tagged w/ Ornithology
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'Lights Out' policies save thousands of migratory birds from fatal attraction
by Leslie Trew Magraw
March 17, 2011
MEDILL
The Chicago skyline has become less deadly since many of its most prominent members have adopted "lights out" policies during peak migration times.
As the Loop prepares to dim its lights to save thousands of avian lives, volunteers with the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors ready themselves to pound the city streets in the early morning hours to pick up migratory birds that have collided with buildings.
Mid-March marks the beginning of the spring migration season in the area, and most prominent members of Chicago’s skyline are instituting a “lights out” policy to prevent migratory birds from being drawn to the city’s glow.
“We know that the Lights Out program is inevitably saving thousands of lives,” said Annette Prince, director of the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors. “When cities are lit up at night, they attract birds to buildings that they would have avoided otherwise. They’ll circle [the buildings] and get confused. It’s a fatal attraction for them.”
Participating buildings turn down their lights from 11 p.m. to sunrise during the peak months of bird migration -- from mid-March to early June in the spring and from late August to mid-November in the fall.
Most song birds migrate at night using stars to navigate, the twinkling lights of the Chicago skyline disorient and distract, leading birds away from the open sky and into harm’s way.
The American Bird Conservancy estimates that up to a billion birds collide with buildings each year, making it a leading cause of death for thousands of species.
Joan Bruchman, a volunteer who canvassed the Loop looking for injured and dead birds with CBCM before buildings started dimming their lights, said: “When we first started, there were birds all the time. Now I find very few birds during the dark part of the [monitoring trip].”
A building doesn’t have to be tall to be dangerous to birds; it just has to have glass. Any building that has a window -- whether reflective or transparent -- can be a lure, according to David Willard, an ornithologist at the Field Museum.
Willard, who also acts as a bird monitor, said that the more glass a building has, the bigger risk it poses to birds.
“McCormick Place [which has one of the highest bird mortality rates in the city] is a kind of squat building – it’s only a couple of stories high – but it has an extensive expanse of glass,” he said.
For the past 34 years, Willard has circled the building each morning looking for the previous night’s casualties. “The total number being killed at McCormick Place because of lights being out is now a quarter of what it used to be,” he said.
CONTINUED...'Lights Out' policies save thousands of migratory birds from fatal... more
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As most of you know I have had a love/hate relationship with the California Academy of Sciences. I love the fact that they have a super eco-friendly building with LEED Platinum certification, but what I have found with the new change is that they don’t have the science so much anymore. I grew up at the Academy and whenever I had a science project at school I would always do my research at the Academy because it was a treasure trove of information and because I was also a member of the Junior Academy I had access to even more.As most of you know I have had a love/hate relationship with the California Academy of... more
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Dead Birds Fall From Sky In Sweden, Millions Of Dead Fish Found In Maryland, Brazil, New Zealand
The Huffington Post | Travis Walter Donovan First Posted: 01- 5-11 09:11 AM | Updated: 01- 5-11 06:16 PM
UPDATE: Wildlife officials say that even more previously unreported dead birds were found in Kentucky last week.
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Millions of dead fish surfaced in Maryland's Chesapeake Bay in the U.S., Tuesday, while similar unexplained mass fish deaths occurred across the world in Brazil and New Zealand. On Wednesday, 50 birds were found dead on a street in Sweden. The news come after recents reports of mysterious massive bird and fish deaths days prior in Arkansas and Louisiana.
The Baltimore Sun reports that an estimated 2 million fish were found dead in the Chesapeake Bay, mostly adult spot with some juvenile croakers in the mix, as well. Maryland Department of the Environment spokesperson Dawn Stoltzfus says "cold-water stress" is believed to be the culprit. She told The Sun that similar large winter fish deaths were documented in 1976 and 1980.
ParanaOnline reports that 100 tons of sardines, croaker and catfish have washed up in Brazilian fishing towns since last Thursday. The cause of the deaths is unknown, with an imbalance in the environment, chemical pollution, or accidental release from a fishing boat all suggested by local officials.
