These astounding puffin pictures are telling scientists something very important about the effect of climate change

22 September 2017

A puffin photograph is great addition to any wildlife photographer’s portfolio.

The temperature of the sea is rising and the sand eels that the puffins feed on don’t like the warmer sea temperatures. The puffins are finding it harder and harder to find them.

But the right shot also has a scientific value.

Throughout the summer of 2017, members of the public have been sending the RSPB thousands of photographs of puffins feeding in locations from as far south as the Channel Islands to Unst in the north of the Shetland Isles.

They show that diets vary significantly across the UK.

A lack of food means that puffin numbers have dropped to around 50-60% of what they were 25 years ago.

Richard Humpage of the RSPB told Landward that this was due to climate change.

Continued   andsee photos: 

Rare birds return as isles cull black rats

Mike Merritt

September 22 2017, 12:01am, The Times

Storm petrels have been recorded calling for the first time on a chain of Hebridean islands after thousands of black rats were cleared as part of a £1 million eradication scheme to save seabirds.

The characteristic “churring” of the endangered birds was heard this summer from their breeding burrows, an encouraging sign that the project’s conservation work is paying off in the Shiant Isles and the birds may be nesting.

The EU-funded project by RSPB Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage, and the Nicolson family — the private owners of the islands — began in 2014 to provide safe breeding grounds for Scotland’s globally threatened seabird populations on the Shiants, in the Minch, five miles off the coast of Harris.

Read more  

Endangered Florida Bird Species' Nests Lost on Lake Okeechobee After Hurricane Irma

By Ada Carr

Hurricane Irma destroyed all of the active nests of the endangered Everglade Snail Kite.

The loss caused the birds’ breeding season to end on an even worse note, according to officials.

The Everglade Snail Kite is one of the species used to indicate the health of the Greater Everglades Ecosystem.

Scientists in Florida say all of the nests of an endangered species of bird were lost on Lake Okeechobee after deadly Hurricane Irma battered parts of the state. 

According to a release from Audubon Florida, all 44 active nests of the Everglade Snail Kite were wiped out by the storm. While many adult and juvenile birds survived, eggs and flightless baby birds in the nests did not make it.

Irma was a powerful storm that left more than 70 dead. It caused coastal surge flooding, torrential rainfall and damaging winds stretching from the northern Leeward Islands to the Southeast U.S. 

Before the storm, researchers had been watching the roughly 130 nests of the birds, which can only found in Florida, particularly around Lake Okeechobee. The loss caused the birds’ breeding season to end “on an even worse note,” according to the release. 

Continued  

Parrot manages to fool Amazon's Alexa and orders his own gift box without his owners knowing

African Grey Parrot Buddy mimicked his owner's voice to place the order on the internet shopping website

BY COURTNEY GREATREXMEGAN WHITE

17:28, 20 SEP 2017

A family has been left stunned when their "attention-seeking" parrot managed to order its own internet shopping after tricking Amazon's Alexa.

Corienne Pretorius was baffled after a £10 order for gift boxes arrived at her house.

The bemused mum-of-one questioned husband Jan, 45, a civil engineer, and son Jaden, eight, but quickly realised the culprit was Buddy - their African Grey Parrot.

Corienne, from Greenwich, south east London, says the cheeky bird mimics her voice, and must have activated the device's voice recognition software to place the strange order.

She said: "I couldn't believe it when I realised that it was Buddy who had used Alexa to make an Amazon order.

"None of us even knew how to use her for that.

Continued 

British bases in Cyprus get drone to fight bird trappers

Posted on 21 September 2017 - 06:46pm

LARNACA, Cyprus: Police on a British military base in Cyprus on Thursday launched their latest weapon in the fight against illegal bird trappers – a high-tech drone.

A recent study by Britain's Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), said Cypriot trappers killed 2.3 million migrating birds in autumn 2016, up from 1.4 million in 2010.

Size for size that makes Cyprus the second-most deadly bird destination in the Mediterranean, after Malta.

