Chinese vets’ 3D-printed titanium beak fits the bill for injured red-crowned crane

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 20 July, 2016, 2:34pm

UPDATED : Wednesday, 20 July, 2016, 10:10pm

Chinese veterinary surgeons have given a red-crowned crane a new beak – made out of titanium using a 3D printer – after its original beak was broken in a fight with another bird, mainland media report.

The bird, which lives in a zoo in Guangzhou, the capital city of Guangdong province, received the upper beak implant during surgery last week at an animal hospital in the province, Xinhua reported.

Some mainland internet users wrote that the crane would become “invincible” in any future fights because of its “Wolverine” beak – a reference to the X-Men mutant superhero with metal claws.

The birds, also known as Japanese cranes, are among the most aggressive native species of Asia, and are often seen using their long, sharp beaks to attack each other, or predators such as eagles.

They have even been known to attack humans.

In 2014, several bird watchers suffered numerous injuries to their bodies and their clothes were damaged after being attacked by an adult red crown crane at a national reserve in Baicheng city, in Jilin province.

Read on … 

Crested Crane on way to extinction

By John Agaba

Added 19th July 2016 07:34 AM

Experts have said that the Crested Crane, Uganda’s heritage symbol, both on the country’s flag and Court of Arms, is on its way to extinction if measures are not taken to save its habitats.

William Olupot of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) said only 21 districts still had the national bird out of the 35 where they were sighted about 10 years ago.

But the nests for the Cranes were sighted in only 13 out of the 21 districts, an indicator that the breeding grounds for the Cranes are declining and affecting the birds’ population.

This was during a Save the Crane stakeholders meeting at the National Museum, aimed at raising awareness about the plight facing Uganda’s most coveted symbol.

The cranes make nests in wetlands and breed between October and March.

The assistant commissioner in charge of wetlands, Paul Mafabi, said the seasonal wetlands were under threat because of conversion for cultivation of crops and destruction by wild bush fires.

“They tend to be particular with the kind of swamp where they breed and will always come back to the same place” Mafabi said.

Another unique characteristic of the Crane is that it is “very monogamous”; a male crane mates with only one female in its lifetime and vice-versa — which could explain the dwindling numbers.

Even when its partner dies, it does not ‘remarry’, Mafabi said.

Olupot said because man has encroached on the crane’s natural habitat and interfered with it, places that used to be sanctuaries for the crane were no more.

He said the report was conducted between 2005 and 2005, but all indicators point to a decline in the number of the birds.

The 2005 report indicates that Kenya has the highest number of the birds between 20,000 and 250,000 cranes, followed by Uganda with 13000-20,000 and Tanzania with lower than 1000s of birds.

- See more at: 

Evolution of flight in birds

Date: July 18, 2016

Source: Queen's University

Research by post-doctoral fellow Alexander Dececchi challenges long-held hypotheses about how flight first developed in birds. Furthermore, his findings raise the question of why certain species developed wings long before they could fly.

Dr. Dececchi, a William E. White Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Department of Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering, used measurements from fossil records and data from modern birds to test the evolutionary explanation for the origin of birds. Dr. Dececchi and his colleagues determined that none of the previously predicted methods would have allowed pre-avian dinosaurs to take flight.

"By disproving the idea that the predicted models led to the development of flight, our research is a step towards determining how flight developed and whether it can evolve once or developed multiple times in different evolutionary lines," he says.

Dr. Dececchi and his colleagues examined 45 specimens, representing 24 different non-avian theropod species, as well as five bird species. After determining some critical variables from the fossils -- such as body mass and wing size -- they used measurements from living birds to estimate wing beat, flap angle and muscular output.

These values were used to build a model for different behaviours linked to the origins of flight such as vertical leaping and wing-assisted incline running (WAIR) -- a method of evasion for many ground-based modern birds that has become a favoured pathway towards the origin of flapping flight in the paleontological literature. They also tested if any species met the requirements to take-off from the ground and fly under their own power.

"We know the dimensions and we know how modern birds muscles and anatomy work," Dr. Dececchi says. "Using our model, if a particular species doesn't reach the minimum thresholds for function seen in the much more derived birds -- such as the ability to take off or to generate a certain amount of power -- it's safe to say they would not have been able to perform these behaviours or fly."