In New Zealand, hundreds of dead snapper fish washed up on Coromandel Peninsula beaches, many found with their eyes missing, The New Zealand Herald reports. A Department of Conservation official allegedly claims the fish were starving due to weather conditions.
While all three events are likely unrelated, they come after recent reports of mysterious dead birds falling from the sky in both Arkansas and Louisiana. Thousands of dead birds were found in Beebe, Arkansas on New Year's Eve, and a few days later, around 500 of the same species were found 300 miles south in Louisiana. A Kentucky woman also reported finding dozens of dead birds scattered around her home. In the days prior to New Year's, nearly 100,000 fish surfaced in an Arkansas river 100 miles west of Beebe. Officials are now saying that fireworks likely caused the Arkansas bird deaths, and power lines may be to blame for the death of the birds in Louisiana.
Some remain skeptical of the explanations. Dan Cristol, a biology professor and co-founder of the Institute for Integrative Bird Behavior Studies at the College of William & Mary, told the AP that he was hesitant to believe fireworks were to blame unless "somebody blew something into the roost, literally blowing the birds into the sky."
Wednesday, officials in Sweden reported the finding of 50 dead birds on a street, suggesting that cold weather or fireworks were the likely culprit.
Bird deaths and fish kills at smaller numbers aren't all that uncommon, though the size and proximity of some of the recent events have led people to allege their relation, though officials deny the frequency of these wildlife deaths as being anything other than coincidence.
In August of 2010, tens of thousands of dead fish were reported washing ashore in two separate occasions, 200 miles apart on the East Coast.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------... more
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most people have heard that the fine people of butterball offer a toll-free number dolling out turkey advice.So here's one last, quick-look guide at the most important last-minute tips from Butterball. And, of course, info for the Butterball turkey hotline.most people have heard that the fine people of butterball offer a toll-free number... more
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November 22nd, 2010
05:00 PM ET
Report: Woman detained after falcons found in luggage
The eight gyrfalcons were swaddled in pillow cases and other cloth when customs officials discovered them at Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport.
Customs officials seized eight rare falcons at the Moscow airport after a woman tried to smuggle the wrapped, boxed birds out of the country, the International Fund for Animal Welfare reported.
The gyrfalcons were found in two cartons being loaded into the hold of a plane bound for Damascus, Syria, on Sunday, the group said. The woman who checked the cartons as her luggage was detained and released pending a court appearance.
“At least 100 wild gyrfalcons are smuggled out of Russia each year, primarily driven by demand from the growing popularity of falconry in the Middle East,” said IFAW’s Russia director, Masha Vorontsova, in a statement.
The fast and powerful predator is the world's largest falcon. It breeds in arctic and subarctic regions and preys primarily on large birds, according to the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology.
They can command as much as $50,000 on the black market. Officials believe the birds seized at Sheremetyevo International Airport were captured in Russia’s Far East and transported through two security checkpoints and a customs inspection before being detected.
The birds are expected to survive and will reside at IFAW’s raptor rehabilitation center until they are ready to be released into the wild, likely sometime next month.
The gyrfalcon is listed in the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red Book of endangered species and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species’ Appendix I. The latter designation, says IFAW, makes any commercial trade involving the birds illegal.November 22nd, 2010
05:00 PM ET
Report: Woman detained after falcons found in... more
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Fossilised feathers from a giant, extinct penguin reveal this species' unusual coloration and offer clues to how modern penguin feathers evolvedFossilised feathers from a giant, extinct penguin reveal this species' unusual... more
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Where have all the kestrels gone?
Massive decline in numbers could be due to intensive farming reducing their prey
* Phil Daoust
* guardian.co.uk, Monday 19 July 2010 20.00 BST
* Article history
Photo: Female Eurasian Kestrel hovering in the breeze A female kestrel… the outlook is looking bleak. Photograph: Alamy
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Worrying news for anyone who loves the British countryside, the films of Ken Loach or feathery predators. The kestrel – which had a starring role in Loach's 1969 movie Kes and the Barry Hines novel that inspired it – is in decline, according to figures from the British Trust for Ornithology. That's decline as in falling out of the sky, rather than gliding back to earth. The latest Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) records a 20% drop in the kestrel population between 1995 and 2008, and a further fall of 36% between 2008 and 2009. Things haven't looked so bleak for the bird since Billy Casper's brutish brother took it for a trip out to the dustbin.
