Birds in the News
grrlscientist | July 2, 2007tags: Birds in the News, BirdNews, ornithology, birds, avian, newsletter
I don't want you to worry, but I did not work on Birds in the News this weekend. I know, I am bad (bad bad bad), but considering how little traffic I have this week, it seems best to postpone BITN until next week!
grrlscientist | June 25, 2007tags: Birds in the News, BirdNews, ornithology, birds, avian, newsletter
Lark Bunting, Calamospiza melanocorys -- the official state bird of Colorado.
Image: Dave Rintoul, KSU. [larger]
People Hurting Birds
The number of birds of prey poisoned illegally in Scotland rose to a record high last year after an eight-year campaign by Labour and LibDem ministers to crack down on wildlife crime. A report to be published this week will reveal there were 39 confirmed cases of pesticide abuse in 2006 involving eagles, red kites, hawks, falcons, owls, buzzards and ravens. That is double the number in…
grrlscientist | June 18, 2007tags: Birds in the News, BirdNews, ornithology, birds, avian, newsletter
American redstart, widespread throughout North America, is under threat from climate change and future land-use changes.
Image: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service [larger]
Birds in Science
Scientists in China revealed that they found a giant bird whose fossilized bones measure 8 meters (26 feet) in length, 5 meters (16 feet) tall and which weighed 1,400 kilograms (3,000 pounds) and lived 85 million years ago. The fossil was uncovered in the Erlian Basin of northern China's Inner Mongolia, said Xu Xing, a paleontologist at…
grrlscientist | June 11, 2007tags: Birds in the News, BirdNews, ornithology, birds, avian, newsletter
King penguin stretches on the Falkland Islands.
Image: BBC News [larger]
Birds in Science
If you've looked the articulated 150-million-year-old Archaeopteryx fossils, you probably have noticed that they all have a weirdly similar pose; their heads are thrown over their backs, mouths open and tail curved upwards. Scientists have been puzzled for years by what caused this distinctive pose, but now two paleontologists propose an explanation: this characteristic posture was the result of agonized death throes triggered…
grrlscientist | June 4, 2007tags: Birds in the News, BirdNews, ornithology, birds, avian, newsletter
Yellow-eyed Junco, Junco phaeonotus: Resident in the mountains of southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico. Preferred habitats include coniferous forests and pine-oak woods.
Image: Dave Rintoul, KSU [larger]
Birds in Science
Wild ducks have been fitted with global positioning system (GPS) devices in an effort to track migratory patterns in China. The Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine (BAPHIQ) under the Council of Agriculture (COA), in collaboration with the wild bird societies of…
grrlscientist | May 28, 2007tags: Birds in the News, BirdNews, ornithology, birds, avian, newsletter
Pied Avocets, which returned to nest in Britain in 1948, now nest widely around the south-east coastline.
Image: BBC News.
Birds in Science
Palaeontologists fired a broadside over a fossil which is the cornerstone evidence to back the theory that birds descended from dinosaurs. The row focuses on Sinosauropteryx, a fossil found in 1994 by a farmer in Liaoning province, northeastern China, a treasure trove of the Early Cretaceous period some 130 million years ago. About the size of a turkey, the long-tailed meat-eating…
grrlscientist | May 21, 2007tags: Birds in the News, BirdNews, ornithology, birds, avian, newsletter
"Black-throated green warbler", Dendroica virens.
[song]
Image appears here with the kind permission of the photographer, Pamela Wells.
[larger]
Birds in Science
According to ornithologists, the Gorgeted Puffleg has been discovered living in the cloud forests of southwestern Colombia. Despite its recent discovery, this stunning rare hummingbird that has violet blue plumage and iridescent green on its throat, is already endangered by the environmentally damaging illegal drugs industry. "We were essentially following a…
grrlscientist | May 14, 2007
Rock Wren, Salpinctes obsoletus. (spring song).
The photographer writes; [This bird] was scurrying along a wall covered with petroglyphs on the NE side of Chaco Canyon. Perky and hardy little birds, and definitely emblematic of the desert Southwest.
Image: Dave Rintoul, KSU.
Birds in Science
A study of European robins in Sheffield, England, suggests that it is noise, not light, that drives birds to sing at night. The study, by Richard A. Fuller and colleagues at the University of Sheffield, measured noise levels and singing at 67 sites around the city, where on average ambient noise was an…
grrlscientist | May 7, 2007tags: Birds in the News, BirdNews, ornithology, birds, avian, newsletter
"Spruce Grouse."
Image appears here with the kind permission of the photographer, Pamela Wells.
[Larger image].
Birds in Science
A paper was recently published in PLoS One that examines the reproductive and evolutionary arms race between male and female ducks to control paternity. Basically, if males develop large and elaborate genital structures that allow them to manipulate females and to bias paternity in their favor, then females will co-evolve specific genital anatomy that allows them to regain some control over…
grrlscientist | April 30, 2007tags: Birds in the News, BirdNews, ornithology, birds, avian, newsletter
Burrowing owls, Athene cunicularia.
The photographer writes; While driving up to Colorado, I spotted a pair of Burrowing Owls trying in vain to stay dry in the drizzle. Highway 385 North of Brownfield, Terry County, TX.
Image appears here with the kind permission of the photographer, Jay Packer.
Birds in Science
Gone are the days when animals were classified to taxon based solely on bone structure (osteology), body structure (morphometrics) or behavior (ethology), or some combination of these characters. Currently,…
grrlscientist | April 23, 2007tags: Birds in the News, ornithology, birds, avian, newsletter
Greater Prairie-chicken, Tympanuchus cupido pinnatus [Bigger image]
More Prairie-chickens.
