWR, Newburyport, MA (Macaulay Library).
Sometimes the owls can be closer as is this one photographed by Kienan Reilly at Parker River NWR 2 days later.
10. Troubling news from Nantucket: For those who walk Nantucket's beaches during the winter, the sight of numerous dead birds littering the sand around the island has been troubling and led to speculation that avian flu might be the culprit. Bird deaths are relatively common during the winter months, and it's not yet clear if the number of mortalities being seen around Nantucket exceeds what is normal for this time of year on the island. But the uptick in the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) H5N1 virus - which is now "widespread" across Massachusetts according to state agencies - has led island health officials and wildlife advocates to urge the public to take precautions, and seek answers despite the challenges of testing dead birds discovered on Nantucket for the disease. (via Nantucket Current)
11. Happier story from Nantucket's neighbor: Vineyarders say a photo of two adult bald eagles on Lagoon Pond underscores their hopes for more nesting pairs of the iconic bird on the Island, and shows local birders reaping the benefits of decades of conservation efforts. The photo, taken by Vineyarder Mara Flanagan, shows the birds on a frozen portion of Lagoon Pond, with one of them preying upon an unlucky duck. Flanagan’s photo doesn’t offer clues as to whether the duo are a nesting pair, local birders say. But avian enthusiasts have told The Times that the photo comes as the birds are more common on-Island in recent years. Steve Allen has led weekly summer bird tours for Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary for the past 25 years. (via Martha’s Vineyard Times)
12. Asian Openbills creating a bit of buzz: Mass sightings in Singapore of the Asian openbill stork – a bird typically found foraging in the rice fields of countries in the region such as Thailand – have sparked a buzz among the local birding community in the past week. Known for its greyish-white plumage and black tail feathers, the birds were seen at Kranji Marsh and Tampines North on Jan 31, and Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve on Feb 1. Updates have flooded social media platforms such as Facebook, with bird enthusiasts from across the island sharing photographs, videos and real-time information about the sightings. (via Strait Times)
13. "Wings of the Gods" - a new book from Oxford University Press: The idea of writing about birds in world religions started with an argument about turkeys. Petra Gardella and Laurence Krute, then both professors at Manhattanville University—Gardella in religion and Krute in anthropology—cotaught a class on Native American religions. “We were in class, and I happened to share a story I had heard about turkeys attacking cars and bikes in Brookline, Massachusetts,” Gardella says. “I thought a big turkey would come almost up to your chest, but Larry is a birder and said turkeys were much smaller. He ended up taking me birding in 2008, and that’s really when we began to talk about the significance of birds.” (via U.S. Catholic)
(PPF-Pictures from Friends) Phil Edmundson - Snowy Owl - Duxbury, MA.
And sometimes you get lucky and they are "right there" as was this one.
14. And then 2 new books on birds highlighted in this podcast review by NPR: The authors of two nonfiction books say they were moved to change the world after finding inspiration in nature. First, Robin Wall Kimmerer's book The Serviceberry explores themes including economies of abundance and reciprocity in the natural world – similar to those addressed in her hit book Braiding Sweetgrass. In today's episode, Kimmerer joins NPR's Ari Shapiro for a conversation that touches on biomimicry, little free libraries, and what nature can teach us about human economies. Then, we hear from author Trish O'Kane. She says she didn't pay much attention to nature until Hurricane Katrina destroyed her home. Shortly after, she heard the call of a red cardinal, which launched her interests in ornithology and education. Her memoir Birding to Change the World draws connections between the world of birds and the author's own political activism. (via National Public Radio)
15. If you live in Maryland, you might wonder...: In recent summers on Maryland’s “tern raft,” a man-made conservation platform that serves as habitat for state-endangered colonial nesting waterbirds, scientists found a common tern with a distinctive orange tag on its leg. The tag indicated that Argentinian researchers had banded the tern in the winter at Punta Rasa, a coastal area just south of Buenos Aires. That means this common tern—and at least five others there with similar tags—traveled some 5,000 miles between summers spent in waters of Worcester County’s coastal bays and winters deep in the southern hemisphere. Maryland, especially the coastal areas along the Chesapeake Bay, attracts many migrating northern birds during the winter, but that migratory pull goes in both directions. (via Maryland Department of Natural Resources)
16. Finally, check out the eBird stats for the month of January: The new year kicked off with an incredible month of eBirding, showcasing the power of the global birding community and participatory science! Over 128 thousand eBirders contributed 2 million checklists with 24.1 million bird observations in January. But it didn't stop there-over 2 million photos and 37 thousand sound recordings were added to the Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab. (via eBird)
Bird Videos of the Week
Video by A Shot of Wildlife, “Things you need to know about WRENS!”.
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Tropical hummingbirds.
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Royal Albatross Cam.