The researchers found that none of the behaviours met the criteria expected in the pathway models. In fact, they found that almost all the behaviours had little or no benefit, outside of those species which evolved right before the origin of birds. When looking at WAIR specifically -- the method that has been touted as an explanation for some early wing adaptations -- the researchers found that it only was possible in a handful of large winged, small bodied species such as Microraptor, but found no evidence to suggest its use was widespread.

Read on … 

Licence for buzzard control

29 July 2016

Natural England issued a licence last night permitting the control of up to 10 buzzards to prevent serious damage to young pheasants.

The licence is time-limited with stringent conditions and is based on the law, policy and best available evidence. It follows rigorous assessment after other methods had been tried unsuccessfully over a 5-year period.

It is stipulated that the licence must be used in combination with non-lethal measures and only on buzzards in and immediately around the animal pens – not on passing birds. These conditions are designed to make the licensed activity both proportionate and effective and we will continue to work with the applicant to assess this.

Killing wild birds without a licence from Natural England is illegal.

Source ...

Hummingbird vision wired to avoid high-speed collisions

Date: July 18, 2016

Source: University of British Columbia

Hummingbirds are among nature's most agile fliers. They can travel faster than 50 kilometres per hour and stop on a dime to navigate through dense vegetation.

Now researchers have discovered that the tiny birds process visual information differently from other animals, perhaps to handle the demands of their extreme aerial acrobatics.

"Birds fly faster than insects and it's more dangerous if they collide with things," said Roslyn Dakin, a postdoctoral fellow in the UBC's department of zoology who led the study. "We wanted to know how they avoid collisions and we found that hummingbirds use their environment differently than insects to steer a precise course."

Scientists at UBC placed hummingbirds in a specially-designed tunnel and projected patterns on the walls to figure out how the birds steer a course to avoid collisions when they are in flight. They set up eight cameras to track the movement of hummingbirds as they flew through a 5.5-metre long tunnel.

"We took advantage of hummingbirds' attraction to sugar water to set up a perch on one side of the tunnel and a feeder on the other, and they flew back and forth all day," said Douglas Altshuler, associate professor in the department of zoology. "This allowed us to test many different visual stimuli."

While not a lot is known about how birds use vision in flight, it is known that bees process distance by how quickly an object goes past their field of vision, like we do as we drive down a road. As we pass by telephone poles on the side of the road quickly, our brains understand that the objects are nearby; buildings in the distance will take some time to pass, letting us know they are further away.

When scientists simulated this type of information on the tunnel walls, the hummingbirds didn't react. Instead Dakin and her colleagues found that the birds relied on the size of objects to determine distance. As something gets bigger, this may signal to the birds that they are getting closer, and as something gets smaller, it may signal that they are moving farther away.

Continued …

Bases to rip up acacia bushes in fight against illegal bird-trapping

JULY 18TH, 2016 

PHILIP MARK 

The British bases announced on Monday they would continue to clear an area rife with illegal bird trapping of the acacia bushes planted by trappers to attract the birds.

“This week the bases will chop down more acacia bushes at Cape Pyla ahead of the anticipated illegal bird trapping season,” said a news release from British Forces Cyprus.

“The acacia has been planted by bird trappers and encouraged to grow by illegally watering the areas. Recent aerial photography of the area has revealed that trappers have moved back into areas which have previously been cut back and replanted acacia and introduced new irrigation, this will now be removed.”

Two aerial photographs provided by the bases reveal how trappers cut corridors in the acacia bushes to set their mist nets which trap thousands of protected Black Caps and other migratory birds.

“As well as protecting birds this action will preserve the environment,” explained Dr Philip Rushbrook, the bases administration’s chief officer.

“Cape Pyla is one on the many Special Area of Conservation within the Bases; as such we have a legal requirement to remove acacia from these areas just as the Cyprus Forestry Department are doing at Cape Greco and the Oroklini Lake.”

