Birds in the News 157

tags: Birds in the News, BirdNews, ornithology, birds, avian, newsletter

People Hurting Birds

The Greater Sage-Grouse, a species whose population has declined 93% from historic numbers and that is on the U.S. WatchList of birds of highest conservation concern, is facing a severe decline in the amount of suitable breeding habitat due to energy development. Oil and gas drilling in the region have been booming, driving the birds out of many breeding areas, or leks. In addition, wind farm development in Wyoming and elsewhere in sagebrush habitat may soon add to the problem. Horizon Wind Energy is proposing to build 154 turbines in prime Sage-Grouse habitat."We can avoid unnecessary impacts to the rapidly declining Greater Sage-Grouse by providing adequate buffers," said Dr. Michael Fry, American Bird Conservancy's Director of Conservation Advocacy. "Evidence indicates the one kilometer buffer currently being considered for Horizon's wind project is insufficient."

Strip-mining for tar sands, a source of low-grade oil, is damaging forest and wetland habitats in Canada's boreal forest. In a report, Danger in the Nursery [free PDF], from the Boreal Songbird Initiative, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Pembina Institute, warns that over the next 30 to 50 years up to 300,000 hectares of forest and wetland could be directly affected, while habitat fragmentation, pollution and hydrological changes would affect a much larger area. "Canada's boreal forest is an incredibly important area for many breeding neotropical migrant birds, and contains numerous Important Bird Areas", said John Cecil, national IBA program director for Audubon (BirdLife in the USA). "The report details impacts to at least five IBAs, among numerous other impacts".

The number of birds in Wales continues to decline with two species, curlews and golden plovers, seeing an 80% drop in population, RSPB Cymru reports. The charity is also concerned for birds that breed on four estuaries, including the Severn and the Dee. But its annual survey found some good news, with the near-threatened Dartford warbler having 72 pairs in Wales. And the seabirds kittiwakes, fulmars and guillemots are doing better in Wales than in other parts of the UK. A study suggests populations of some breeding birds on farmed habitats, such as curlews, starlings and yellowhammers, are continuing to decline unabated.

People Helping Birds

Eighth grader Charlie Sobcov wants to stop birds from dying in collisions with windows, but he doesn't want to ruin anybody's view. For his latest school science fair project he has invented painted, plastic decals that can be placed -- discreetly -- right in the middle of a window pane. "This paint is a color that birds can see but humans can't," he said recently in an interview. "It's like putting a big stop sign in the middle of the window." The color is ultraviolet, beyond the range of colors visible to humans. That means the "stop sign" lets birds know the window is solid, but is nearly invisible to humans.

While Hawaii tends to be behind the trend when it comes to technological advances, the state's digital TV initiative is ahead of the curve, thanks to an endangered bird. The Hawaiian dark-rumped petrel, a volcano-dwelling bird that makes its home on the slopes of Maui's Haleakala, is quickly approaching its nesting season, which prompted rangers to request an early analog to digital TV conversion date so that analog transmission towers can be taken down.

Bird conservation in the Appalachian Mountains received a big boost recently with the completion of a significant conservation acquisition in east Tennessee's Cumberland Plateau. The newly-acquired lands include over 120,000 acres of hardwood forest, rugged mountains, and pristine streams spread over three different areas. These forests link to an additional 66,000 acres of public lands, creating a total of 300 square miles of protected habitat for birds and wildlife.

With help from American Bird Conservancy, biologists with the Juan Fernández Islands Conservancy (JFIC) have advanced efforts to save the Critically Endangered Juan Fernández Firecrown. The global population of the firecrown, a beautiful red hummingbird, is restricted to a small part of a single island, Isla Robinson Crusoe, in the Juan Fernández Archipelago off the coast of Chile. The island's remaining forested habitat has been degraded by the presence of invasive plants and loss of native vegetation; the firecrown's survival has been further compromised by the spread of feral cats. The species is in such peril that it has been recognized by the Alliance for Zero Extinction as one of the top global conservation priorities.

Birds Helping People

Two men who spent 25 days lost at sea in a giant icebox survived their extraordinary ordeal thanks to rainwater from tropical storms and fish spat out by passing birds. The men, who were recently rescued by helicopter, are still being interviewed by Australian immigration officials, who are hoping to clarify how they came to be drifting in shark-infested waters off the country's northern coast. "For 10 days, nothing to eat," one of the men told the paper through an interpreter. "Then two big seabirds came and vomited some small fish -- about six or seven little fish, and that's all."

