Birds in the News
grrlscientist | February 12, 2007
Common Kingfisher, Alcedo atthis.
Image: by kind permission of Seve Round.
People Helping Birds
In an innovative measure to save endangered vultures, Nepalese conservationists have set up clean feeding centres where the large fliers can have their favourite food that is free from killer toxins. The vulture restaurants are attracting the birds from distant places raising the hope that the uncontaminated diet would help recover the South Asian birds under critical decline. Three vulture species of Nepal, India and Pakistan were pushed to the verge of extinction due to the chemical…
grrlscientist | February 5, 2007
Bateleur Eagle, Terathopius ecaudatus,
photographed at a zoo in North Carolina. Click image for a much larger view.
Image appears here with the kind permission of the photographer, Chris Losinger.
Birds in Science
Like bacteria, various farm animals have been cloned to produce a variety of protein drugs that benefit humans. These protein drugs can counteract medical conditions such as anemia and diabetes and even some cancers. However, these cloned animals are expensive, large, and most take years before they can produce these desired protein drugs in sufficient commercially-viable…
grrlscientist | January 29, 2007
Wood Duck drake, Aix sponsa.
Image appears here with the kind permission of the photographer, Arthur Morris, Birds as Art.
Birds in Science
The ancestors of modern birds are thought to have been small, feathered, dinosaurs, the theropods. One of these small feathered dinosaurs is Microraptor gui, a feathered dromaosaur that lived 125 million years ago in what is now China. According to the evidence, Microraptor gui was one of the earliest gliders. But unlike modern birds, it appears to have utilized four wings, like a biplane, because it had long and asymmetric flight feathers on both its…
grrlscientist | January 22, 2007
Sleeping flamingos, Phoenicopterus ruber.
Orphaned image, please contact me for proper credit.
People Hurting Birds
Avian pathologists have determined that the deaths of 63 birds in downtown Austin, Texas, this month were the result of natural causes. Texas A&M University pathologists examined nine of the birds found dead on 8 January and determined they died because of parasites and a drop in temperature, the Austin American-Statesman reported Friday. "These birds were heavily parasitized by multiple species of parasites," said Lelve Gayle, the executive director of the Texas…
grrlscientist | January 15, 2007
Red-Winged Blackbird, Agelaius phoeniceus,
This is the bird named George, who lived in Central Park,
and was made famous by the book, Club George
by Bob Levy.
Image: Bob Levy.
People Hurting Birds
What appears to be the last male golden eagle, Aquila chrysaetos (pictured), in northern Italy was shot by a mindless idiot who lured the giant bird within shotgun range using the carcass of a dead sheep. According to the story, the number of animal killers has dropped in Italy from 2 million 20 years ago to 750,000. But the number of rare birds, including golden eagles, greater flamingos and…
grrlscientist | October 22, 2006After long hiatus, I think you all will be pleased to know that Birds in the News will return soon -- I think it will be the Monday before Thanksgiving, but I am still not sure yet. If you have high-resolution images that you'd like to share with the world as the featured photograph for Birds in the News, feel free to send them to me, along with information about what was happening when you took the picture and how you want the image credited.
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tags: Birds in the News, ornithology, birds, avian, newsletter
grrlscientist | July 31, 2006
Taking the Plunge
(Female Belted Kingfisher, Ceryle alcyon).
Image appears here with the kind permission of the photographer, David Seibel, who writes;
"I never realized, until freezing the motion with my camera, that kingfishers dive from
their perch with wings completely folded. I've captured woodpeckers doing the same
thing." [email David]
Birds in Science
A biologist studying wild songbirds in New York State reported that all 178 woodland birds he tested last year had unusually high levels of mercury in their blood and feathers, a sign that the toxic chemical has spread farther in the…
grrlscientist | July 31, 2006Birds in the News will appear on Mondays at noon EST, to benefit from the traffic peak that occurs shortly after noon. I have written Birds in the News for a year and a half. It is a weekly link harvest that features photographs and news stories about birds from around the world. You can browse previous issues of Birds in the News.
tags: Birds in the News, BirdsNews, ornithology, birds, avian, newsletter
grrlscientist | July 3, 2006Birds in the News is postponed until next week. Sorry about that. I hope you all have a good holiday and that you come back next week for the next issue. You can also browse previous issues of Birds in the News.
tags: Birds in the News, BirdsNews, ornithology, birds, avian, newsletter
grrlscientist | June 26, 2006
Six flamingos, Phoenicopterus ruber,
bored with people-watching at the Caldwell Zoo in Tyler, Texas.
(Can you see all six birds?)
Image appears here with the kind permission of the photographer, Michael C. Hamilton (contact).
Birds in Science
A new study of global avian biodiversity published in the free open access journal, PLoS Biology, provides the first strong evidence that avian species' range areas are smallest in the tropics and larger in temperate and polar regions. A smaller range area means that many different types of creatures can be accommodated in the same space, explaining…
grrlscientist | June 19, 2006
Soccer-playing carrion crow, Corvus corone
(This is a captive domesticated bird).