The bases administration said that as recently as last week they made offers to local community leaders to agree a programme to remove the acacia. These included paying the local communities to undertake the work themselves but as those offers fell on deaf ears the bases took it upon themselves to remove the acacia.

Read on … 

Fallen Somali Spy Drone Was Disguised as a Huge Bird

Turns out, biomimicry is a pretty good way of spying on people.

Nickolaus Hines

July 19, 2016

Most of the time when people ask if it’s a bird, a plane, or Superman, it’s just a plane. Sometimes, though, it’s a war-zone drone disguising itself with biomimicry.

A drone camouflaged as a large black bird fell out of the sky in Mogadishu, Somalia on May 1. No one is completely sure who it belongs to, or how it fell from the sky, but local news services point to Somalia’s National Intelligence and Security Agency.

The drone’s design is remarkably lifelike — small propellers push the drone forward while the outer half of the wings maintain the illusion by flapping. It wouldn’t pass close inspection, but it’s far more likely to sneak overhead unnoticed than a military grade Reaper or Predator drone.

It’s not the first, and surely won’t be the last Mother Nature-inspired spy technology, because nature is the true OG of camouflage. Biodiversity has long served as inspiration for subterfuge, from the Greek’s Trojan Horse to this year’s GoatMan. The Trojan Horse wasn’t meant to be confused with an actual horse of course, and the only creatures GoatMan was trying to convince were goats, but it’s the same general concept: if you want success, emulate nature.

Read on … 

Birds on top of the world, with nowhere to go

Date: July 20, 2016

Source: University of Queensland

Climate change could make much of the Arctic unsuitable for millions of migratory birds that travel north to breed each year, according to a new international study published today in Global Change Biology.

The University of Queensland School of Biological Sciences' researcher Hannah Wauchope said that suitable breeding conditions for Arctic shorebirds could collapse by 2070.

"This means that countries throughout the world will have fewer migratory birds reaching their shores," Ms Wauchope said.

Arctic breeding shorebirds undertake some of the longest known migratory journeys in the animal kingdom, with many travelling more than 20,000 kilometres per year to escape the northern winter.

The bar-tailed godwit flies from Alaska to New Zealand in a single flight of 12,000 kilometres without landing.

The study predicts that, in a warming world, migratory birds will become increasingly restricted to small islands in the Arctic Ocean as they retreat north.

This could cause declines in hard-hit regions and some birds could even completely change migratory pathways to migrate closer to suitable habitat.

"Climate change is also opening up the Arctic to threats such as mining and tourism, and we must make sure we protect key places for all Arctic species, including these amazing migratory birds," Ms Wauchope said.

UQ's Associate Professor Richard Fuller from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions (CEED) said most migratory populations followed well-defined migratory routes.

"This makes shorebirds an excellent group to investigate how climate change might impact breeding grounds and conservation actions that could address these impacts," Associate Professor Fuller said.

The research modelled the suitable climate breeding conditions of 24 Arctic shorebirds and projected them to 2070.

The researchers also examined the impact on Arctic birds of the world's last major warming event about 6000 to 8000 years ago.

"Climatically suitable breeding conditions could shift and contract over the next 70 years, with up to 83 per cent of Arctic bird species losing most of their currently suitable area," Ms Wauchope said.

Continued … 

Using urban pigeons to monitor lead pollution

Date: July 19, 2016

Source: University of California - Davis

Tom Lehrer sang about poisoning them, but those pigeons in the park might be a good way to detect lead and other toxic compounds in cities. A new study of pigeons in New York City shows that levels of lead in the birds track with neighborhoods where children show high levels of lead exposure.

"Pigeons breathe the same air, walk the same sidewalks, and often eat the same food as we do. What if we could use them to monitor possible dangers to our health in the environment, like lead pollution?" said Rebecca Calisi, now an assistant professor in the Department of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior at the University of California, Davis, who conducted the study with undergraduate student Fayme Cai while at Barnard College, Columbia University. The work is published July 18 in the journal Chemosphere.

Decades after it was banned from paint and gasoline, lead pollution remains a significant concern. The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene carries out routine screening of children in areas of the city identified as hot spots for lead contamination.

