1. Magic and mystery of migration - this is happening all over the country as birders find returning migrants: It was the moment Chicago’s birding community has been waiting for. The piping plovers are back at Montrose Beach Dune. Mark Kolasa, who ventures to the dune nearly every day, made the first sighting of what’s now confirmed to be Rose, one half of Chicago’s beloved piping plover duo. “It was really cold and really windy. There was no one out,” Kolasa recalled. Around 7:30 a.m., he spotted “this little thing” in the sand and his heart leapt. It was a plover. Kolasa knew to look for a colored band on the bird’s leg. Through his binoculars, it appeared to be blue, Rose’s color. (via WTTW News)
2. “Who knew “Instagramable” is a word and that social media has an unlikely favorite bird: Often, the more unique or unusual an animal looks, the more people respond to it. With its broad, hooked beak and wide eyes, the frogmouth — a nocturnal bird that is sometimes mistaken for an owl — is a striking sight. So much so that it has been crowned the “most Instagrammable bird” by researchers in Germany who examined how social media users interacted with some of the most popular bird photography accounts on Instagram. The study, released last week, examined more than 27,000 photos of birds across nine Instagram accounts with a combined following of nearly 3.5 million users. It was all in the service, the researchers said, of answering one simple question: “What makes a great bird photo?” (via San Diego Zoo, The New York Times, Sage Publishing)
3. With Spring here, a fun look at bird songs from one of the Cornell Lab’s top birders: Depending on where you live, you may be waking up to a chorus of bird songs. Spring's the season when migrating birds arrive at their summer destinations and also when male birds sing to attract their mates. But how do you know which birds you're hearing? Host Robin Young talks to Jessie Barry, program manager at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, about the birds to listen for in various regions and what makes them unique. (via WBUR News)
4. Come on, man!: A 36-year-old Guyanese resident was arrested and charged with allegedly smuggling 35 live finches in hair curlers from Guyana for "singing contests" in New York City, according to a complaint from the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York. Kevin Andre McKenzie flew to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on Monday, where Customs and Border Protection officers pulled him aside for an examination and found the birds. He was charged with unlawfully importing the finches. The tiny finches were stuffed inside hair rollers sealed with perforated netting. Authorities said they were attached to the inside of McKenzie's jacket as well as the top of his shoes. (via CNN)
5. Let’s hope so: Projecting white noise in the direction of oncoming birds could stop them from colliding with buildings or wind turbines. Birds keep their heads down to streamline their bodies as they fly, says John Swaddle at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. So, visual cues may not be enough to warn them of oncoming structures. “Birds fly a bit like texting while driving,” says Swaddle. He and his team used white noise at around 70 decibels – about as loud as a vacuum cleaner – to try to get their attention when they are near tall structures. “These acoustic stimuli are like someone honking at them, making them more aware of their surroundings,” he says. (via New Scientist)
6. Smart birds: Arizona State University biologist Kevin McGraw typically studies the way animals, including birds, use color as a way to communicate. But he couldn’t resist the avian mystery just outside his office door. After hearing about the birds perching on campus buildings year after year, he decided to enlist the help of some undergraduate students to figure out what they were up to. Rosy-faced lovebirds are a type of parrot native to the arid parts of southwest Africa, like Namibia’s Namib Desert. Probably due to the pet trade, it became established in Phoenix, Arizona, around 35 years ago. In their native range, they usually stick to natural areas, but in Phoenix, they seem to prefer urban areas like the ASU campus. (via Scientific American)
7. Magic and mystery of migration – take two: A cuckoo bird named PJ just broke an impressive record: He traveled more than 50,000 miles (80,000 kilometers) in the past five years while migrating to and from the U.K. Common cuckoos (Cuculus canorus) spend their winters in Africa and migrate to the U.K. in the spring to breed, typically arriving in late April and early May, according to the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO). But the familiar birds have become much scarcer in recent decades, with their numbers falling by about 65% in Britain since the early 1980s. To better understand why cuckoo populations are declining, the BTO launched the Cuckoo Tracking Project in 2011 to tag and monitor the birds during their intercontinental migration. Since 2016, they've monitored PJ's travels over the Sahara desert and the Ivory Coast of Africa, through France and Spain, and finally back to Suffolk, England, where he was first found. (via Live Science)
8. Remarkable bird: No bird spends its life farther north than the Svalbard ptarmigan, which passes deepest winter in perpetual darkness and high summer bathed in 24-hour sunlight. But it seems that even the ptarmigan has a light-sensitive internal clock, which tells it when the breeding season has arrived. Most birds have an inner clock that prompts them to perform specific tasks at specific times of day. But in summer, Svalbard ptarmigan live under a midnight sun, and their activity during a 24-hour period doesn’t follow a consistent pattern. Nevertheless, researchers at the University of Tromsø in Norway found that key genes for establishing 24-hour rhythms are active in the brain of the ptarmigan, which uses this daily ‘circadian’ clock to time seasonal events. (via Nature)
9. Really remarkable bird: The Cahow (Bermuda Petrel): Off the eastern coast of Bermuda in Castle Harbour sits a jagged, lush island by the name of Nonsuch. Spanning just over 16 acres, Nonsuch is one of Bermuda’s most isolated islands, and it houses several endangered and Lazarus species (those that were once thought to be extinct). On Nonsuch, you can find “almost all of the native endangered species in Bermuda,” said ornithologist Jeremy Madeiros, who is the senior terrestrial conservation officer for Bermuda’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources. “For some species, this is the last place on Earth where they survive.” Over the past two decades, Madeiros has dedicated his career to conserving the Bermuda cahow—the archipelago’s national bird, which doesn’t exist anywhere else on the planet. (via Slate Magazine)
10. It turns out the zebra finch is a surprisingly healthy bird. A study published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reveals that zebra finches and other songbirds have a low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) gene surprisingly different than other vertebrates. "These songbirds seem to have adapted to the LDLR changes and have developed a healthy cholesterol profile, or ratio of low to high cholesterol," said senior author Claudio Mello, M.D., Ph.D. "It suggests that songbirds may have some sort of protection from cardiovascular disease." In turn, the discovery could lead to a model to better understand - and ultimately improve treatment - for cardiovascular disease in people. (via EurekaAlert)
11. It's a common sight: pelicans gliding along the waves, right by the shore. These birds make this kind of surfing look effortless, but actually the physics involved that give them a big boost are not simple. Researchers at the University of California San Diego have recently developed a theoretical model that describes how the ocean, the wind and the birds in flight interact in a recent paper in Movement Ecology. Pelicans can completely offset the energy they expend in flight by exploiting wind updrafts generated by waves through what is known as wave-slope soaring. In short, by practicing this behavior, sea-birds take advantage of winds generated by breaking waves to stay aloft. (via Science Daily)
Bonus: The Greater London area is home to thousands of parakeets. The population of feral ring-necked parakeets has grown from hundreds back in the 1980s to more than 30,000 according to the last count in 2012. The birds, native to Africa and India, are generalist feeders and seem to be well adapted to the urban settings and colder climate of southern England. The origins of the London parakeet population remain a bit mysterious, and a few popular theories exist—that Jimi Hendrix released a mating pair in the 1960s, for example, or that a flock escaped from a set during the filming of the Humphrey Bogart movie The African Queen. The parakeet’s impact on local species is still not fully understood, and studies are ongoing. (via The Atlantic)
Bird Photo of the Week
Photo by Hap Ellis, Yellow Warbler.
Bird Videos of the Week
By Kyle Horton, “Near-term ecological forecasting for dynamic aeroconservation of migration”.
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Baby Barred Owls!
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Return of the California Condor.