And most of the industrial killing takes place within British military-controlled areas, especially the eastern sovereign base of Dhekelia, outside the south coast resort of Larnaca.

After Cyprus gained independence in 1960, Britain retained sovereignty over two base areas covering some 254km² of the island's territory where it runs its own police and courts.

British authorities said the drone would mainly be used by an action team dedicated to combating illegal bird trapping due to the crystal clear imagery it can generate from great heights at a top speed of more than 80km per hour.

Read on  

Could condors return to Northern California?

Date:  September 20, 2017

Source:  American Ornithological Society Publications Office

Summary:

In 2003, Northern California's Yurok Tribe initiated efforts to reintroduce California condors on their lands. While wild condors have not existed in the region for more than a hundred years, a new study suggests that hunters transitioning from lead to non-lead ammunition may allow these apex scavengers to succeed there once again.

Continued  

Big brains in birds provides survival advantage

Date:  September 25, 2017

Source:  Washington University in St. Louis

Given how proud we are of our big brains, it's ironic that we haven't yet figured out why we have them. One idea, called the cognitive buffer hypothesis, is that the evolution of large brains is driven by the adaptive benefits of being able to mount quick, flexible behavioral responses to frequent or unexpected environmental change.

Read on  

Kiwi birds are going blind

26 Sep, 2017 7:52am

NZ Herald

Natural evolution could be making New Zealand's iconic bird blind as its natural habitat and way of life renders sight unnecessary for survival.

Three kiwi have been found to be profoundly blind in a South Island forest and an article in the New Scientist has suggested this could be an indication the flightless nocturnal birds may be evolving to lose their eyesight.

A study of 160 Okarito brown kiwi in the Okarito forest in New Zealand's South Island found a "very high prevalence of birds with eye lesions".

Te Papa Museum researcher Alan Tennyson said a third of the birds had eye problems.

The three completely blind birds had no other clear physical problems.

Tennyson said no other birds were known to have a free-living population of blind members.

However, he told the New Scientist, plenty of other animals such as moles and cave-dwelling fish, have evolved blindness.

"Vision is not essential for survival in all animals."

He said the most likely explanation the kiwi were becoming blind was because of where and how they lived.

Read more  

Penguin-mounted video captures gastronomic close encounters of the gelatinous kind

Penguins caught on camera eating jellyfish

Date:  September 25, 2017

Source:  Ecological Society of America

Footage from penguin-mounted mini video recorders shows four species of penguin eating jellyfish and other gelatinous animals of the open ocean, a food source penguins were not previously believed to partake of, scientists report this month in the Ecological Society of America's peer-reviewed journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. The article, part of the October issue of the journal, is available online ahead of print.

Video logs confirmed that penguins targeted gelatinous animals for meals; the birds did not merely ingest them accidentally, while aiming for fish or other prey. Connecting this link in the food web helps ecologists understand the ecological niche of "gelata," a group the authors have defined based on shared gelatinous physique and ocean habitat, though it includes organisms from very different branches of the tree of life

Read on  

Pigeons better at multitasking than humans: study

September 26, 2017

The density of nerve cells in the human cerebral cortex is six times smaller than in the respective brain region in pigeons. Consequently, the average distance between two neurons in pigeons is only approximately half the size compared to …more

Pigeons are capable of switching between two tasks as quickly as humans – and even more quickly in certain situations. These are the findings of biopsychologists who had performed the same behavioural experiments to test birds and humans. The authors hypothesize that the cause of the slight multitasking advantage in birds is their higher neuronal density.

Dr Sara Letzner and Prof Dr Dr h. c. Onur Güntürkün from Ruhr-Universität Bochum published the results in the journal Current Biology in collaboration with Prof Dr Christian Beste from the University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus at Technische Universität Dresden.

