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Yellow Warbler Attends to the Nest / Photo by Fred Deines (USFWS)Bird news and links
Phalaropes use water's surface tension to forage. They spin their bodies to stir up small crustaceans. They then open and close their bills rapidly so that water's natural surface tension drives the prey into their mouths.- A major wildfire in the Everglades threatens habitat for the endangered Cape Sable seaside sparrow.
- Portions of southeastern Ohio are being reforested to provide future habitat for ceruleans warblers.
- A new study suggests that human vision is inadequate for assessing what birds see. The finding has implications for studies of sexual selection in birds. Among other things, birds can see colors in the UV range that are invisible to humans.
- Up to 3,000 eggs and hatchlings of a white-faced ibis colony were destroyed by harvesters in a single incident in California.
- Developers have backed down from plans to install a soda ash factory at Lake Natron, but they still plan to extract soda ash from the lake and process it at a new factory 22 miles away. The development threatens the lake's population of lesser flamingos.
- Last weekend's storms heavily eroded beaches along Delaware Bay, right in the middle of shorebird migration. Any horseshoe crab eggs that were already laid have probably been washed away.
- The RSPB warns against feeding birds with bread, which does not give them sufficient nutrition.
- Drawing the Motmot: Bird-Drawing Tip: Get Familiar
- Birdchaser: Top 10 ways to be a better birder
- BES Group: Where do birds go when they die?
- Bay Area Bird Blog: Companies Behaving Badly: Roadway Express at MLK Jr Shoreline
- Behind the Bins: Lunch with a Great Egret
- According to the Zoological Society of London, we are in the midst of one of the world's great extinction events. Populations of the world's wildlife species have fallen between one quarter and one third since 1970.
- Climate change is already having major impacts even with only one degree Celsius in average temperature rise. A study of 829 physical systems and 28,800 living organisms found changes consistent with global warming in 95% of the physical systems and 90% of the living organisms.
- Once again, the Senate blocked an attempt to open Arctic NWR for drilling.
- Brazil's environment minister resigned after losing several major fights to prevent deforestation of the Amazon.
