1. A looming existential conflict: Flamingos may be a kind of canary in the coal mine when it comes to warning of a hidden cost of green technologies. Lithium mining appears to be a major threat to the iconic pink birds that rely on ecologically fragile salt flats bordering the high Andes Mountains. Mining of the metal and climate change together are causing the decline of two flamingo species found only on Andean plateaus. Lithium, used in lightweight, rechargeable batteries for electric cars, smartphones and other items, is expected to play a major role in helping fight climate change. The new finding highlights that the quest for lithium is not without drawbacks, fitting into a growing body of research revealing lithium mining’s adverse impacts on ecosystems. (via Science News)
2. “Chinstrap Penguins to the heavens”: Deception Island is an alias for an active volcano, one of just two in Antarctica, and Port Foster is its flooded caldera, formed by a violent eruption some 10,000 years ago. True to its name, which was earned for these very reasons, nothing on Deception Island is quite what it seems. Baily Head is home to anywhere from 50,000 to 100,000 breeding pairs of chinstrap penguins. Birds with thin black neck bands waddled down "highways" linking a vast black-sand beach with rocky interior nesting sites. Baily Head is now the largest penguin colony on the western side of the Antarctic Peninsula. "There are chinstrap penguins to the heavens, to where the landscape disappears into the sky." This massive concentration lures other birds, too, including snowy sheathbills and brown skuas who prowl the penguin colony in search of unattended eggs. (via BBC Travel)
3. “A natural occurrence so spectacular”: Every March, thousands of greater sandhill cranes migrate through the San Luis Valley, in a natural occurrence so spectacular that the community of Monte Visa holds a festival to celebrate it. In recent years, though, local bird-lovers haven’t had to travel far afield to view huge flocks of the giant creature all winter long. The Delta area and surrounding region, where sandhill cranes once were only infrequently sighted, now is home to an estimated 4,000 cranes that spend the winter in the region, and researchers think climate change and/or other factors might be contributing to their change in behavior. (via The Daily Sentinel)
4. A synchronized descent – an interesting study on Black Swifts: You may have been lucky to catch a glimpse of the total lunar eclipse in 2019. On the night of January 21 to 22, a red-tinged supermoon glowed faintly in the sky while enveloped in Earth’s shadow for over an hour. But in addition to the spectacular view, the event had a weird effect on birds. during the total eclipse in January 2019, the researchers witnessed something truly strange. When the sky darkened, the birds suddenly dropped in altitude and stayed at that level for the duration of the eclipse. After it ended, the birds all shot back up to their previous, higher altitude as if on cue. Researchers reported in Current Biology this week that during the eclipse, black swifts changed their flight patterns — adding to evidence that moonlight shapes the habits of some species. (via Inverse)
5. “A bird beloved by so many in so much trouble”: The gang-gang cockatoo, the animal emblem of the Australian Capital Territory, will be officially listed as a threatened species after a large decline in its numbers due to the climate crisis and the bushfire disaster. The environment minister, Sussan Ley, has accepted the recommendation of the threatened species scientific committee that the small cockatoo requires protection under Australia’s environmental laws. In a letter to the ACT government, Ley wrote she had decided to list the bird in the endangered category – which means it is at high risk of extinction – and had also agreed a national recovery plan was required. The listing follows the government’s recent decision to list the koala as endangered – up from vulnerable – after successive governments failed to turn around the much-loved animal’s decline. (via The Guardian)
6. Beginning this week, but not every week, Bird News Items will feature a book about birds that we think might be of interest to you or someone you know. We begin with a children's book, "Soar," by Letitia "Tish" Burton.
Tish has a Masters in International Economics from Johns Hopkins SAIS and worked at McKinsey as a consultant and then Accenture as Managing Editor of Outlook Journal. She left all that to raise her three children. She made a point of reading to them every night when they were "little".
A bird-lover (and Bird News Items subscriber!), she always wondered how a young Osprey, abandoned by its parents, could find its way down the migratory path from Long Island Sound to South America. So she decided to write a book on the subject. And she decided that it should be a children's book, to bring the love of birds to kids like hers at an early age.
"Soar" was the result.
A part of the profits from the sales of "Soar" will be donated to the local Audubon in Connecticut, where Tish lives. The link to buy her book — the best new children's bird book we know of — is here.