"For a long time, scientists used to believe the mammalian cerebral cortex to be the anatomical cause of cognitive ability; it is made up of six cortical layers," says Sara Letzner. In birds, however, such a structure does not exist. "That means the structure of the mammalian cortex cannot be decisive for complex cognitive functions such as multitasking," continues Letzner.

Read more at: 

Ornamental bird trade a threat to wild species in Vietnam: survey

By Minh Nga   September 21, 2017 | 11:35 am GMT+7

Only 10 percent of popular species in Vietnam are protected by trade regulations.

A recent survey has found massive holes in regulations governing the trade in ornamental birds in Vietnam.

Researchers at TRAFFIC, the global wildlife trade monitoring network, found more than 115 species of birds for sale in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City in April last year.

Of the thousands of birds observed, over 99 percent were species native to Vietnam, while regulations only cover 10 percent of the total, TRAFFIC said in a statement released on Thursday.

“The survey's findings are consistent with a thriving demand for native birds within Vietnam. However, as trade in most of the species seen is not regulated by law, it means large numbers of birds are being extracted with no oversight of sustainability or how severely it will impact wild populations,” said Kanitha Krishnasamy, acting regional director for TRAFFIC in Southeast Asia.

She said the survey showed a rise in the number of species and volume of birds for sale since previous studies in 1991, 1998, 2001 and 2008. The volumes, the array of species and the high number of immature individuals for sale were all signs of the need for improved monitoring of the trade, including regulations on offtake and oversight of any ranching or captive breeding operations.

Continued  

Michaela Strachan and Chris Packham reunite to save the kiwi as they warn 'children risk never seeing the endangered bird'

The presenting duo are back on screen for The Kiwi Wild Show to help raise awareness of the plight of the kiwi

BYLAURA CONNOR

08:54, 21 SEP 2017

Former Really Wild Show presenters Michaela Strachan and Chris Packham have reunited for a special project after over a decade.

The duo are raising awareness to help save the Kiwi bird, which is flightless and has a distinctive beak.

New Zealand's national symbol is endangered, meaning most human Kiwis born today will never see one in real life.

New statistics revealed 99% of the population has declined in the space of just 80 years.

The hugely popular CBBC series last aired way back in 2006, but the pair are back together again for The Kiwi Wild Show.

Michaela and Chris have joined forces with New Zealand-based charity Kiwis for Kiwi for the one-off special.

Continued  

Booming population of migrating birds on Northumberland coast

Published: 07:00 Friday 08 September 2017

A tiny bird is booming in population thanks to conservation efforts on a stretch of the north Northumberland coast recently bought by the National Trust. More than 500 Arctic terns and five internationally-threatened little terns have fledged thanks to rangers camping out on 24-hour watch against predators, such as stoats and foxes. In the previous year, just two Arctic terns and five little terns, vulnerable to high tides and marine pollution, managed to take flight. The National Trust has been carrying out the extensive conservation efforts for decades to keep the birds going on the north Northumberland coast, but this summer, the charity acquired 200 acres of land at Tughall Mill for £1.5million to ensure its vital conservation work can continue. Only around 1,800 breeding pairs of Arctic terns return to the Long Nanny from Antarctica each year, between May and July. The Arctic tern hit headlines last year after one from the Farne Islands clocked up 59,650 miles in one migration, more than twice the circumference of the planet.

Read more at: 

More than 100 Birds Found Dead in Suncor Tailings Pond

By Dan Healing, The Canadian Press via 660 News

CALGARY – Oilsands giant Suncor Energy says it is mystified by the discovery Sunday of dead and dying birds at a nearly complete northern Alberta mine that hasn’t produced its first official barrel of oil yet.

On Tuesday, the Alberta Energy Regulator announced it was dispatching an inspector to the nearly completed Fort Hills oilsands mine north of Fort McMurray after Suncor reported finding 123 waterfowl and songbirds near a tailings pond.

“On Sunday … a group of birds were discovered in the north end of our Fort Hills tailings area and had to be euthanized,” said Suncor (TSX:SU) spokeswoman Nicole Fisher in an email.

