1. Let’s start with this story from the Washington Post contrasting the beautiful sunset murmurations of hundreds of thousands starling over Rome with, yup, the mess they make the rest of the day: Just before sunset, there among the cupolas, starlings mass by the hundreds of thousands, performing an aerial dance. They dip and soar, bunch together and spread out. Seen from the ground, their ephemeral parabolas look like calligraphic brushstrokes. But when the sun sets, the magic ends. The birds descend — and wreak havoc. They poop prolifically, and their droppings — thanks to their olive-heavy diet — are oily and slick. Those droppings can cause street closures and motorbike accidents. They can bury cars, bus stops, business awnings, even gravestones, under a Jackson Pollock coating of black and white. “Abundant manure,” Rome’s environmental department called it in a report on the starlings. (via The Washington Post)
2. A Boston birder lays down a challenge: As you may have noticed, birding’s mainstream popularity has taken flight. People are turning out on excursions in huge numbers, binoculars around their necks and field guides in tow, collectively setting new records for the niche hobby. Most times, they’re heading out to nature preserves and wildlife sanctuaries, or lakes surrounded by lush forests, in search of their next find. But Boston’s birding newbies don’t actually need to go far to spot an array of rare species of birds resting on branches. (via The Boston Globe)
3. And in keeping with the above “bird locally” theme, this article takes us to another level: Until 2011, Javier Caletrío considered his lifestyle to be fairly sustainable. The England-based birder and sustainability researcher travelled mainly by bus and train, though allowed himself flights and overseas travel for family and business. But after watching a presentation about how carbon pollution is warming the planet, he realized that his actions fell short. So, he decided to commit to a lower-carbon lifestyle. And his birding became “informed explicitly by a conscious decision to minimise the burning of fossil fuels,” Caletrío says. In his younger years, he would drive 50 to 200 kilometers to chase birds. Now he travels only by bus, train, or foot, and focuses on birding locally in his neighborhood. (via The Audubon)
4. They kind of “buried the lead”, at least from BNI’s perspective, but read on and you will discover that the magnificent Mont-Saint-Michel is “one of the best birdwatching spots in Europe, with ... observed species totaling 356 in 50 years of ornithology…”: It was a route fraught with risk. To reach Mont-Saint-Michel, the island abbey off the coast of Normandy, medieval pilgrims braved quicksand and the strongest tides in continental Europe. The bay is home to environmental riches as wondrous as the abbey’s artistry. “It’s one of the best birdwatching spots in Europe, with ... observed species totaling 356 in 50 years of ornithology here,” says Sébastien Provost, an ornithologist who launched Birding Mont-Saint-Michel just four years ago. (via National Geographic)
5. Accidental sightings or climate?: Guess what? We've got Black-legged Kittiwakes and Least Flycatchers. Those are among the never-before-spotted birds identified in the Miami area during the National Audubon Society's Christmas Bird Count. The 123-year-old event, which completed earlier this month, gives insight into how climate change is affecting bird species' migratory patterns. In South Florida, they've noticed a lot of ducks are finding they can winter a little bit farther north of the region. (via Axios)
6. Diving birds – “…trapped in their own ways…”?: Birds that dive underwater — such as penguins, loons and grebes — may be more likely to go extinct than their nondiving kin. Many water birds have evolved highly specialized bodies and behaviors that facilitate diving. Now, an analysis of the evolutionary history of more than 700 water bird species shows that once a bird group gains the ability to dive, the change is irreversible. That inflexibility could help explain why diving birds have an elevated extinction rate compared with nondiving birds. (via Science News)
7. We think the nickname “devil bird” is a bit harsh, but we don’t live in Melbourne: Climate change may be one reason why the so-called devil bird – known for its incessant late-night mating call – has become more common in Melbourne’s outer suburbs. The koel, a migratory bird, usually arrives in Australia from Papua New Guinea and Indonesia to breed from late September to early October, when the male will sing his advertising call day and night to attract a female.(via The Guardian)
8. Fun Sightings #1–Isabelline Wheatear visits the UK: A rare species of bird usually found in arid deserts and mountainous regions "caused a stir" when it was spotted in east Devon and north Cornwall. The isabelline wheatear was sighted on Seaton Wetlands for the second time in recorded history. It is native to "mountainous slopes between Turkey and the Gobi Desert". It is thought to have flown to Cornwall, where Nick Moran from the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) said there been sightings in Holywell, from 23-25 January. He said there had been just 55 records of the bird in the UK since 1887. (via The BBC)