Calisi and Cai looked at blood samples collected from 825 sick or injured pigeons brought to the city's Wild Bird Fund rehabilitation center from 2010 to 2015. Each was identified by the zip code where it was found.

Lead levels rise in summer

They found that the pigeons' blood lead levels rose in summer, as they do in samples from children. Zip codes with high lead levels in pigeons also had some of the highest rates of raised levels of lead in children.

Continued …  

Habitat needs of nestling, fledgling songbirds

Date: July 20, 2016

Source: Central Ornithology Publication Office

Both before and after they leave the nest, baby birds face a host of challenges. A new study in The Condor: Ornithological Applications examining songbird survival in the nestling and fledgling stages finds that even in the same habitat, different species face different risks and survive at different rates.

Ovenbirds and Acadian Flycatchers are migratory songbirds that nest in similar habitats, but they have very different nesting and foraging strategies. Julianna Jenkins of the University of Missouri and her colleagues tracked the survival of young birds of both species before and after they fledged. They found that flycatcher survival at both stages was related to mature forest, while Ovenbirds did best in mature forest as nestlings but sought areas with dense understories after fledging. Post-fledging survival was lower for Ovenbirds than for Acadian Flycatchers, with more than half of the tracked Ovenbird fledglings dying within ten days of leaving the nest.

Habitat information like this can be crucial for conservation biologists trying to address songbird population declines, because they can take action through land management to boost birds' survival at multiple life stages. "It is my hope that by investigating what affects both nesting and postfledging survival, we can make management decisions that are effective for the entire breeding season," says Jenkins.

Jenkins and her colleagues monitored nests at three sites in central Missouri, fitting nestlings with radio transmitters shortly before they fledged so they could continue to track their survival. From 90 Ovenbird and 264 Acadian Flycatcher nests, they tracked 50 Ovenbird fledglings and 45 flycatcher fledglings. "Tracking radio-tagged fledglings was the highlight of my day," says Jenkins. "Without transmitters, I doubt we could have relocated many fledglings, if any. I was amazed at how far from the nest newly fledged Ovenbirds could travel, even without the ability to fly."

Read more … 

New data on bird population trends and the climate conditions they occupy

Work contributes to more accurate future species distribution models

Date: July 20, 2016

Source: University of Massachusetts at Amherst

A new study of population trends among 46 ecologically diverse bird species in North America conducted by avian ecologist Joel Ralston and colleagues at the University of Massachusetts Amherst overturns a long-held assumption that the climate conditions occupied by a species do not change over time.

Instead, as the researchers report in the current early online issue of Global Ecology and Biogeography, birds that have increased in abundance over the last 30 years now occupy a wider range of climate conditions than they did 30 years ago, and declining species are occupying a smaller range of climate conditions than 30 years ago, Ralston says.

Species with relatively stable population trends maintained them. The authors believe this is the first study to investigate the relationship between population trend and the range of climatic conditions occupied, or "climate niche breadth" (CNB).

Ralston, now at Saint Mary's College, Notre Dame, Indiana, says, "It was previously thought that as species expand their ranges, they would do so while maintaining their climate niche. We show that as species become more abundant, they are actually moving into new climate conditions, and declining species are disappearing from some of the climate conditions they used to be found in. This makes theoretical sense but it counters the long-held assumption that climate niche breadth doesn't change in species."

Read more … 

Female birds call the shots in divorce

Date: July 20, 2016

Source: Monash University

Research is shedding new light on the causes of divorce in monogamous year-round territorial birds. A Monash University study of the endangered Purple-crowned Fairy-wren has discovered the females are calling the shots when it comes to breaking up.

Published in the journal Behavioral Ecology, the School of Biological Sciences' research studied 317 breeding pairs to learn what was driving the behaviour. As many as one in five avian pairs ended in divorce over nine years, and lead researcher Associate Professor Anne Peters said they were surprised to find it was the females who were more likely to break up.

"Females exhibit long term planning and are more likely to end their relationship when the opportunity for a better territory arises.

"We found females were prepared to wait, sometimes up to three years, for a good vacant spot to come up -- where the female owner has died or moved on."