And yet other birds of prey, notably buzzards, red kites and hobbies, have seen an increase in their numbers. What's going on?
Kate Risely, the BBS's organiser, says it is too soon to be sure where the blame lies, but it is probably due to food supplies. "Kestrels mainly feed on voles and other small mammals," she says, "and if there aren't many of those around their numbers will decline." The quantity of rodents, in turn, will depend on the quality of their habitat. "If there's plenty of grain and seeds for the rodent populations, there'll be lots of food for the birds." Intensive farming is bad news for both prey and predators.
So why aren't buzzards, red kites and hobbies suffering, too? They have different diets. Hobbies are fond of dragonflies, which have been spreading further north, while buzzards and red kites feed mainly on carrion, including roadkill. "They'll generally pick up whatever's lying around."
One often-mentioned threat to birds of prey can, it seem, be ruled out. If any British raptors were going to suffer from collisions with wind farms, it would be the kestrel's bigger – and higher-flying – relatives. Kestrels themselves usually dart around below the turbines' blades. "They are also more manoeuverable," Risely points out. "Even if the blades are moving, smaller birds can get out of the way."
That's one crumb of comfort. The novelist Nicholas Royle would be heartbroken if the "windhover" were to vanish. "I love kestrels," he says. "I spent 10 minutes watching one last week by the River Mersey in south Manchester. Classic kestrel hunting behaviour – hovering, moving on, hovering, wings and tail moving, head staying perfectly still. While I was watching it, there were swifts sweeping back and forth high above the kestrel and then a heron took off and flew just below it. Bliss."Where have all the kestrels gone?
Massive decline in numbers could be due to... more
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A zombie is another name for The Walking Dead -- those who are lifeless, apathetic, or totally lacking in independent judgment. But in an ecological sense, a zombie species no longer fulfills its ecological function because it is becoming extinct. This is a topic that I hope to explore further in another blog entry, but for now, today's zombie theme (and my special "zombified" icon) and, well, vultures' dining habits have inspired me to focus on them.A zombie is another name for The Walking Dead -- those who are lifeless, apathetic, or... more
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Common Ravens have been shown to express empathy towards a "friend" or relative when they are distressed after an aggressive conflict -- just like humans and chimpanzees do. But birds are very distant evolutionary relatives of Great Apes, so what does this similarity imply about the evolution of behavior?Common Ravens have been shown to express empathy towards a "friend" or... more
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A short entry - AP Photographer Charlie Riedel just filed the following images of seabirds caught in the oil slick on a beach on Louisiana's East Grand Terre Island.
As BP engineers continue their efforts to cap the underwater flow of oil, landfall is becoming more frequent, and the effects more evident. (8 photos total)
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/06/caught_in_the_oil.htmlA short entry - AP Photographer Charlie Riedel just filed the following images of... more
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April is the peak month of spring migration for millions of birds, so the ongoing eruption of the Icelandic volcano, Eyjafjallajökull, presents hundreds of millions of birds with an unusually challenging set of circumstances as they fly to their northerly breeding grounds. But when a reader asked me how volcanic ash affects birds, I had no ready answer. The best I can do is to say that the ash is affecting birds, but I cannot say precisely how -- so I decided to investigate this issue in more depth and share the studies I found.April is the peak month of spring migration for millions of birds, so the ongoing... more
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Watch two harlequin ducks come alive on paper in this time-lapse video featuring National Geographic bird expert and illustrator Jonathan Alderfer.Watch two harlequin ducks come alive on paper in this time-lapse video featuring... more
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Nearly one-third of U.S. bird species "are endangered, threatened or in significant decline," due to climate change, Department of the Interior chief Ken Salazar said Thursday.
