Posts
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| Swallow-tailed Kite / Photo by Grayson Smith/USFWS |
- For coastal species like Saltmarsh Sparrows to survive climate change, restoration of high salt marshes will be necessary.
- The turtle dove is one of several European species under pressure because of changes in agricultural practices.
- Vulturine Guineafowl live in an unexpectedly complex social system.
- Studies are finding evidence that climate change is making survival and successful breeding more difficult for migratory birds.
- Development threatens an important wintering habitat for the Far Eastern Curlew.
- It is unclear why parrots waste so much food, but it benefits some other animals that pick up food parrots drop or leave behind.
- Most geese breed more successfully with an earlier spring, but light-bellied Brant do worse because it decreases the food available for their goslings.
- About 130 highly endangered Black-billed Gulls are nesting in an abandoned and half-demolished office complex in New Zealand.
- The biggest threat to vultures is poisoning (either deliberate or incidental), but there is also a threat from the wildlife trade connected to traditional medicine.
- A warmer and wetter climate in the Canadian prairies benefits wetland-dependent birds.
- Australia has allowed birds in need of conservation to continue declining even though it has the resources and knowledge to save them.
- Speaking of Australian birds, the Guardian is sponsoring a vote for the Australian bird of the year. So far the Black-throated Finch, whose habitat is threatened by a proposed coal mine, is the leading vote getter, but the Budgerigar is an underrated candidate.
- Puffins make poor dietary choices when conditions are bad.
- New Jersey published reports on the Piping Plover Nesting Results (pdf) and the overall Beach Nesting Bird Project (pdf) in the state for 2019. Piping Plovers were more successful than in 2018, but still below the level needed for sustainability. Almost three-quarters of the state's Piping Plover population breeds in two federal properties (Sandy Hook and Forsythe NWR).
- Vermont Center for Ecostudies: New VCE Study Reveals Surprising Upland Sandpiper Migration Patterns
- Avian Hybrids: Promiscuous Pitohuis: Exchange of “toxicity genes” between poisonous birds?
- The Freiday Bird Blog: What Are You Doing Here?
- 10,000 Birds: How to Bird on Crutches
- Backyard and Beyond: It’s That Time of Year Again
- Urban Hawks: Purple Gallinule
- Conservationists are trying to protect the Gran Chaco region, which covers parts of Bolivia, Paraguary, and Argentina.
- New research on the invasive Spotted Lanternflies in North America documents 24 different surfaces on which the lanternflies laid eggs, including yard furniture and cars. Preferred trees include black birch, black cherry, and sweet cherry, in addition to its main host, the tree-of-heaven.
- A genetic study found that Heliconius butterflies diversified rapidly with a boost from hybridization.
- Invasive snakehead fish may not be as much of a threat as they originally seemed to be.
- Millions of migrating Monarch butterflies are killed along Texas highways.
- The Powesheik Skipperling's population is declining rapidly and in danger of extinction.
- A new species of dragonfly was described from Costa Rica.
- The Trump administration finally took formal steps to leave the Paris agreement; withdrawal will take effect after the next election. While the announcement does not doom climate action, it isolates the US and makes it much harder to achieve the necessary emissions reductions.
- An oil spill off the coast of Brazil has soiled 2,400 km of coastline, including mangroves and coral reefs. The government has been slow to respond, leaving volunteers to clean up the mess.
- Reduction of consumer plastic waste is useful, but the biggest share of plastics in the ocean is discarded fishing gear.
- Extreme wildfires are reversing much of the progress in cleaning up air pollution, especially in the West.
- Invasive grasses like cane grass and buffelgrass help to fuel those wildfires.
- Long-term ecological research is hampered by government funding cuts and shutdowns.
- The US needs to start planning how to protect coastal communities and ecosystems threatened by climate change now.
- Coastal communities will need to deal with sea level rise long after greenhouse gas emissions are stopped.
- London's ban on Extinction Rebellion protests was ruled unlawful, and activists may sue for illegal arrests.
- Australia's prime minister wants to ban climate boycotts, especially ones that target the coal industry.