“The majority of birds impacted were horned larks (a migratory species). The larks are not native to the area so we are engaging with wildlife experts as well as the regulator to determine what additional measures we can put in place.”

She said the company has launched an investigation to figure out why the birds were in the area despite the presence of working bird deterrent systems, including cannon, radar and scarecrows.

Continued  

Rescue plan underway for Mallee emu-wren after bushfires destroy natural habitat

The World Today 

By Emmie Dowling

Updated 7 Sep 2017, 10:03am

A rescue plan is underway to try to save one of Australia's smallest native birds, the Mallee emu wren, in the eastern parts of South Australia.

The tiny endangered bird, which weighs less than a pen, is under threat after bushfires destroyed much of its habitat and sent bird numbers plummeting.

Now the Mallee emu-wren, described by bird enthusiasts as the 'holy grail' of birds, can only be found in Victoria's north-west after the 2014 bushfires in South Australia.

Researchers like Dr Simon Watson from La Trobe University are worried a severe bushfire season could threaten the remaining bird population.

"The very worst-case scenario is that we have such a fire season that we don't need to worry about Mallee emu-wrens anymore, because they don't exist," Dr Watson said.

Read on 

Reintroducing the pink pigeon and echo parakeet in Mauritius

5 Sep 2017

By Jean Hugues Gardenne and Obaka Torto

Re-introducing birds to suitable habitats where species have gone extinct is often a very important and sometimes a last resort to sustain the survival of some threatened Mauritian bird species. The Mauritian Wildlife Foundation (MWF), the BirdLife International Partner in Mauritius, has a long and successful track record of exploiting bird translocation opportunities at any given time.

In recent years, MWF has worked with other partners in the country like the National Parks and Conservation Service of the Ministry of Agro Industry and Food Security, the CIEL Group, the UNDP/GEF Small Grants Programme (SGP), HSBC, Chester Zoo (UK),and the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF), to translocate several Mauritian birds, including the Pink Pigeon, Echo Parakeet, Cuckoo Shrike and Paradise Flycatcher from the Black River Gorges National Park in the south west to the east of the island, in Ferney Valley (Bambous Mountains). This strategy has helped to create new subpopulations and increased the total population of some bird species, as it contributes to their distribution, saves them from extinction and loss of genetic diversity.

Continued  

New bird discovered breeding in UAE

The Egyptian Nightjar had not been suspected of breeding in the Arabian Peninsula before 2010

The National

September 10, 2017

Updated: September 10, 2017 06:57 PM

A species of bird once thought to be a rare guest to the UAE in the winter has now been found to be a regular breeder, according to a scientific paper published in Sandgrouse.

The Egyptian Nightjar breeds from Morocco to north-eastern Egypt and to southern Kazakhstan, but had not been suspected of breeding in the Arabian Peninsula before 2010.

Summer field surveys conducted by UAE birdwatchers since 2013 have now shown that the species is found regularly in the Ajban area, north-east of Abu Dhabi between March and September.

Breeding was confirmed in March 2016 and April this year.

Young birds were first seen by Emirati bird photographer, Mohammed Al Mazrouei, the Under-Secretary of the Court of the Ruler’s Representative in the Al Dhafra (Western) Region in Abu Dhabi.

"I am delighted to have played a small part in this discovery," said Mr Al Mazrouei.

His work along with that of Oscar Campbell and Mark Smiles, two local birdwatchers, led to the publishing of their paper, ‘The discovery of a breeding population of Egyptian Nightjars Caprimulgus aegyptius’, which reports on the five years of fieldwork in the Ajban area.

Up to five pairs, located by hearing the song of male birds, are believed to have been present earlier this year.

Continued

Barn owls found to suffer no hearing loss as they age

September 20, 2017 by Bob Yirka report

(Phys.org)—A small team of researchers with the University of Oldenburg has found that barn owls do not suffer hearing loss as they get older. In their paper published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the group describes hearing tests they conducted with a group of trained owls, what they found and why they believe more study of the birds may lead to preventing hearing loss in aging humans.