Found in Western Australia's Kimberley region, it's estimated less than 10,000 Purple-crowned Fairy-wrens remain in the area. Unlike birds that move away from their territory and separate after breeding, the Fairy-wrens live together in pairs, year-round, in the same patch.

"These females are sitting there, they're not happy with their partner or their territory; they have an affair on the side and they're more likely to divorce. With divorce they get a different partner and a different territory. The territory seems to be more important than the partner," Associate Professor Peters said.

PhD candidate and first author Nataly Hidalgo Aranzamendi said the females were prepared to take drastic action to gain a better territory. "We found that older females sometimes kicked younger females out of their territories to claim these as their own."

Read on … 

City skies to become a tad safer for birds as govt. bans Chinese manja

STAFF REPORTER

Order satiates long-pending demand of bird-watchers

The skies of the city may just become a bit safer for our avian denizens.

The State government has banned the contentious Chinese manja (string), which is made of nylon or other synthetic material and coated with glass or harmful substances to give the kite flier a ‘competitive’ edge over rivals. Unlike cotton strings, Chinese threads are non-biodegradable and have the strength to entangle birds.

The notification was signed on June 24 and was issued by the Department of Forest, Ecology and Environment. Those found hawking, stocking and using the strings will be booked under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, the Karnataka Forest Act, 1963, and the Environment (Protection) Act.

The order satiates a long-pending demand of bird-watchers, many of whom had sent representations to the Chief Minister after coming across numerous birds entangled in such strings.

“The ban is the culmination of a six-year struggle. And, for the first time in the country, forest officials as well as local BBMP officials will be able to file cases under the Environment Act, which will make enforcement of the ban stringent,” said Sharath Babu, Honorary Wildlife Warden, Bengaluru.

Impact of the killer manja

Mr. Babu and ecologists S. Subramanya and Mohammad Dilawar researched the problem. Between 2010 and 2014, 268 birds of 13 species were rescued from entangled wires by Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike volunteers and activists.

Black Kites, because of their large size, made up nearly 70 per cent of the victims. Notably, most of the birds were rescued from old, densely-populated residential areas where kite-flying has evolved as a traditional, competitive sport.

The study notes that most of the birds are entangled during January and February when kite-flying reaches the height of its popularity in the city.

Source ...

Researchers decode genome of endangered bird

3:05 am, July 24, 2016

A research team has succeeded in mapping the genome of the endangered Yanbaru kuina, or Okinawa rail, which lives only in the Yanbaru area in the northern part of Okinawa Island. This is the first time a rare species indigenous to Japan has been genetically mapped.

Comprising members of the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES), Kyoto University and other entities, the team will further study the rails’ DNA in terms of breeding capacity and resistance to disease to ensure favorable reproduction of the birds. They also will map the genomes of other rare indigenous species.

The Yanbaru kuina, discovered in 1981, is the only flightless bird to inhabit Japan. It once was found throughout the Yanbaru area, but the number decreased drastically after mongooses were introduced to get rid of habu snakes.

In 2006, the Environment Ministry designated the rails as “critically endangered,” the highest risk of extinction. Currently, there are an estimated 1,500 Yanbaru kuina.

The ministry began a project to breed and reproduce the birds in 2008 as part of its protection measures. It succeeded in increasing the number of the rails to about 70 at a private facility in Yanbaru. However, there is a possibility the birds will contract a disease that causes tumors on the legs or that they will not survive if they are released into the wild.

Continued ...

Study finding underscores unique relationship between humans and honeyguides

Submitted by NATALIA HALL on FRI, 07/22/2016 - 10:59

An African bird known as Greater honeyguide is well known for leading people to honey, and as per a latest study the birds pay attention to some particular human calls to determine who wants to play follow-the-leader. The discovery has underscored the unique relationship that humans and this wild bird share.

Claire Spottiswoode of the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom said that they are certainly neither domesticated nor coerced in any way. Spottiswoode added that the birds aren’t taught in any conventional way also. Of course, humans won’t intentionally visit them and train honeyguides.

When Spottiswoode was just an 11-year-old kid in Cape Town, South Africa, she heard of the honeyguide while she went for a meeting of her local bird club and come across a lecture from a scientist dubbed H.A. Isack, the pioneer of honeyguide studies.

