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| Eastern Meadowlark / Photo credit: Carlton Ward, Jr./CarltonWard.com |
Birds and birding news
- USGS scientists in the Upper Midwest are tracking loons, some with satellite transmitters and others with geolocators, to learn more about their migratory movements, including how avian botulism affects them and how deep they dive. You can follow the progress of individual birds marked with transmitters on the Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center website.
- Here are some suggestions for good fall migration birding on lands administered by the National Park Service.
- African honeyguides lay their eggs in the underground nests of bee-eaters. When the honeyguide chick hatches, it kills its rival bee-eater chicks with a sharp nail on its upper mandible.
- An endangered Puaiohi (a.k.a. the Small Kauaʻi Thrush) pair recently fledged a chick from an artificial nest box, only the second recorded instance of a Puaiohi fledging from an artificial cavity. There is hope that use of next boxes will leave Puaiohi less vulnerable to nest predation and assist the recovery of the population.
- The veterinary drug diclofenac, which was banned in India, Nepal, and Pakistan because it poisons critically-endangered vultures, is still available from a third of India's pharmacies.
- New molecular research suggests that birds' three digits are equivalent to the thumb, middle, and ring fingers even though the avian first digit develops where an index finger should be.
- You can follow Happy Feet (the Emperor Penguin stranded in NZ and later released at sea) with Sirtrack.
- BirdLife Finland has made its flagship journal, Ornis Fennica, an open-access online journal. Online archives go back to 1924.
- The Willow Tit and the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker are being added to the British endangered list due to rapid population declines.
- Laelaps: Transatlantic Terror Birds
- March of the Fossil Penguins: Meet Inguza, the Smallest Penguin from Africa
- ABA Blog: L-o-n-g-Distance Nester
- The Daily Wing: Monday Morning Birding Basics – No. 10: On Buying Binoculars
- Rob's Idaho Perspective: Celebrating Vultures Through Art
- Tetrapod Zoology: Obscure, extravagant tropical crows
- Bug Eric: Spider Sunday: Black and Yellow Argiope
- Not Exactly Rocket Science: Hummingbirds dive to sing with their tails
- 10,000 Birds: Songbird-parrot link strengthened in new study, with implications for vocal learning
- The Drinking Bird: Birder Jargon Project: Big Years not depicted on the big screen
- Urban Hawks: Ruby-throated Hummingbird
- This summer the U.S. experienced its second-hottest summer on record. Not all areas were equally affected by the record heat; the southern central part of the country experienced the worst heat, with Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Louisiana having their hottest summers on record while Texas had its driest summer on record.
- An op-ed argues that individual actions are not enough to address climate change.
- The Hudson River turned red because of red clay sediments being eroded by floodwaters in the Catskills.
- According to genetic research, the Appalachian Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio appalachiensis) evolved from hybridization of the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) and the Canadian Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio canadensis). New species developing from hybrids is relatively rare among animals.
- When a particular virus infects a gypsy moth caterpillar, it climbs as high as it can and liquifies, so that the resultant particles fall and infect other gypsy moth caterpillars.
- The US Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed endangered listing for the recently-rediscovered Franciscan Manzanita (Arctostaphylos franciscana). The only known specimen of this rare shrub is somewhere in San Francisco's Presidio.
- Warming water temperatures have allowed King Crabs to gain a foothold on Antarctica's continental shelf.