Most everyone knows that growing older can lead to hearing loss. It happens because humans and other mammals have an inability to regenerate sensitive cells inside the ear. As damage accumulates over time, hearing degrades. This is not the case with birds, however. Prior research has shown that some experience little if any hearing loss in their old age. In this new effort, the researchers looked to see if that also applied to long-lived birds such as the barn owl.

Barn owls are the most widespread of all the owls—they are found all around the world except in polar and desert regions. They earned their name by taking up residence in barns, drawn by the rodents that are attracted to stored grains. Barn owls have exceptionally good hearing—approximately 10 times as sensitive as human hearing, according to previous research. Barn owls are able to use hearing alone to capture prey moving in total darkness. They also live a long time—some in captivity have lived to be over 20 years of age.

Read more at:

Curious properties: Researchers analyze flocking behavior on curved surfaces

Date:  September 7, 2017

Source:  University of California - Santa Barbara

Summary:

A murmuration of starlings. The phrase reads like something from literature or the title of an arthouse film. In fact, it is meant to describe the phenomenon that results when hundreds, sometimes thousands, of these birds fly in swooping, intricately coordinated patterns through the sky.

Read more  

Rare seabird rescued from Gloucester ice cream factory after being blown off course

300 of the birds were rescued in the past week across the UK

  

BY LILY PATTINSON

10:58, 20 SEP 2017

UPDATED12:14, 20 SEP 2017

A rare seabird has been rescued from an ice cream factory in Gloucester after the recent strong winds blew it off course.

The exhausted Manx shearwater was rescued by RSPCA animal collection officer

Staff at the factory, which is known for making Walls Ice Cream, contacted the charity after spotting the unusual bird in their compound and becoming concerned for its welfare.

The bird, who is now being cared for by a wildlife centre before being released back into the wild, is one of more than 300 Manx shearwaters rescued by the animal welfare charity during the past week after blustery weather caused problems for the unusual birds.

Continued  

Genome of threatened northern spotted owl assembled

Genome completion will help researchers better measure interbreeding among hybrid owls and guide conservation priorities in the West

Date:  September 5, 2017

Source:  California Academy of Sciences

Summary:

A charismatic owl iconic to Pacific Coast forests is no longer ruling the roost, and scientists now have another tool for understanding its decline. Researchers have assembled the California Academy of Sciences' first-ever animal genome after sequencing the DNA of the northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis caurina). Academy scientists and collaborators extensively mapped the bird's genetic material to better understand how this threatened forest dweller is interacting with non-native owls invading its habitat.

Continued  

Song experiments reveal 21 possible new tropical bird species

Date:  September 13, 2017

Source:  American Ornithological Society Publications Office

Summary:

Birds often choose their mates based on song, making it a key factor in separating species. However, analyzing spectrograms can only tell us so much -- the characteristics that birds hone in on when identifying potential mates may not be the same ones scientists notice in audio recordings. A new study uses field experiments to 'ask the birds themselves' and uncovers as many as 21 previously unrecognized species.

Read on  

Scientists track the brain-skull transition from dinosaurs to birds

Date:  September 11, 2017

Source:  Yale University

Summary:

The dramatic, dinosaur-to-bird transition that occurred in reptiles millions of years ago was accompanied by profound changes in the skull roof of those animals -- and holds important clues about the way the skull forms in response to changes in the brain -- according to a new study. It is the first time scientists have tracked the link between the brain's development and the roofing bones of the skull.

Read on 

Nurse snaps “first known picture” of white jackdaw in Scotland

By Annie Butterworth -

September 13, 2017

A NURSE out for a stroll has captured what may be the first known picture of a white jackdaw north of the border.

The bird, part of the crow family, is normally black or dark grey but Sheona Murray’s stunning snap shows a gleaming white jackdaw.

