1. Wonderful way to start your Saturday: Wendy Paulson discusses the increased appreciation for nature and birds the pandemic has inspired as social distancing encourages many to head outdoors—opening their eyes to the beauty and myriad benefits of the natural world around them. (via Paulson Institute)
2. Rockefeller! Not the family, the Saw-whet owl: A baby owl has been rescued and rehabilitated after being found roosting in New York City's Rockefeller Christmas tree. On Saturday, an arborist discovered the sickly saw-whet owl hidden on a branch after the tree had been chopped down and transported to Manhattan. The worker's wife contacted the Ravensbeared Wildlife Center in upstate New York to see if she would be bring in the badly malnourished bird so that it could be nursed back to full health. (via The Daily Mail)
3. There are pigeons and then there are racing pigeons: A two-year-old Belgian racing pigeon called New Kim set a world record of 1.6 million euros ($1.89 million) at an auction that ended on Sunday, the online auction house said. Offers for the pigeon had already hit 1.32 million euros in the past week, surpassing the previous record of 1.252 million euros set in March 2019 for another Belgian pigeon, Armando. “These record prices are unbelievable, because this is a female. Armando was a male. Usually a male is worth more than a female because it can produce more offspring,” Nikolaas Gyselbrecht, CEO and founder of Pipa told Reuters Television. (via Reuters)
4. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Professor Adam Siepel and collaborators at Cornell University and the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center in Israel have used genetic evidence to explain how different species of capuchino seedeaters acquired distinct patterns of coloration. Their findings shed light on the role of selective sweeps—a genetic process in which a naturally occurring variation becomes advantageous and is favored by natural selection—in the emergence of new species. Capuchino seedeaters are of interest to evolutionary biologists because they have diversified from their common ancestor relatively recently. Each species has characteristic plumage and its own song. (via Phys Org)
5. In addition to losing the presidential election, soon-to-be-former President Trump took another L last week in a battle with birders. The Trump administration had planned to purchase a 2.5-acre stretch of land in Texas that is home to the Salineño Wildlife Preserve with the intention of building its border wall on the plot. But that plan was rejected, thanks in large part to the vocal objections of birders who have long treasured the territory for its population of rare birds. (via Mic)
6. A team of scientists has trained larks in South Africa to hop onto an electronic scale and weigh themselves as part of a new study into the effects climate change is having on the species. It took two months of extremely difficult and time-consuming work to get eight Red Larks (four males and four females) used to humans and weighing scales, said Ryno Kemp, lead researcher and author of the study. But in the end “a nice juicy worm did the trick,” said Kemp. The Red Lark (Calendulauda burra) is a shy, elusive bird found only in South Africa’s arid Northern Cape region. It has a streaked breast and reddish brown wings and back that match the red sand dunes of the scrubby, thorn-studded terrain in which it lives. (via RFi)
7. And the results are in! It can’t fly and it hides during the day but a critically endangered large parrot is back in the limelight having been named New Zealand’s bird of the year for an unprecedented second time. The green and fawn kākāpō – the world’s heaviest, longest-living parrot – first won in 2008. After conservation efforts, the population of this large parrot has risen from 50 during the 1990s to 213 now. Kākāpō – a bird also known as “mighty moss chicken” – used to live throughout Aotearoa, but today survive only on predator-free islands. Male kākāpō emit a loud booming sound to attract females and smell “like the inside of a clarinet case, musty and kind of like resin and wood,” said Laura Keown, spokesperson for the competition. (via The Guardian)
8. When that hunt took place, nearly eight decades ago, The Waskaganish people were just one of the Cree nations in Northern Canada that depended on the arrival of geese for their survival—the returning migratory birds were the first source of fresh meat after winter. But Cree cultural traditions and languages in this region have suffered, beginning with the early arrival of Europeans and conversions to Christianity and continuing with mid-20th century industrialization that degraded the ecosystems and food sources they depended upon. Today, however, as part of a Canada-wide revival of Indigenous languages and traditional knowledge in the past 30 years, the annual spring goose hunt has flourished again. (via Audubon)
9. Taken 30 meters up in the air, this shot of a great white heron and grey heron in their respective nests also provides a bird’s-eye view of Russia’s expansive forests, which cover almost half of the country. Dmitrii Viliunov took the photo near the city of Smolensk using a drone, which offered a unique perspective of this woodland landscape and a rare look into this aspect of the lives of these birds. The picture, along with the Drone Awards’ other winning shots, will be showcased at the Above Us Only Sky exhibition at the Museum of Natural History of the Accademia dei Fisiocritici in Siena, Italy, until 29 November. (via New Scientist)
10. Birdwatchers take note: Traffic on the Pacific Flyway is starting to build right now — with birds, not cars. This winter, about a billion birds will fly from Alaska to Patagonia at the tip of South America in search of food. A key refueling stop: the Salton Sea, an odd landlocked body of water about 165 miles southeast of L.A. White pelicans, Western grebes and ruddy ducks as well as roadrunners and loggerhead shrikes have been sighted recently. A few things to keep in mind if you go: Expect an icky rotten-egg smell and sticky mud on the shoreline. Water diversion has caused the shoreline to recede 40 to 60 feet each month, according to Audubon. It has caused super-salty water (which affects the creatures the birds feed on) and the dispersion of lung-damaging dust into the air as it shrinks. (via The Los Angeles Times)
Bird Photo of the Week
By Hap Ellis, Red-bellied Woodpecker.
Bird Video of the Week
By Wonder World, “Shoebill Stork - Prehistoric Dinosaur Looking Bird”.
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Great Horned Owls.
Cornell Live Bird Cam - Savannah Osprey.