He published a rigorous study in the journal Science in 1989 demonstrating that the legends regarding the honeyguide were real. The birds indeed flutter in front of people, tweet, and fly from a tree to another, guiding hunters to the bees’ nests present within the trunks of hollow trees.

Spottiswoode mentioned, “By following honeyguides, human honey hunters can really increase their rate of finding bees nests”.

Continued ...

Underwater terrain may be key factor in little auk foraging

The birds target continental shelf and shelf break for foraging regardless of sea ice presence or absence

Date: July 20, 2016

Source: PLOS

Little auks forage in the same areas off East Greenland -- the continental shelf and its edge -- regardless of whether sea ice is present or absent, according to a study published July 20, 2016 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Françoise Amélineau, from the University of Montpellier, France, and colleagues.

Little auks, which live only in the Arctic, dive for copepods and other zooplankton in the "marginal ice zone" that lies between pack ice and open water. To test the impact of sea ice loss and underwater terrain on these seabirds, Amélineau and colleagues compared their foraging habits during two breeding seasons on the east coast of Greenland. Sea ice there varies naturally from year to year, and was present during one of the study periods but nearly absent during the other. The researchers temporarily fitted the auks with GPS and temperature-depth loggers to track the birds' movements during foraging.

The researchers found that whether sea ice was present or absent, little auks foraged in the same areas, targeting the continental shelf and its edge where prey may be concentrated. While the birds showed a preference for larger lipid-rich copepods, they also targeted smaller species that were plentiful at the shelf break when ice was absent. Importantly, the difference in diet had no impact on the body condition of adult little auks or on the growth of their chicks. These findings strengthen hypotheses from other recent work suggesting that little auks may have more flexibility than expected as the Arctic warms, and identified underwater terrain as a potential key factor for foraging.

Read on … 

Songbird dads vary their 'catering' duties according to circumstances

Inexperienced females incubating eggs are fed more often by their partners, study finds

Date: July 6, 2016

Source: Springer

Expecting songbird dads do not always work themselves into frenzy to provide food to their partners sitting on the nest. They take breaks on warmer days, when food is more readily available or if their partner is older and more experienced in successfully hatching eggs. This is according to a study of blue tit birds led by Seyed Mehdi Amininasab of the University of Groningen in The Netherlands and Behbahan Khatam Alanbia University of Technology in Iran. The findings are published in Springer's journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.

Amininasab's team observed the nesting behavior of a population of blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) living in a forest of deciduous and conifer trees near Groningen in the Netherlands during the 2014 breeding season. More than 200 nest boxes designed with these songbirds in mind are set out in the area, and have been monitored since 2001. For the purposes of the present study, data loggers were placed in 92 of the nests to record temperature shifts during the incubation process. The researchers also captured the feeding behavior of males visiting 63 of these nests by using infra-red cameras. The results provide new insights into the effort that birds make to successfully incubate and hatch their eggs.

Continued …

Why the RSPB is withdrawing support for the Hen Harrier Action Plan

Martin Harper 

25 Jul 2016 6:55 AM 

The voluntary approach of the Hen Harrier Action Plan has failed, leaving licensing as the only viable option.

I’m generally very patient. My natural preference is to build partnerships and work to make positive change from the inside with those who want to abide by the law and deliver progress.

However, sometimes that approach simply doesn’t work and there can be no clearer example of that right now than hen harriers, where illegal killing of this rare bird remains its most significant threat.

The RSPB played a full part in the production of Defra’s Hen Harrier Action Plan and despitedisagreeing with certain points (notably brood management), welcomed its publication earlier this year. However, at the time, I noted the need for immediate progress to help build trust in the approach.

Unfortunately this has not happened. 

In 2015, we were all extremely frustrated by there being just six successful hen harrier nests from 12 attempts in England. 2016 is on course to be much worse, with only three nests at the time of writing, none of which are on grouse moors. 

Some will argue that the weather or vole population is to blame, however, early returns from the national hen harrier survey suggest numbers away from intensively managed grouse moors in north and west Scotland have done ok. We remain convinced that the primary reason for the hen harrier‘s continuing scarcity remains illegal killing. 