Only 10 white jackdaws have been spotted in the UK since the year 2000, according to experts.

Photo: Sheona Murray

The bird, part of the crow family, is normally black or dark grey but Sheona Murray’s stunning snap shows a gleaming white jackdaw.

Sheona’s remarkable bird is thought to be the first actually photographed in Scotland and is almost certainly the northernmost sighting.

The jackdaw, gleaming white apart from a smudge of grey on its tail, was snapped earlier this week in Sheona’s home village of Rogart, Sutherland, about 70 miles south of John O’Groats.

Sheona, who is also a keen wildlife photographer, caught an inquisitive, black cow in the background, further enhancing the remarkable appearance of the jackdaw.

Birds of its kind tend to be especially rare because they are often attacked and killed by “normal” members of their own species.

Read on

Will mallards hybridize their cousins out of existence?

September 6, 2017

Mallards—the familiar green-headed ducks of city parks—are one of a group of closely related waterfowl species, many of which are far less common. Interbreeding with Mallards can threaten the genetic distinctiveness of those other species and cause concern for their conservation. A new study from The Condor: Ornithological Applications investigates hybridization between Mallards and Mottled Ducks, a species specially adapted for life in Gulf Coast marshes, and finds that while hybridization rates are currently low, human activity could cause them to rise in the future.

In Florida, hybridization between domesticated Mallards and Mottled Ducks is a cause for concern, but the degree of hybridization in the western Gulf Coast region is less well known. Louisiana State University's Robert Ford and his colleagues took blood samples from Mottled Ducks captured on the coast of Louisiana in 2011-2014, supplementing them with samples from Mottled Ducks and Mallards from Texas, Alabama, and Mississippi. Analyzing the birds' DNA, they found that the hybridization rate in the western Gulf Coast region is currently only 5-8%, a level lower than what's been documented in Florida. However, that doesn't mean the western Gulf population is completely in the clear.

Currently, the two species have little opportunity to interact in the region during the breeding season; Mottled Ducks nest in coastal marshes, while most Mallards are migratory and breed outside the region. However, the ongoing loss of marsh habitat could cause Mottled Ducks to move into urban and suburban areas, where they will be more likely to encounter resident Mallards. To prevent future problems, Ford and his colleagues recommend ongoing monitoring of hybridization in the region and better protection of coastal marsh habitat.

Read more at:

Wild Ideas: A mysterious bird calls in the night

By PAM OWEN August 31, 2017 Wild Ideas 0

For years I’ve heard this strange, haunting animal sound at night in the forest surrounding my house. I was pretty sure it was a bird, but tracking down the species from its sound is much harder than flipping through the illustrations in a field guide. After listening to this sound more carefully all summer, I finally decided to take a shot at solving the mystery.

I thought about what birds are busy at night hunting for food, mating or both. The knocking and hollow, loud “kowp” sound I was hearing didn’t belong to any of our native owls. Nor did it sound like a member of the goatsucker family, which includes whip-poor-wills and nighthawks. So what was left?

When I don’t know where to start with identifying a bird, I often do what I did in this occasion — open one of my bird apps and scroll through the taxonomic orders, hoping a species name will click. In this case, I started with my Sibley Birds app. As I scrolled through the orders, I came to Cuculiformes, the cuckoos, roadrunners and anis.

Continued  

Clever cockatoos bend hooks into straight wire to fish for food

September 5, 2017

In the early 2000s the New Caledonian crow Betty in Oxford shocked the world when she spontaneously bent a hook into a straight piece of wire while trying to retrieve a small out-off-reach basket with a handle from a vertical tube. Interestingly, when human children were tested on a similar task setup they showed great difficulties with coming up with a suitable solution until the age of nearly eight years. New Caledonian crows are specialized tools users in the wild and their ability to handle tools is innate. Nevertheless, in this case Betty seemed to innovatively produce a novel behavioural sequence on an unknown material.

