Dino-bird dandruff research head and shoulders above rest

Date:  May 28, 2018

Source:  University College Cork

Palaeontologists from University College Cork (UCC) in Ireland have discovered 125 million-year-old dandruff preserved amongst the plumage of feathered dinosaurs and early birds, revealing the first evidence of how dinosaurs shed their skin.

UCC's Dr Maria McNamara and her team studied the fossil cells, and dandruff from modern birds, with powerful electron microscopes for the study, published today in the journal Nature Communications.

"The fossil cells are preserved with incredible detail -- right down to the level of nanoscale keratin fibrils. What's remarkable is that the fossil dandruff is almost identical to that in modern birds -- even the spiral twisting of individual fibres is still visible," said Dr Maria McNamara.

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Scientists can predict which storks will migrate to Africa in autumn and which will remain in Europe

Date:  May 24, 2018

Source:  Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

For little Louis, it is the most exciting day of his life: just six or seven weeks ago, the young stork came into the world on a birch tree in Radolfzell on Lake Constance. Up to this day in June 2014, he has only known his parents and three siblings. But suddenly strange beings have appeared at the nest and are holding the four small white storks captive. They are Andrea Flack and Wolfgang Fiedler of the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology and the University of Konstanz. In the coming years, the scientists will learn from Louis and other young storks that, on their migrations south, storks follow other storks who are particularly good at exploiting thermals, allowing them to flap their wings as little as possible as they fly. The efficient fliers migrate to West Africa, while the others spend the winter in southern Europe. From their data, the researchers can tell which storks will fly where just ten minutes after the birds take off.

For days, Andrea Flack and Wolfgang Fiedler have been visiting storks' nests on the western shore of Lake Constance. The aerial ladder of the fire brigade raises them to the stork nests at lofty heights so that they can strap small tracking devices onto the backs of the nestlings. The aim is to follow Louis and 60 other young storks on their migration. The instruments, which weigh less than 60 grams, record the GPS coordinates of the birds' location. They also measure the animals' movements using accelometers. This allows the researchers to determine whether and, if so, how the birds are moving.

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Lifting the economy on hawks' wings

Date:  May 15, 2018

Source:  Michigan State University

A new Michigan State University study, published in the Journal of Applied Ecology and funded by the National Science Foundation, shows that America's smallest raptor can boost Michigan's -- and other fruit-growing states' -- bottom lines. It's the first study ever to measure regional job creation due to native predators' regulating services.

American kestrels can be found from Alaska to southernmost South America. They dine on bugs, mammals and fruit-eating birds. Growers can attract more of these beneficial birds by building nesting boxes. More kestrels mean fewer pests, and the tiny hawk's mere presence can produce measurable improvements, said Catherine Lindell, MSU integrative biologist and study co-author.

"Having more American kestrels around orchards reduces the number of fruit-eating birds significantly," she said. "It's not just a microeconomic boost that simply benefits the fruit grower, either; it has a macroeconomic effect that benefits the state's economy."

Lindell and her team calculated the benefit-to-cost ratios for building kestrel nest boxes around orchards. The results showed that every dollar spent, $84 to $357 of sweet cherries are saved from fruit-eating birds.

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Small birds almost overheat while feeding their young

Date:  May 16, 2018

Source:  Lund University

For decades, researchers have thought that access to food determined the brood size of birds. Now, biologists at Lund University in Sweden have discovered a completely new explanation: the body temperature of small birds can increase by more than 4°C to exceed 45°C when they are feeding their young. Larger broods would require more work, resulting in even higher body temperatures -- something the birds would probably not survive.

"A body temperature of over 45°C must be close to fatal even for small birds," says Jan-Åke Nilsson, professor at Lund University.

Small birds, passerines, normally have a body temperature of around 41°C. Jan-Åke Nilsson and his colleague Andreas Nord studied marsh tits, discovering that their body temperature increased considerably as they worked hard, for example when feeding their young.

Flying back and forth to the nest means they do not get the opportunity to get rid of excess heat, resulting in a higher body temperature.

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One in 10 Hong Kong bird species at risk of extinction: can they be saved?

Avian conservation body’s alarming report prompts Hong Kong birdwatcher to search out the species in greatest danger, including the yellow-breasted bunting and spoon-billed sandpiper

BY MARTIN WILLIAMS

18 MAY 2018 / UPDATED ON 22 MAY 2018

For many people in Hong Kong, talk of endangered species conjures up images of wildlife whose natural habitats are “out there”, somewhere far away – such as giant pandas in the bamboo forests of Sichuan province, polar bears in the Arctic and miniature monkeys in the Brazilian rainforest. If, like me, you are a birdwatcher, however, the list of threatened species feels far closer to home.