Image: Koichi Harada, Asahi Shimbun/AP.
Birds in Science
Filling a gap in the evolution of birds, scientists have dug up fossils of a bird, Gansus yumenensis (pictured), that lived 110 million years ago and looked remarkably like a small modern-day waterfowl. The finding, reported recently in the journal Science, supports the notion that all living birds, from ostriches to ducks to hummingbirds, descended from an ancestor that lived by the shore. In 2004, researchers led by Hai-lu You of the Chinese Academy…
grrlscientist | June 12, 2006
Pale Male over Central Park West in NYC, 6 June 2006 (in moult).
Pale male, an unusual light-morph red-tailed hawk, Buteo jamaicensis, has lived in NYC for 14 years.
Image: Lincoln Karim. You can purchase your own copy of this image here.
Birds in Science
Researchers found that female songbirds alter the size of eggs and possibly the sex of their chicks according to how they perceive their mate's quality. The researchers played back attractive ("sexy") songs and less attractive control songs of male canaries to female domesticated canaries, Serinus canaria. When the females started egg-…
grrlscientist | June 5, 2006
Brown Pelican, Pelecanus occidentalis.
Image: Bob Miller/Southwest Birders.
People Hurting Birds
Scottish scientists say global warming's first major British wildlife victim is the ring ouzel, Turdus torquatus (pictured) -- a close relative of the blackbird, Turdus merula. Researchers from the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute in Aberdeen, Scotland, said the bird, which lives in cool mountain and moor areas, suffered a nearly 60 percent reduction in its population during the past decade, and this decline is linked to rising temperatures. Scientists said they fear higher temperatures in…
grrlscientist | May 30, 2006
Black-throated green warbler, Dendroica virens.
Image appears here with the kind permission of the photographer, Pamela Wells.
Click image for larger view in its own window.
Birds in Science
Wendy Reed and her research team's study found that male dark-eyed juncos, Junco hyemalis, with extra testosterone were more attractive to females and produced more -- but smaller -- offspring. Smaller offspring had lower survival rates than larger offspring. The extra testosterone also made the male birds sing more sweetly and fly farther. The testosterone-laden birds proved irresistible to older,…
grrlscientist | May 29, 2006Birds in the News has been postponed until tomorrow, when it will appear at the usual time.
grrlscientist | May 22, 2006
Nesting Pacific loon, Gavia pacifica.
Photograph by PicsMan.
Birds in Science
Two carefully planned sets of experiments to be published on Friday in the top-tier peer-reviewed journal, Science, show intelligent birds and great apes can plan into the future in a way that transcends simple food caching, as squirrels, foxes and other animals do. "Together with recent evidence from scrub jays, our results suggest that future planning is not a uniquely human ability, thus contradicting the notion that it emerged in hominids only within the past 2.5 to 1.6 million years," wrote Nicholas Mulcahy…
grrlscientist | May 15, 2006
Orange-bellied parrot, Neophema chrysogaster,
now numbering only approximately 200 individuals, is one of the world's rarest birds.
Photographer: Dave Watts.
Birds in Science
Scientists have discovered that migrating dragonflies and songbirds exhibit many of the same behaviors, suggesting the rules that govern such long-distance travel may be simpler and more ancient than was once thought. This research is based on data generated by tracking 14 green darner dragonflies with radio transmitters weighing only 300 milligrams -- about a third as much as a paper clip. Green darners, Anax…
grrlscientist | May 8, 2006
Long-billed Curlew, Numenius americanus.
Image appears here with the kind permission of the photographer, Arthur Morris, Birds as Art.
Click image for larger view in its own window.
Birds and Science
Some pied flycatchers, Ficedula hypoleuca (pictured), a common migratory bird slightly smaller than a sparrow, are missing their spring meals and dying as a result of climate change, a team of scientists reported this week. The discovery is one of the most sophisticated showing the domino effect of shifting seasons and their impact on predators and prey. The migratory birds fly thousands of…
grrlscientist | May 1, 2006
Male Painted Bunting, Passerina ciris.
Image appears here with the kind permission of the photographer, Judd Patterson.
Click image for larger view in its own window.
Birds in Science
The European starling, Sturnus vulgaris (pictured) -- long known as a virtuoso songbird and expert mimic - may also soon win a reputation as something of a grammatician, researchers say. Timothy Gentner, a psychologist at the University of California, San Diego, and his team found that the bird can learn language patterns formerly thought to be unique to humans. They discovered that starlings can understand…
grrlscientist | April 24, 2006
Male magnolia warbler, Dendroica magnolia.
This image appears here with the kind permission of the photographer, Pamela Wells.
Click image for larger view in its own window.
Birds in Science
Spring is the season for flashy mates, at least for house finches, Carpodacus mexicanus (pictured, right). It is only later in the year that the females choose based on genetic diversity, according to new research from two scientists at the University of Arizona. Their 10-year study of a colony of 12,000 finches in Montana has revealed the seasonal dynamics of finch attraction and thereby resolved an…