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Birds and birding news
- New Jersey's first record of Pink-footed Goose was spotted this week on a lake in Bergen County.
- A small colony of Emperor Penguins in western Antarctica disappeared due to loss of sea ice caused by climate change. It is not clear if the colony died off or relocated.
- The oldest known wild bird in the U.S. is a Laysan Albatross, and she has produced another chick this season at the age of 60.
- Alaska's Teshekpuk Lake region has some of the highest breeding bird nesting densities and productivity in the Arctic. As a result of recent nest surveys there, the Wildlife Conservation Society recommends that such important breeding areas be left free from energy development even though they lie within a BLM petroleum reserve.
- A recent study found the remains of 25 bird species inside the digestive tracts of invasive pythons in Florida; the bird species included four listed as "special concern" species by the state: Snowy Egret, Little Blue Heron, White Ibis, and Limpkin.
- Cerulean Warblers depend on Colombia's mountainous coffee growing regions for its winter habitat; they favor shade coffee plantations where coffee plants are grown under the forest canopy. Colombian coffee has been in the news because extreme heat and heavy rains have reduced coffee yields at Colombian plantations.
- The extinction of large mammals 20,000 years ago caused the extinction of one cowbird species.
- Older Great Tits are less successful breeders than younger ones; the problems seem to occur after young have left the nest.
- A mother hen can feel her chicks' distress; their empathy was measured according to physical indicators such as heart rate and body temperature, as well as vocalizations.
- A study found that American Kestrels are at risk from the rodenticide diphacinone, which is coming into wider use due to restrictions on other rodenticides.
- 10,000 Birds: Beautiful Blue Backyard Bird
- Birding Dude: Banded Piping Plover back in the Bahamas
- ABA Blog: The Lowdown
- March of the Fossil Penguins: Meet the Tiniest Wing-Propelled Diver
- Sibley Guides: Birds species new to North American – a summary
- Birdchick: What's An Uptown Owl Eating?
- IBRRC: Natural Seep Oiled Birds Continue to Flood IBRRC
- The US Fish and Wildlife Service announced this week that the Mount Charleston Blue butterfly (Plebejus shasta charlestonensis), a subspecies of Shasta Blue that is endemic to Nevada, deserved to be listed as endangered but was precluded from listing by more deserving species. In the meantime, the Forest Service will manage its wilderness areas for the Mount Charleston Blue as if it were endangered.
- A fight over a bike lane near Prospect Park in Brooklyn is turning into a wider fight over New York City's transportation policies, which seek to provide safer space for pedestrians and cyclists.
- A visitor recounts a trip through the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta in Colombia, which includes the tallest coastal mountain of the Caribbean.
- The eastern population of Monarch butterflies has already started moving north.
- Research into air pollution caused by the gulf oil spill discovered a previously unknown source of organic aerosols.
- Scientists found two new species of freshwater stingrays in the Amazon; unlike most stingrays, these do not have a dangerous barbed tail.
- LiveScience has a gallery of some of the worst invasive species.
