Feather replacement or parental care? Migratory birds desert their offspring to molt

When parental care and the annual molt overlap in time, a migratory songbird often chooses single-parent desertion

Date:  April 19, 2018

Source:  American Ornithological Society Publications Office

A new study shows that when feather replacement and parental care overlap in time, migratory songbirds make a striking trade-off; they desert their offspring, leaving their mates to provide all remaining parental care.

This radical solution to conflict between parental care and the annual molt provides "a nice illustration of the complex lives that migratory songbirds lead," says Ron Mumme, the study's author and Professor of Biology at Allegheny College in northwestern Pennsylvania. "They have to negotiate conflicting demands and make difficult trade-offs and compromises, just like we do."

Migratory songbirds that breed in North America confront serious issues with time management. After spending a relatively leisurely winter and early spring luxuriating in warm tropical climates, they migrate north for a brief but highly eventful summer in North America, during which they must complete three energetically demanding and time-consuming tasks: (1) they must build nests, lay eggs, and provide for their offspring until the young reach independence, (2) they must completely replace all the feathers in their plumage as part of the annual molt, and (3) they must prepare for the fall southward migration by eating prodigiously and storing the body fat that will fuel their long-distance flights.

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Trichomonosis discovered amongst myna birds in Pakistan

Date:  April 23, 2018

Source:  University of East Anglia

Summary:

A strain of the disease responsible for killing nearly two thirds of the UK's greenfinch population has spread to myna birds in Pakistan. In 2011, the disease was discovered to have reached European finch populations. Now it has been found in an entirely separate songbird species -- the common myna, native to India and one of the world's most invasive species. Although it is not generally fatal to them, they may pass it on to other species.

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Dodo's violent death revealed

Date:  April 21, 2018

Source:  University of Warwick

The famous Oxford Dodo died after being shot in the back of the head, according to breakthrough research by Oxford University Museum of Natural History and WMG at the University of Warwick.

Using revolutionary forensic scanning technology and world-class expertise, researchers have discovered surprising evidence that the Oxford Dodo was shot in the neck and back of the head with a shotgun.

The significant and unexpected findings, made by Professor Paul Smith, director of the Museum of Natural History, and Professor Mark Williams from WMG at the University of Warwick, only became apparent when mysterious particles were found in the specimen during scans carried out to help analyse its anatomy.

Subsequent analysis of the material and size of the particles revealed that they are lead shot pellets, typically used to hunt wildfowl during the 17th century.

The findings cast doubt on the popular theory that the Oxford Dodo is the remains of a bird kept alive in a townhouse in 17th-century London.

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Deaf 'bird whisperer' forms rare bond with feathered friends

April 24, 2018

'Bird whisperer' Razali Bin Mohamad Habidin checks a salmon-crested cockatoo at Jurong Bird Park in Singapore, where he is deputy head avian keeper

Deaf since childhood, Razali Bin Mohamad Habidin has developed a closer bond with the creatures under his care than any other keeper at Singapore's Jurong Bird Park, where other staff refer to him simply as the "bird whisperer".

Razali, who lost 80 percent of his hearing after falling ill as a baby, started working at the park over two decades ago, and has risen to the position of deputy head avian keeper.

He communicates with the birds through grunts, gestures and body languages and told AFP that he recognises the birds by their "behaviours and personalities".

"All of them are my friends," he added, communicating through a mix of gestures and Malay.

Other staff at the park have dubbed the 48-year-old "the bird whisperer"—after Hollywood film "The Horse Whisperer", starring Robert Redford as a trainer with a gift for understanding horses.

"He has a way of communicating with the birds that very few of us can," said assistant curator Angelin Lim. "Just by a look, he knows whether or not the bird is well."

Communication with his colleagues can be more challenging than with the birds.

Razali leads about a dozen staff and giving them instructions usually involves him making various complex hand gestures, and then reading the lips of his colleagues when they respond.

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Hungry birds as climate change drives food 'mismatch'

April 23, 2018, University of Exeter

Warmer springs create a "mismatch" where hungry chicks hatch too late to feast on abundant caterpillars, new research shows.

With continued spring warming expected due to climate change, scientists say hatching of forest birds will be "increasingly mismatched" with peaks in caterpillar numbers.

The researchers, from the RSPB and the universities of Exeter and Edinburgh, used data collected across the UK—largely by citizen scientists—to study spring emergence of oak tree leaves and caterpillars, and timing of nesting by three bird species: blue tits, great tits and pied flycatchers.

They also tested a theory that some bird species in southern Britain may suffer most due to a greater mismatch effect—but they found no evidence of this.

"Forests have a short peak in caterpillar abundance, and some forest birds time their breeding so this coincides with the time when their chicks are hungriest," said Dr. Malcolm Burgess, of the University of Exeter and the RSPB.

"With spring coming earlier due to climate change, leaves and caterpillars emerge earlier and birds need to breed earlier to avoid being mismatched.

"We found that the earlier the spring, the less able birds are to do this.

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New clue to mystery of Common Tern decline

04/04/2018

Recently published research in The Auk: Ornithological Advances has suggested that the root of Common Tern declines across North America is to be found on their wintering grounds.

As well as being ubiquitous on larger water bodies across Eurasia, Common is the most widespread tern species in North America. However, its breeding colonies in the interior of this latter continent have been in decline for decades, despite conservation efforts. The problem in part has been assumed to lie on the species’ wintering grounds, and a new study has presented information on where the species goes when it leaves North America each autumn.

The University of Minnesota’s Annie Bracey and her colleagues attached geolocators – small devices that record a bird’s location over time based on day length – to 106 terns from breeding colonies in Manitoba, Ontario, Minnesota, Wisconsin and New York State. When the birds returned to their breeding grounds in the following years, the researchers were able to recapture and retrieve data from 46 birds.

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Basque Red-backed Shrike population in free fall

06/04/2018

Red-backed Shrike is undergoing a severe decline in Spain’s Basque Country, with numbers having dropped by 95 per cent over the last 40 years.

This is the conclusion reached by researcher José Luis Tellería of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, after analysing the status of two populations of the species over four decades. 

The article, published in the scientific journal of SEO/BirdLife, Ardeola: International Journal of Ornithology, also examines a series of possible causes that could be behind the plummeting numbers in these localities, as well as in the Euskadi region, where the bird has traditionally been abundant in rural areas. In fact, in the Bilbao area it is part of a group of 20 species of insectivorous birds, colloquially known as 'txinbos', hunted by the locals in former times but all protected today.

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