7. Finding a quiet, secluded spot to raise chicks can be tough for a beach-nesting bird like the Royal Tern, especially as much of our coastlines are crowded with people, buildings, boats, and other things that make up coastal life for us humans. Rookery islands like Chester Island, located 3 miles off the coast of Port O’Connor, Texas, provide a safe space for birds to nest with fewer human disruptions or animal predators. “Small islands are important to birds along the coast of Texas,” says Alexis Baldera, coastal program manager for Audubon Texas, because many species of North America’s long-distance migrating birds depend on the Texas coast at some point in their lifetime. However, these islands are disappearing due to sea-level rise, erosion, and tropical storms. (via Audubon)
8. AVONET – a remarkable project: In 2012, evolutionary biologist Catherine Sheard started an ambitious Ph.D. project: measuring the shape of every kind of passerine, or perching bird, in the world. “I thought, ‘This is about 6000 species, that almost seems doable,’” Sheard says. It was, and her project catalyzed an international effort to measure all the world’s birds. Now, a team of 115 researchers from 30 countries, led by Sheard’s Ph.D. adviser, Imperial College London ecologist Joseph Tobias, has published anatomical measurements of all 11,009 living bird species—not just passerines such as robins, but everything from ducks and penguins to vultures and ostriches. The open-source data set, called AVONET, debuts this month in a special issue of Ecology Letters along with papers describing its value for studying bird evolution and ecology, as well as the impact of changes in climate and habitat on vulnerable species. (via Science)
9. Peregrine Falcon robots?: From cockroaches to peregrine falcons, researchers are getting a closer look at the lives of animals by sending robot creatures undercover. The idea for this perching robot came from Stanford University engineer William Roderick, who was looking for a way to make a positive impact on the environment using his background in robotics. “It struck me as I was watching birds perching and flying through a forest [that] if there were a robot that could act like a bird, that would unlock completely new ways to study the environment,” Roderick says. Similar robots could eventually be used in environmental monitoring, for instance, to raise the alert when there is a forest fire or to study wild animals. (via Science Focus)
10. Intraspecific diversity: Biodiversity is most prominently associated with species diversity, but one can also find a substantial amount of diversity within many species. For example, there are various and pronounced differences between males and females. Ruffs (Calidris pugnax) are a particularly vivid example of intraspecific diversity that goes beyond typically observed sex differences. In these sandpipers, males will take up one of three morphs that differ in appearance and behavior. Most males are Independents with rather dark plumage ornaments that aggressively defend a small display territory in mating arenas to impress visiting females. The somewhat smaller Satellites, recognizable by their lighter plumage, display more solemnly in an alliance with an Independent host. The rare Faeder males have an entirely different tactic: they resemble females and sneak around the mating arenas unnoticed by the other males. (via Science Daily)
11. The future of bird feeders?: Spring has sprung for makers in the northern hemisphere. The great outdoors are filled with the sounds of chirps, tweets and beautiful songs from migratory birds as they return to their favorite spring nests. Now is a great time for bird tracking projects and no one demonstrates that better than Reddit user MidCitySlim with this Raspberry Pi-powered smart bird feeder. Using image recognition, this Pi project is programmed to keep track of guests by scanning specifically for birds and storing the images it captures of them. We’ve covered projects in the past that use image recognition for more than just human faces—this Raspberry Pi cat detection system looks for whether or not a cat is holding prey in its mouth before unlocking the pet door. But this is the first one we’ve seen catered primarily to our avian friends. (via Tom’s Hardware)
12. Bird News Items travel tip: The new BC Bird Trail is a leading source of information for novice birders to discover attractions and activities related to bird watching in British Columbia, Canada. The organization has collaborated with renowned birder Dick Cannings to highlight original stories of local birding, community groups and conservation efforts across the province. The ongoing ‘Stories from The BC Bird Trail’ series released its first 14-minute documentary short on YouTube and BCBirdTrail.ca just this past February to inspire nature lovers to get outside, connect with their community, and learn more about birding in BC. As one of the province’s leading experts on birds, The BC Bird Trail was honored to have Dick Cannings’ input and support in sharing his knowledge about birding in British Columbia. (via BC Bird Trail, Forbes)
Bird Photo of the Week
Photo by Hap Ellis, Northern Cardinal.
Bird Videos of the Week
By GeoBeats Animals, “This crow seems convinced that he is a tiny human”.
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Hawk eggs!
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Midnight Snack Run.