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Dickcissel / Photo by Steve Maslowski (USFWS)Bird news
Like humans, songbird species like the swamp sparrow exhibit regional dialects in their vocalizations. The dialects may be learned and maintained by mirror neurons, which fire when a bird sings or hears another bird singing a similar song. That ability allows young songbirds to mimic songs they hear from adult birds, even after only hearing them a few times.- The vocal muscles of some songbirds can contract 100 times faster than the human eye. The fastest recorded vocal muscles are those of the European starling and zebrafinch, both of which have reputations for superb singing. Other species may have similar abilities.
A research scientist with extensive experience in the tropics believes that 15% of bird species will be extinct by 2100. Many tropical birds are confined to small ranges and are sensitive to small changes in habitat. Conservationists need to find ways for more bird species to survive in human-dominated landscapes and to include local people in conservation projects.- A Colombian conservationist urges renewal of the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act since it has funded important projects such as the Cerulean Warbler Bird Reserve.
- A new map of the border wall shows that DHS still plans to cut through the Sabal Palm Audubon Sanctuary, which will be closed if the wall follows that path. In all, 21 refuges are affected by the wall.
Conservationists in Tokyo are placing honeybee hives around a tern nesting colony to drive off crows, which prey on eggs and nestlings. Bees swarm and attack any dark object that approaches their hive but ignore lighter colors.- Heavy rains this June have prevented a study of why Franklin Gull nests have failed in two consecutive years at Agassiz NWR.
- Piping plover news: Numbers are low on New Hampshire beaches; USFWS is proposing changes in critical habitat designation along the Texas coast; in Massachusetts, some plovers are nesting on an urban beachfront.
- Slavonian grebes in Scotland had their worst breeding season ever. The U.K. breeding population numbers 29 pairs, all of which nest within 40 miles of Loch Ness.
- Other British breeding birds, such as willow tits and spotted flycatchers, are also in decline.
- Clewiston, Florida, might see an increase in ecotourism following habitat restoration on former sugar plantations.
- Ocean County, New Jersey, culled 400 Canada geese.
- Local bird banders have caught record high numbers of purple martins in South Jersey.
- Here is a video of a British blackbird imitating an ambulance siren. (It also imitates a cellular phone and a car alarm.)
- Prairie Ice: Return to Warden's Grove
- Born Again Bird Watcher: Skeptical Representation
- Birdfreak: Mining for Declining Birds
- Audubon Birdscapes: Chimney Swift Towers
- OC Warbler: The Incredible Six-Legged Plover!
- House and Other Arctic Musings: Baird's Sandpiper
- Cute Overload: Duck Darwin Awards
- This week the EPA acknowledged that climate change could have severe impacts on human health, especially during summer heat waves.
- New models predict that the snowpack in the West could melt twice as fast as previously predicted due to climate change.
- The New York City government plans to cut 30% of its carbon emissions by 2017. Most emissions cuts come in the form of making city buildings and services more energy efficient.
- Gore says that the U.S. should completely switch to renewable energy by 2018. (Full speech here.)
- Reducing degradation of tropical forests could cut local carbon emissions by 30%-50%.
- Climate change research: Arctic lakes have become laboratories for measuring the effects of climate change on local ecosystems. Scientists are drilling ice cores in Arctic NWR to gain historical climate data.
- Rock Port, Missouri, is the first town in the U.S. to supply all of its electricity from wind power.
- Demand for food and biofuel will lead to more tropical deforestation as the available land is insufficient to meet both uses.
- Some scientists are calling for "assisted migration" as a way to maintain biodiversity in the face of climate change.
- Democrats are getting wobbly on offshore drilling.
- "Beyond Petroleum" will be drilling the longest oil wells in the world to suck petroleum from the bottom of the Beaufort Sea.
- An Inconvenient Truth is now an opera.
