As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Saturday 6 September 2014

Swallows Of The Western Skies

By Jessica Arriens, National Science Foundation | September 05, 2014 11:56pm ET

This Behind the Scenes article was provided to Live Science in partnership with the National Science Foundation.

Ushuaia and Fairbanks are cities near the tips of the world.

The capital of Argentina's Tierra del Fuego province and the Alaskan metropolis don't share much in common. Except for a cluster of simple wood boxes on poles and the scientists and swallows who flock to them.

Both animals are part of Golondrinas de las Américas — the Swallows of the Americas, an international research project studying the slight, swift swallow to answer larger questions about biological patterns.

"Looking at these birds across this huge hemispheric span of habitats provides a broader opportunity to explore relationships between the environment, temperatures and breeding," says David Winkler, a professor in Cornell University's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. He is the lead investigator for Golondrinas, funded through the National Science Foundation's Partnerships in International Research and Education (PIRE) program.

Read on ...

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