Posts
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| Common tern preening at Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuge Complex / USFWS Photo |
- Green Woodhoopoes give each other massage-like grooming sessions. The grooming seems to reinforce social bonds within a flock.
- Tricolored Blackbirds in California have declined by about a third over the past three years despite conservation efforts.
- A federal court this week heard arguments in a case concerning grazing rights in Greater Sage-Grouse feeding areas.
- Federal officials are investigating the deaths of six Golden Eagles at the Pine Tree Wind Project in California's Tehachapi Mountains. Overall bird mortality at that site was high compared to other wind farms around the country, with an average of 1,595 birds killed each year.
- Human disturbance in one area can cause problems for animals in nearby areas, according to a study of Short-toed Eagles and Long-legged Buzzards in the Judean foothills.
- Great Tits in the U.K. are increasingly affected by avian pox, which can be transmitted between birds and through bird feeders.
- Male birds with the showiest plumage and most complex courtship displays tend to age more quickly than other males.
- Madagascar is well known for its endemic species; one endemic bird is the Velvet Asity.
- A locally famous Bald Eagle in Seattle was struck and killed by a bus on one of the city's bridges.
- eBird News: eBird and the Gray-hooded Gull
- Anything Larus: The Coney Island Gray-hooded Gull
- The Thoughtful Animal: Humans Aren’t The Only Ones Who Need To Avoid The Heat: How Birds Avoid Scrambled Eggs
- Birding in Maine: Fight of the Hummingbirds
- Sibley Guides: The mystery of the Orange-throated hummingbirds
- Round Robin: Science at work: How many kinds of Red Crossbills are there, anyway?
- The House and other Arctic musings: A long time coming
- 10,000 Birds: Common Tern Chicks Walk to the Water
- Coffee and Conservation: What does “organic” really mean?
- Honey Bee Suite: Fifteen ways to attract pollinators to your yard
- Beetles In The Bush: Cylindera cursitans (Ant-like Tiger Beetle) in Arkansas
- The Way of the Sparrow: Leucistic European Starling
- Rob's Idaho Perspective: Plucking the data for the verdict
- A study in the United Kingdom found that urban bees tend to have better survival rates than rural ones. The authors suggest that crop monoculture is responsible for the shorter lives of rural bees, which have little to feed on once the predominant crops are done blooming. Meanwhile urban bees can forage almost year-round on the plantings in parks and gardens.
- The Mount Charleston Blue has become increasingly difficult to find.
- Scientists in New York City are studying how animals in and around the city are evolving to cope with the challenges of living in an urban area. For example, most of the city's parks are separated enough from each other that the white-footed mouse populations in each park are reproductively isolated. Bottom-dwelling fish in the Hudson have become resistant to the effects of PCBs.
- A new study finds that protected areas, while important, are insufficient to save Earth's biodiversity.
- Somerset County in New Jersey plans to expand its urban power generation project by installing solar panels at an additional 31 locations.