The photographer writes; I was lucky enough to be out this morning on Konza Prairie (see the latest National Geographic for some details) photographing the testosterone-fueled antics of Greater Prairie-chickens. We had 13 males and up to 5 females on the lek, and the sky was clear and blue. A bit chilly in the blind, but it was worth it. So here is an image of one of the males, with a soggy bison wallow in the background.
Image: Dave…
grrlscientist | April 16, 2007tags: Birds in the News, ornithology, birds, avian, newsletter
This ear-scratching egret was perfectly posed on a balcony in Cedar Key, Florida, framed against the background shadows. Love the feather.
Image:
Martin Richard.
Birds in Science
It was once thought impossible to obtain actual soft tissue, such as proteins, from fossils, but the impossible has happened and now, two research teams who published reports in this week's Science describe their findings: the closest relative to the fearsome Tyrannosaurus rex is .. a chicken. "It has always been assumed that preservation of [dinosaur…
grrlscientist | April 9, 2007
Of other birds found in Harapan Rainforest, 66 species are at risk of extinction, including the rhinoceros hornbill, Buceros rhinoceros (Sumatra, Indonesia).
Source: BBCNews.
People Hurting Birds
West Coast seabirds are dying, apparently from a lack of food -- and some researchers think the phenomenon may be linked to global climate change. This is the third year that scientists have found unusually large numbers of marine birds -- mainly common murres, but also rhinoceros auklets and tufted puffins -- washed up on beaches in California, Oregon and Washington. In 2005, the first year of…
grrlscientist | April 2, 2007
A freshly-plumaged LeConte's Sparrow, Ammodramus leconteii, that Dave Rintoul banded in Kansas in the fall of 2005. (bigger version).
Image: Dave Rintoul, KSU.
Birds in Science
In the past few years, China has become famous for the number and quality of bird fossils from the Early Cretaceous that have been discovered there. This week, another such discovery has been reported by an international team of Chinese, American and Japanese scientists. Their discovery of 120-million-year-old fossilized footprints made by a roadrunner-like bird in Shandong Province, China (see map), was published…
grrlscientist | March 26, 2007
A male Superb Bird of Paradise, Lophorina superba (seen from front)
performing a courtship display for a female (brown) in Papua New Guinea,
from "Jungles," in the "Planet Earth" series.
Image: Fred Olivier/Discovery Channel and BBC.
Birds in Science
Red-breasted nuthatches, Sitta canadensis, appear to have learned the language of black-capped chickadees, Poecile atricapillus. Nuthatches interpret the type of chickadee alarm and can identify what sort of predator poses a threat. Nuthatches have learned to tell if the chickadees are threatened by pygmy owls, which pose a serious threat to…
grrlscientist | March 19, 2007
The masked tityra, Tityra semifasciata, is one of the species which has just sprung a scientific surprise. Researchers found animals and birds in temperate zones evolve faster than those in the tropics. Their suggestion is that extinctions happen more often in temperate regions where there is less species diversity.
Image: BBCNews.
People Hurting Birds
An Arizona Appeals Court has upheld the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's decision to remove the cactus ferruginous pygmy-owl, Glaucidium brasilianum cactorum (pictured, image: Bob Miles, USFWS), from the list of endangered species, paving…
grrlscientist | March 12, 2007
Baltimore Oriole Icterus galbula.
Image appears here with the kind permission of the photographer, Pamela Wells.
Birds in Science
People have long wondered how cowbirds can get away with leaving their eggs in the nests of other species, who then raise the baby cowbirds. Why don't the hosts just toss the strange eggs out? Now researchers seem to have an answer -- if the host birds reject the strange eggs, the cowbirds come back and trash the place. "It's the female cowbirds who are running the mafia racket at our study site," Jeffrey P. Hoover, of the Florida Museum of Natural History and…
grrlscientist | March 5, 2007
Atlantic Puffin numbers on two islands off the coast of Scotland crashed from 28,000 pairs in 1999 to only a few thousand when an invasive plant called tree mallow established itself. The Scottish Sea Bird Centre has received £250,000 to remove the plant and encourage the birds to return to their nests.
Image: J. Cunningham/BBC News.
People Hurting Birds
Scientists in eastern China say they have succeeded in controlling the flight of pigeons with micro-electrodes planted in their brains, state media reported recently. Scientists at the Robot Engineering Technology Research Centre at…
grrlscientist | February 26, 2007
European Robin, Erithacus rubecula, grabbing a mealworm.
Birds in Science
Scrub jays can plan on saving tasty treats for the future and do it in a way that shows they are truly planning ahead, British researchers reported. They set up a careful experiment to allow the birds to cache food in a certain way if they were indeed planning, and found the birds were up to the task. Their study, published in the journal Nature, adds to several others that show animals such as great apes and certain birds can plan ahead in much the same way as people do. "Knowledge of and planning for the future is…
grrlscientist | February 19, 2007
Winter Wren, Troglodytes troglodytes.
Image source: Lincoln Karim, Pale Male.
Birds in Science
Scientists have successfully tested their ability to identify and DNA "barcode" entire assemblages of species -- the prelude to a genetic portrait of all animal life on Earth (original article). They report having assembled a genetic portrait of birdlife in the U.S. and Canada, and announce the startling discovery of 15 new genetically distinct species, nearly indistinguishable to human eyes and ears and consequently overlooked in centuries of bird studies. The bird researchers obtained DNA from…