The tally of the world’s endangered birds is growing ever larger, with some populations shrinking at startling rates. “The State of the World’s Birds 2018” report, which was released last month by BirdLife International (the world’s leading authority on avian conservation), notes that 13 per cent of the planet’s 11,000 or so bird species – roughly one in eight – are threatened with extinction.

In Hong Kong, the endangered proportion of the total is slightly lower, at about 10 per cent of 522 species. This is no reason to feel upbeat, however: Hong Kong was deforested long ago, wiping out “forest specialists” (birds that primarily breed in wooded environments) and largely leaving room only for species adapted to living in areas shaped by humans.

Indeed, according to the report, human activity is respon­sible for losses worldwide. The main culprit has been farming, which has affected the populations of 74 per cent of globally threatened bird species. Logging and defor­esta­tion have caused declines in 50 per cent of the most endangered species, with invasive species (39 per cent), hunting/trapping (35 per cent), climate change (33 per cent) and residential/commercial development (28 per cent) also having a ruinous impact.

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Some 500,000 wild song birds illegally removed from Ukraine in past 10 years - expert

KYIV. May 17 (Interfax-Ukraine) – An organized criminal group consisting of foreigners of Arabic origin who smuggled around 500,000 wild song birds from the country in the past 10 years, in particular, goldfinches, tits, redpolls, bullfinches and siskins, Director of the Kyiv Ecological and Cultural Center Volodymyr Boreiko has said.

"According to our information, this group organized by the Arabs has been operating in Ukraine for about 10 years. They took out about 0.5 million wild song birds by air. This is only smuggled, and during the bird catching and transportation tens of times more are killed. Damage in $ 2.5 million has been caused to Ukraine," he said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Wednesday.

Boreiko also said that only in 2017 from the Zhuliany airport to Lebanon and Oman 26,950 goldfinches were exported in twenty batches.

According to the ecologist, the Arabs pay UAH 50 for one bird to Ukrainian bird catchers, in Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates they get EUR 50-70 for one bird.

"In these countries, goldfinches are used as singers, or they are eaten. They make pate from their tongues, which is considered a great delicacy," he said.

Boreiko said that in this situation the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine, which should issue permits for the export of birds, has never issued this kind of permits in 10 years.

"That is, no one applies to them for permits. They do not issue permits, but millions of birds pass through our customs officers. The latter simply are not interested in whether there are documents for exported birds. Veterinarians issue veterinary certificates without specifying who the true owner of these birds is," he said.

According to him, in order to stop the smuggling of wild song birds from Ukraine, it is necessary that the minister of natural resources issued an order for the ecological inspection to ensure that these birds were not allowed to be exported without separate permits.

Source

The survival of sea birds affected by ocean cycles

May 17, 2018, CNRS

In a general context of climate change, researchers at the Centre d'écologie fonctionnelle et évolutive (CNRS/Université de Montpellier/Université Paul Valery/EPHE-PSL) and their international partners revealed the impact of ocean cycles, such as the Pacific decadal oscillation and El Niño, on the survival of the Nazca booby, a species found on the Galapagos Islands. Their research, which shows for the first time that long cycles (spanning several decades) directly affect the survival of adult populations, appears in the May edition of Ecology, and may later be expanded to other sea birds.

Several ocean cycles, such as the El Niño phenomenon, occur in the Pacific ocean and have climatic repercussions around the globe (e.g. intense rains in South America, mild winters in Canada, etc.) However El Niño (with a periodic oscillation of 2 to 7 years) is not the only natural and cyclical variation observed in the Pacific: the Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO) is a variation in surface water temperatures which causes significant changes in sardine and anchovy population sizes due to upwelling, a process in which nutrient-rich deep ocean water rises to the surface.

In this study, researchers evaluated the impact of El Niño and the PDO on the survival of the Nazca booby, a tropical sea bird which nests in the Galapagos Islands and has a life expectancy of 15 years. This bird is a good model for the study of the effects of climate change on birds because it consumes resources (sardines, in particular) which are directly affected by climate variations. Using data from the long-term banding of the species between 1984 and 2012, the scientists discovered that survival rates among young Nazca boobies are very low during El Niño events because fish stocks – in particular sardines, the bird's favourite food – are low during these periods. Similarly, the survival of adult specimens is effected by the PDO. Researchers observed a higher mortality rate during warm phases of this cycle, despite their being conducive to the proliferation of sardines and thus easily accessible food. This unexpected correlation can be explained by greater reproduction difficulties: adults are thought to lose more energy in reproduction (less nest abandonment) to the detriment of their own survival. Inversely, during colder phases, such as the one occurring since 2008, adult survival improves because offspring mortality and nest abandonment allow them to recover more quickly.

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