At the time, studying cognition in birds was still a young area of research and thus her hook bending abilities became a textbook example of intelligent tool manufacture in animals. By now brain and behavioural research has shown that some birds such as corvids and parrots seem to possess complex cognition at similar levels as higher primates and show similar neuron counts in the respective brain regions. Nevertheless, the studies on Betty the crow recently came under scrutiny when field researchers from the University of St Andrews found that wild New Caledonian crows used strikingly similar bending techniques to add curvature to the tool shafts of twig tools in the wild. They therefore suggested that Betty's solution was hardly innovative but could be strongly influenced by predispositions from habitual tool use and nest building.

Researchers from the University of Vienna and the Veterinary University Vienna now tested another bird species the Goffin's cockatoo on the same task setup.

Read more at:

Birds choose mates with ornamental traits

September 4, 2017

A recurring theme in nature documentaries is that of choosy females selecting brightly colored males. A new study shows that, in monogamous mating systems, male birds may select their lifelong mates in much the same way.

Some traits, such as the tuft of feathers atop a crested auklet, signal attractiveness to the other sex and competitive rank within the same sex. Research has traditionally focused on male competition for access to females or territory and on females choosing males based on their feathers and fights. But recent investigations suggest that females not only compete with each other, but also rely on such traits in deciding whether to engage or defer. Accordingly, "the idea has been floated that these traits could then become preferred by males," says Omidyar Fellow Caitlin Stern, "because they indicate that a female is successful in competing for resources."

To find out, Stern created population genetic models involving females with or without a given trait and males with or without a preference for it. "It has historically been a challenge to understand how mating preferences for ornamental traits can evolve when every individual succeeds in getting a mate," Stern explains, in part because the seemingly simple selection process of monogamous pairs, where mates couple up and remove themselves from the broader gene-swapping pool for good, is tricky to handle mathematically. Nevertheless, over thousands of generations, both the female trait and male preference persisted in the population, suggesting that both are favored.

Read more at: 

66 Million Years Ago, Bird-Like Dinosaurs Laid Blue-Green Eggs

By Mindy Weisberger, Senior Writer | August 31, 2017 04:54pm ET

A type of bird-like dinosaur that lived in what is now China during the Cretaceous period — about 145.5 million to 65.5 million years ago — laid eggs that had a bluish-green tint, the first evidence of pigment in dinosaur eggs, according to a new study.

The well-preserved eggshells belonged to the oviraptorid Heyuannia huangi, and analysis revealed the hints of blue-green color, the researchers said. Oviraptorids were a small-bodied, short-snouted group of dinosaurs with toothless beaks, and are known from fossils found in Mongolia and China.

Blue and green egg hues are found in eggs belonging to many types of modern birds, and were long thought to have originated in bird lineages. This new finding, however, implies that egg coloration appeared earlier in the dinosaur family tree, and might have emerged alongside nesting behavior that left eggs partially exposed in nest mounds, rather than buried underground, the scientists wrote in the new study.

Continued 

Hunt for thugs after family of swans shot dead

Sick thugs shot and killed three swans on the Grand Union Canal in Slough.

Two of the birds, a male and his cygnet, were from the same family – while the third was a young male.

A fourth bird, the cygnet’s mother, was also shot and is currently with vets who are trying to save her life in intensive care.

Berkshire-based charity Swan Lifeline took to Facebook to share the sad news. They said: ‘We are desperately sad and angered that this afternoon a family of swans have been shot on The Grand Union canal in Slough.

‘This has been enormously distressing for our staff, rescuers and all involved.

 ‘This has been a truly horrid day, we are sorry if the photographs are upsetting but we feel the need to publicise this as much as possible.’

The charity, from Eton, said that police had been told and added: ‘Tell the call handler that you are reporting a wildlife crime and you will be put through to the correct person.

 ‘It is vital that reports are kept under the same reference number as Swan Lifeline have the evidence of the two swans that died as a result of this dreadful incident.

