Posts
News and links about birds, birding, and the environment.
- The Christian Science Monitor reviews the current exhibition of selections from Birds of America by John James Audubon at the National Gallery of Art. The exhibition runs through March 26. I wrote about my own impressions of the exhibit in Birds at the National Gallery.
- Japanese researchers are beginning a program to restore populations of the short-tailed albatross, which was nearly hunted to extinction. The program will first experiment with techniques for breeding the relatively common Laysan albatross from wild birds before attempting to do so with the endangered short-tailed albatross.
- Extinct carolina parakeets are making an appearance in the new film, The New World. The sounds are based on the calls of the mitred parakeet. A video clip is at the link.
- Doncaster Village in Baltimore County, MD, is considering designating 24 acres in the midst of condiminium developments as a bird sanctuary.
- An experiment indicates that rufous hummingbirds have a complex memory that aids them in finding and exploiting food sources. (Thanks, DL.)
- The Light points out that the word "zoozoo" may be eliminated from a popular dictionary as a name for a wood pigeon. There are actually 25 species designated as wood pigeons in the family Columbidae. I am not sure if "zoozoo" refers to all or to a particular species since the term does not appear in Avibase.
- Free hosting for birding websites is available from Woodland Hills Camera and Telescope. I am not sure how this service compares to the free services available already through various blog hosts like Blogger or Surfbirds.
