Loose Feathers #344

Marsh Wren / Photo by Steve Arena (USFWS)

News about birds and birding

• Introduced Japanese White-eyes are competing with native Hawaiian birds and driving them out of a conservation area that was created for the native birds' benefit. 
• Also on the subject of Hawaiian birds, a scientist writes about his research on the effects of forest fragmentation.
• The Breeding Bird Survey, begun in 1966, is an important source of data on the population trends of 400 North American bird species. One note: the article seems to confuse the Breeding Bird Survey with atlasing (specifically The Breeding Bird Atlas of Georgia); these are two different projects that use different methodologies.
• Black-crowned Night-Herons are nesting in downtown Oakland.
• A recent study of Song Sparrows found that extra-pair offspring go on to have less breeding success than within-pair offspring. This undermines one explanation for extra-pair copulation: that it provides a reproductive advantage for females.
• The British government wants to allow the capture of Buzzards and the destruction of their nests in order to protect pheasant hunts.
• Great Egrets are nesting in the UK for the first time.
• Meanwhile, the UK's oldest Osprey hatched her 48th chick at the Loch of the Lowes reserve. The Osprey is 26 years old and has nested at the refuge for 22 consecutive years.
• The color of female storks' bills reflects their health and thus serves as a signal of their fitness for breeding.

Nature blogging

• Not Exactly Rocket Science: New sense organ helps giant whales to coordinate the world’s biggest mouthfuls
• Big Girl's Blog: Bees and Pesticides (again)
• Extinction Countdown: California Condor Populations Hit Important Milestone, but Still Face Threats
• Sibley Guides: An unusual Cattle Egret in Florida
• The Drinking Bird: Birder Jargon Project: TVs, BVs, and MODOs
• Laelaps: A New Twist in the Tetrapod Tale
• BugBlog: Communal mining bees
• Birding Dude: Ruff or Reeve...I'll take it...
• Bird Ecology Study Group: Foraging Habits of Blue-crowned Hanging Parrots
• Birding Is Fun!: Birding Apps Revisited

Environment and biodiversity

• A tiny new frog species has been found in Panama; the Yellow Dyer Rain Frog (Diasporus citrinobapheus) is named for the yellow pigment it sheds when handled.
• Researchers are tracking the seasonal movements of elephant seals that winter in California with satellite tags. Some travel as far north as the Aleutian islands.
• Areas with a high degree of artificial lighting (such as around streetlights) attract more predator and scavenger invertebrates such as ground beetles and harvestmen. 
• The Brown Argus butterfly has been expanding its range northward due to warmer summers. It may be an example of a species benefiting from climate change.
• Less than 100 Pygmy Three-toed Sloths survive in the wild according to a new survey.
• Duke Farms in Somerset County, New Jersey, opened to the public last weekend.