‘Thank you to everyone for your support and let’s hope that someone out there has information that will help catch the perpetrators of this appalling crime.’

Swan Support, from Datchet, Berkshire, found the fourth swan on the same day.

They wrote: ‘It is with sadness that we have to report that today we picked up a swan from the canal in Slough Langley that had been shot.

‘The bird was already dead when we arrived. This is not the first time we have been called to attend incidents such as this in this particular location.’

If you have any information contact Thames Valley Police on 101 and use crime reference number 43170257314.

Source: 

Protected bird shot - just three days after start of hunting season

Monday, September 4, 2017, 17:22

Bee eater was treated by vet

Only three days into the autumn hunting season, BirdLife has reported the first known victim – an injured European bee eater (Qerd in-Naħal) which it said was shot at Ħal Għaxaq yesterday.

The bird – a protected species – was found by people out for a walk on Sunday evening, who saw it crawling on the ground unable to fly. After being recovered by BirdLife Malta yesterday, this morning it was taken to the vet’s clinic for a veterinary visit. An X-ray was taken and it confirmed a fracture to bird’s right wing.

After being recovered by BirdLife Malta yesterday, this morning it was taken to the vet’s clinic for a veterinary visit. An X-ray was taken and it confirmed a fracture to bird’s right wing as a result of shotgun injury. The vet recommended the bird for rehabilitation - in the hope that it would be saved.

The bee eater can easily be distinguished thanks to its pointed, downcurved bill, long pointed wings and tail but above all its rich exotic colours and bright plumage.

It is a specialist in catching flying insects and is a common migrant with large flocks seen daily during autumn and spring.

Source  

92 species recorded in bird survey

KERALA

E.M. Manoj

KALPETTA,AUGUST 30, 2017 23:30 IST

UPDATED: AUGUST 30, 2017 23:30 IST

 ‘Presence of birds show conservation significance of the Brahmagiri grasslands’

A three-day monsoon bird survey, organised jointly by the Forest Department, College of Forestry, Thrissur, and the Hume Centre for Ecology and Wildlife Biology (HCEWB), in the North Wayanad Division recently recorded 92 species.

No bird surveys have been conducted in the forest division in the past eight years. The survey found five species of bulbuls, seven species of babblers, five species of pigeons, and three species of raptors. It recorded Bright Headed Cisticola and broad-tailed grassland birds in the higher grasslands of the Brahmagiri hills. “Presence of these birds showed higher conservation significance of the Brahmagiri grasslands,” C.K. Vishnudas and R.L Rathish of the HCEWB, which performed scientific and technical coordination of the survey, told The Hindu.

Read more 

Presumed extinct, night parrot colony uncovered near Lake Eyre

A SIMPLE feather found in the lining of a bird’s nest near Lake Eyre has stunned the nation’s scientists and rewritten a part of our state’s history.

Jade Gailberger

The AdvertiserSEPTEMBER 14, 20178:19AM

A SIMPLE feather found in the lining of a bird’s nest near Lake Eyre has stunned the nation’s scientists and rewritten a part of our state’s history.

The feather led to the discovery of a night parrot population — a bird presumed extinct with no recorded sighting in South Australia for more than a century.

It is one of Australia’s most mysterious birds. Australian Wildlife Conservancy ecologists made the discovery in July after using a helicopter to fly over 600km of land in search of its prospective habitat.

Conservancy chief Atticus Fleming said: “While it’s been rediscovered after effectively having gone missing for 100 years, its probably cryptic as much as it is endangered.”

The first sign of the night parrot occurred during an annual ecological audit of the Kalamurina Wildlife Sanctuary in 2016, when a camera trap picked up a shape replicating the bird.

Ecologist John Young, who rediscovered the Night Parrot in Queensland a few years earlier, knew the shape was not clear enough to be certain, and looked at historical records.

In 1883, night parrots had been recorded in similar samphire — plants associated with water — habitat near Lake Eyre.

Continued