Posts
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| Ruby-throated Hummingbird / Photo by Bill Thompson (USFWS) |
- Sleepless male Pectoral Sandpipers tend to have the most offspring since their lack of sleep gives them more time for mating, mate-guarding, and other reproductive activities. The most successful males were active up to 95% of each day and seemed not to suffer any ill effects from sleep deprivation.
- A new species of barbet, Sira Barbet (Capito fitzpatrick), was discovered by recent college graduates in Peru.
- Excavations at a Mayan site in Guatemala suggest that Wild Turkeys were domesticated much earlier than previously thought.
- Here is an account of birding in Costa Rica's Parque Nacional de los Quetzales, a prime location for seeing quetzals and many other birds.
- The Philadelphia Inquirer reviews Moonbird, a new book on an exceptionally long-lived Red Knot.
- Hawaii's native birds are slowly going extinct without much attention from U.S. birders.
- Birds that live with more variable weather tend to have more diverse songs.
- Bald Eagles are repopulating the San Francisco Bay Area.
- One of the Common Cuckoos being tracked by the British Trust for Ornithology took an unexpected route back to Africa.
- Forests remain the best habitat for tropical birds, but birds fare much better on shade plantations (particularly for coffee) than in open farmland.
- A businessman in England is trying to keep gulls away by painting his rooftop red.
- A study by scientists at the University of Georgia found that outdoor cats kill more wildlife than previously thought. The study used collar-mounted CritterCams to monitor the daily activities of 60 pet cats that spent time outdoors. Of those, 30% killed wildlife, of which 12% were birds, 41% were reptiles or amphibians, and 25% were small mammals. You can read more on the project website. (via 10,000 Birds)
- Round Robin: A New Generation of “Digital Ornithologists”
- Bourbon, Bastards, and Birds: Cathartic California Birding: The Yellow-footed Gull
- Audubon Guides: Invader, Meet Invader
- March of the Fossil Penguins: Dividing up the Brain
- Audubon Guides: Hawk ID Part 1: ID Techniques 101
- Not Exactly Rocket Science: Prisoners do science, help to save endangered butterfly
- Insect Museum: Insect Minute – Ticks, what to know
- Cicada Mania: Cicada Killer Wasps Are Busy Killing Cicadas
- Bug Eric: Time to Delete "Moth" From Our Vocabulary
- South Jersey Butterfly B/Log: Limenitis Complexities
- Extinction Countdown: Fishing Nets, Climate Change Threaten Yellow-Eyed Penguins in New Zealand
- Running Ponies: If only you could see yourself, Atretochoana eiselti
- Discoblog: Long-Dead Bishop’s Coffin is Full of Coffin Beetles
- The Plover Warden Diaries: swallows in road, helicopter in sky, chicks on beach
- A new species of lacewing was identified based on a photo posted on Flickr. After seeing the Flickr photo, a scientist recognized that the lacewing was not a known species and obtained a type specimen. The research was published in ZooKeys. The Flickr photographer posts under the handle Orionmystery; here is one of his lacewing photos. See also Finding a new species on Flickr.
- A Chevron refinery fire near San Francisco this week created such dangerous air pollution that residents were advised to stay indoors. Here is an infographic that shows possible sources of pollution from a refinery.
- Chevron also faced a deadline this week to pay penalties for polluting Amazon waterways in Ecuador.
- July 2012 was the hottest month on record in the contiguous 48 states. Its average temperature of 77.6°F broke the previous record of 77.4°F set in July 1936. A new study connects recent extreme heat waves to climate change.
- Here is an informative page on the life history of cicada killers.
- Maui dolphins are still in danger of extinction despite new conservation measures. The major threat remains commercial fishing.
- European scientists have created a tool for identifying bats from their calls. The tool is available online as iBatsID.
- Genetic analysis indicates that shark fin soup is often made from endangered sharks.