9. Fun Sighting #2, with an assist to Merlin - Gray-crowned Rosy Finch visits Nova Scotia: Birders from across the region have been flocking to Green Bay in Lunenburg County after a resident photographed a rare bird on her property earlier this month. Lynette Barnes said she makes a habit of waking up early to take a photo of the sunrise and spotted the gray-crowned rosy finch on Jan. 11. The gray-crowned rosy finch is normally only seen in western North America, from New Mexico to Alaska, according to the Audubon Guide to North American Birds. (via CBC)
10. Fun Sightings #3 – And then there’s this Fieldfare that dropped in on British Columbia: Avid birder Chris Charlesworth estimates it took him 60 seconds to vacate his house after he got the phone call last Tuesday. The voice on the other end of the line was his friend and fellow birdwatcher, Jasmine Korcok, who was excitedly calling him from Munson Pond in Kelowna, British Columbia, where she could hardly believe what she had spotted — a rare fieldfare. A member of the thrush family, the fieldfare is native to Northern Europe and western Asia and traditionally migrates south to Africa and the Middle East in the winter. (via CBC)
11. We’ll take Rudyard’s word for it: Rudyard Township, MI has been recognized by the state as the best place in Michigan to find the elusive snowy owl. As of Jan. 20, Rudyard Township in the Eastern Upper Peninsula is officially recognized as the snowy owl capital of the state. Snowy owls, also called the arctic owl, can be found all across Canada and several parts of the northern United States. They move and migrate throughout the seasons for various reasons, including mating which they only do in the far north tundra. (via The Sault News)
12. In case you live in New Mexico and were wondering: Stacker compiled a list of the most common birds seen near feeders in New Mexico using data from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Project FeederWatch. Birds are ranked by the percent of sites visited from Dec. 24 to Jan. 6. Ties are broken by the average group size when seen, any further ties were not broken. Data was collected at 64 count sites in New Mexico. States with less than 10 count sites were not included in rankings for each bird. (via KRGE News)
13. This week’s (concerning) Avian Bird Flu story, from Spain: When mink at a big farm in Galicia, a region in northwestern Spain, started to die in October 2022, veterinarians initially thought the culprit might be SARS-CoV-2, which has struck mink farms in several other countries. But lab tests soon revealed something scarier: a deadly avian influenza virus named H5N1. The more than 50,000 mink at the facility were killed and their carcasses destroyed. None of the farm workers became infected. But the episode, described in a paper in Eurosurveillancenone last week, has reignited long-smoldering fears that H5N1 could trigger a human pandemic. (via Science)
14. This poor woman has a different kind of “wild” Turkey in her yard (stories like this abound, unfortunately): As Rachael Gross climbed the steps of her Coon Rapids, Minn., home in the summer of 2021, a turkey dropped from her roof and forced her to the ground. The turkey ripped her jacket, Gross said, and scattered her bags of eggs, coffee and other groceries across her front lawn. That evening, Gross began asking the state’s wildlife authorities to relocate the wild turkey. So far, they’ve declined to do so. Instead, the turkey has made itselfa home on Gross’s lawn. Gross, 41, said the turkey has placed her and her neighbors’ lives in turmoil. She now wears safety goggles when she steps outside and carries a broom, a golf club and a water bottle for self-defense. (via The Washington Post)
15. This week’s (expensive!) travel destinations: With the travel industry inching towards pre-pandemic strength, there’s no better time than the present to plan the ultimate bucket list getaway—and for serious animal aficionados, there’s a treasure trove of luxurious ecolodges and safari camps ready to provide the trip of a lifetime. From the remote reaches of Patagonia to the heart of Tanzania, these palatial properties offer incredible ecotourism alongside accommodations fit for royalty. (via Forbes)
16. Let’s finish with an inspiring interview/podcast with a blind birder who has created trails in Southwest Columbia specifically for blind and low vision individuals: For many blind and low vision people, accessing outdoor spaces like parks can be challenging. Trails are often unsafe or difficult to navigate, signs don’t usually have Braille, guides generally aren’t trained to help disabled visitors, and so on. But nature recordist Juan Pablo Culasso, based in Bogata, Colombia, is changing that. He’s designed a system of fully accessible trails in the cloud forests of southwest Colombia that are specifically tailored to help visually disabled people connect with nature. The trails are the first of their kind in the Americas, and Culasso drew on his own experiences as a blind person and a professional birder to design the system. (via Science Friday)
Bird Photo of the Week
Photo by Hap Ellis, Dark-eyed Junco – Arnold Arboretum, Boston, MA.
Bird Videos of the Week
By Maggie Soik, “Bird Watching in New York City - 2020”.
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Osprey Chick!
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Incubated Osprey Chick.
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