Endangered Species News

Seven endangered whooping cranes guided by ultralight planes arrived Saturday morning at St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge, where they will spend the rest of the winter. More than 1,000 local residents drove to a designated viewing area by the St. Marks River to watch the cranes fly over about 8:30 a.m. They looked up at the sky with binoculars, still cameras and video cameras, some huddling together to keep warm. "These people are coming to get excited and see the restoration of an endangered species," said Robin Will, a ranger with the refuge. "There are only several hundred in the wild."

Until credible sightings popped up three years ago, the scientific world was in agreement that ivory-billed woodpeckers had gone the way of the dodo. A new study conducted by University of Georgia researchers reveals that the ivory-billed woodpecker could have persisted if as few as five mated pairs survived the extensive habitat loss during the early 1900's. A new paper published in the online journal Avian Conservation and Ecology by researchers at the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources adds another angle to the ongoing debate about modern existence of the birds.

A rare pelican species has been sighted in Leyte by a team from the regional office of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR-8) in the Philippines. Arnulito Viojan of the DENR's Protected Areas and Wildlife Division said they discovered what could be the Spot-billed Pelican, Pelecanus philippensis, at Lake Bito, Barangay Imelda, MacArthur, Leyte, on Wednesday, while they were conducting a monitoring of water birds in the area. Citing information from the "A Guide to the Birds of the Philippines" by Robert S. Kennedy, et. al., Viojan said the the Spot-billed Pelican is believed to have been extinct "probably since the 1940s."

Another new bird has been discovered in Colombia next to the Cerulean Warbler Bird Reserve. The YariguÃes Slate-crowned Antpitta was discovered during explorations of the YariguÃes Mountains by American Bird Conservancy partner organization, Fundación ProAves. It is a subspecies of the Slate-crowned Antpitta, and has been given the scientific name, Grallaricula nana hallsi, in honor of the British birder Alan G. Halls, who died in 2005 around time the discovery was made. The description was published as part of a substantial revision of the taxonomy of the Slate-crowned Antpitta. Another new subspecies, Grallaricula nana nanitaea, from Venezuela, which had gone overlooked until recently, was also described.

Streaming Birds

On BirdNote, for the week of 25 January 2009, including yesterday's story about Bohemian Waxwings (the species that sparked my passion for birds when I was a wee one). BirdNotes can be heard seven mornings per week at 8:58-9:00am throughout Western Washington state and Southern British Columbia, Canada, on KPLU radio in Seattle, KOHO radio in Wenatchee, WA, WNPR radio in Connecticut, KWMR radio in West Marin, California, KTOO radio in Juneau, Alaska, and KMBH radio in Harlingen, Texas. All episodes are available in the BirdNote archives, both in written transcript and mp3 formats, along with photographs, so you can listen to them anytime, anywhere. Listener ideas and comments are welcomed. [Podcast and rss]. If you would like to $upport BirdNote, I encourage you to purchase one of their wonderful "birdy" items from their online BirdNote Store (the calendar and t-shirt look especially fine, and no doubt, they will be adding more items in the future).

Bird Publications News

This week's issue of the Birdbooker Report lists ecology, evolution, natural history and bird books that are (or will soon be) available for purchase. Ian also recently published an article in the magazine, Winging It, about the 50 bird books that every birder should own in their library [free PDF]. Keep an eye on the comments for this blog entry to find more URLs where this PDF is being hosted.

Would you like an avian anatomy book -- free? If so, you can download one, two or all three books as PDFs by going to this entry, where you can read about the books that are available and choose your free copies. Note that each book must be uploaded to someone's computer at least once every 90 days, or the file will be automatically deleted by RapidShare, so please share this link with your friends. While you are there, you can also pick up a free book about the Endemic birds of Sri Lanka.

Bird Identification Quizzes

If you are interested to participate in a daily online discussion of bird identification, please go to the Mystery Birds archive. This is a collaborative project featuring with a number of talented bird photographers and written analyses by Rick Wright. It is updated daily, and you are given 48 hours to identify each bird before its identification and an analysis is published. You are also invited to check out the previous Mystery Birds to improve your birding skills.

Miscellaneous Bird News

The big "blizzard" forecast for the Carolina Piedmont on Inauguration Day Eve fizzled out and left sparse white stuff on the ground at This Week at Hilton Pond. Despite minimal snow cover, there was plenty of activity at their feeders. Of even greater interest was the Sharp-shinned Hawk that came to partake of our songbird buffet. For a photo essay on the snow, some winter finches and their potential predator, and even an image of a Carolina Jessamine visit the Hilton Pond's 15-21 January 2009 installment.

The Fine Print: Thanks to Sammy, TravelGirl, Ellen, Jeremy and Ron for sending story links. Thanks in advance to Ian Paulsen for catching my typos; as you probably know by now, I put a few typographical errors in these documents just so Ian can find them!