Salazar issued a report, "The State of the Birds: 2010 Report on Climate Change", created by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in collaboration with conservation groups. In it, researchers looked at five factors affecting bird species and weighed them against climate change effects. The factors were migratory vulnerability, breeding ground vulnerability, specialization to particular ecological niches, ability to move home terrains and breeding pattern robustness.
"The results indicate that a majority of birds dependent on oceans, and birds on Hawaiian Islands, are highly vulnerable to climate change," says the report summary. All 67 species of oceanic birds, such as petrels and albatrosses, nest on islands that face flooding from rising sea levels.
For threatened mainland species such as the golden-cheeked warbler, whooping crane, and spectacled eider, "the added vulnerability to climate change may hasten declines or prevent recovery." And common birds such as the American oystercatcher, nighthawk, and northern pintail "are likely to become species of conservation concern as a result of climate change."
"Birds are excellent indicators of the health of our environment, and right now they are telling us an important story about climate change," said Dr. Kenneth Rosenberg, director of Conservation Science at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, in a statement on the report. "Many species of conservation concern will face heightened threats, giving us an increased sense of urgency to protect and conserve vital bird habitat."Nearly one-third of U.S. bird species "are endangered, threatened or in... more
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An international team of scientists just published a paper demonstrating for the first time that fossil eggshells are a rich source of ancient DNA.An international team of scientists just published a paper demonstrating for the first... more
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This rare all-black mutant penguin was spotted and photographed by Andrew Evans, who is traveling in Antarctica. What gave this suave little guy his goth look? No, the answer is not Photoshop.
National Geographic's Janelle Nanos asked Allan Baker, an ornithologist, about the images. Here's what transpired:
"Well that is astonishing," he said. "I've never ever seen that before. It's a one in a zillion kind of mutation somewhere. The animal has lost control of its pigmentation patterns. Presumably it's some kind of mutation." He explained that typically, melanistic birds of all species will have white spots where melanin pigmentation has failed to color the feathers. But it's extremely rare for melanin deposits to occur where they're not normally located, as genes control those pathways (in this case, in the breast feathers of the king penguin). After looking through several texts, he ruled out the potential for it to be a hybrid and said that it's closer in coloring to the Little Blue penguin. "But look at the size of those legs," he added, "It's an absolute monster."
Honestly I don't know what's more awesome: Blackie the Penguin, or Baker's response to it.
http://io9.com/5485282/meet-blackie-the-mutant-penguinThis rare all-black mutant penguin was spotted and photographed by Andrew Evans, who... more
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Ever since a small group of birders and ornithologists from Cornell University published their very controversial claim in Science in 2004 that they captured this extinct species on video, the number of other people who have likewise "seen" the Ivory-billed Woodpecker have increased. Unfortunately, many of these so-called sightings are based on manufactured photographic evidence.Ever since a small group of birders and ornithologists from Cornell University... more
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Scanning electron microscopy reveals that the 155-million-year-old theropod dinosaur, Anchiornis huxleyi, which resembled a large woodpecker, is very colorful: it had a black body and wings with several bold white wing bars, and a red crest and facial markingsScanning electron microscopy reveals that the 155-million-year-old theropod dinosaur,... more
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A long-standing scientific debate focuses on the origins of birds: did they evolve from reptiles or dinosaurs? A newly-unearthed dinosaur supports the dinosaur-bird link.A long-standing scientific debate focuses on the origins of birds: did they evolve... more
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According to a newly published study of Great Tits, Parus major, males with more intensely colored breast plumage produce faster and more motile sperm OR: Tit wanking and sperm racing research finds that male Great Tits with brighter breasts produce higher quality sperm.According to a newly published study of Great Tits, Parus major, males with more... more
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I recently showed you the oddly shaped iridescent tail plume from a King Bird of Paradise as the daily mystery bird, now watch this video to see how the birds use these plumes in courtship displays.I recently showed you the oddly shaped iridescent tail plume from a King Bird of... more
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