Simply put, hen harriers (and other birds of prey) are illegally killed on some estates because they eat grouse. Crimes are committed to increase the number of grouse that can be shot. This year, there have been a series of depressingly predictable incidents in England and Scotland, the disappearance of the hen harriers ‘Chance’ and ‘Highlander’, the use of pole traps and the hen harrier decoy in the Peak District. And as well as hen harriers, it has also been a really bad year for red kites in North and West Yorkshire with several suspicious deaths. In addition, there are more cases working their way through the legal system.

Continued ...

Research reveals why males outnumber females in bird world

Date: July 7, 2016

Source: University of East Anglia

Female birds 'fly the nest' from sparsely populated breeding sites leaving behind small groups of lonely males -- according to new research from the University of East Anglia.

Research published in the Journal of Animal Ecology shows for the first time the causes of skewed sex ratios among small and declining bird populations.

The findings reveal how female birds are thought to be choosing busier breeding locations -- where habitat is often better, males are more abundant, and the ratio of males to females is more equal.

Lead researcher Prof Jenny Gill, from UEA's School of Biological Sciences, said: "Many migratory bird populations are declining and very small local populations are becoming more common.

"If females prefer places where males are more abundant, small populations are likely to decline even faster.

"However, the unpaired males will continue singing throughout the breeding season in a bid to find a mate, and so we may be underestimating declines in these small populations. We wanted to find out whether this was happening."

The research team used British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) ringing data to explore the extent, causes and consequences of varying sex ratios in breeding populations of willow warblers (Phylloscopus trochilus) across the UK.

Read on … 

Longest study of Great Lakes region birds finds populations holding steady

Date: July 12, 2016

Source: USDA Forest Service - Northern Research Station

A new USDA Forest Service report documenting an unprecedented effort to inventory birds in the western Great Lakes region and analyze changes in bird populations over the past quarter of a century found that across a trio of national forests, most birds are doing well in terms of both species diversity and population.

Published as General Technical Report NRS-159, "Analysis of Long-term Forest Bird Monitoring Data from National Forests of the Western Great Lakes Region" describes trends and potential drivers in the abundance of bird species. Gerald Niemi of the University of Minnesota-Duluth's Natural Resources Research Institute and Robert Howe of the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay are lead authors of the report with co-author Brian Sturtevant, a research ecologist with the USDA Forest Service's Northern Research Station. An estimated 700 birders have volunteered their time or worked as paid field researchers to inventory bird species for more than 25 years. The report will serve as a useful reference for forest managers identifying how species respond to forest management and what species need attention.

"Forest Service science is contributing to healthy, sustainable forests that are more productive and, ultimately, produce cleaner air and water," said Tony Ferguson, Acting Director of the Northern Research Station and the Forest Products Laboratory. "Forest birds play a vital role in forest stewardship through seed dispersal and insect control, and this research will be a valuable reference for land managers working to protect critical habitat for forest birds."

In the three national forests covered by the inventory -- the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest in Wisconsin and the Superior and Chippewa National Forests in Northern Minnesota -- the analysis found overall healthy bird communities that give researchers and policy-makers a degree of optimism. "It paints a picture of fairly healthy bird communities in these forests over two decades of surveys," said Niemi. "It shows that there is tremendous diversity of bird species in the region and emphasizes the importance of national forests to migratory and resident bird species."

Read on …

Alaska's shorebirds exposed to mercury

Date: July 13, 2016

Source: Central Ornithology Publication Office

Shorebirds breeding in Alaska are being exposed to mercury at levels that could put their populations at risk, according to new research from The Condor: Ornithological Applications.

Thanks to atmospheric circulation and other factors, the mercury that we deposit into the environment tends to accumulate in the Arctic. Mercury exposure can reduce birds' reproductive success and sometimes even be lethal. Shorebirds may be particularly vulnerable because they forage in aquatic environments where mercury is converted into methylmercury, its most dangerous form. Marie Perkins of the Biodiversity Research Institute (BRI) and her colleagues investigated the level of mercury in Alaska's shorebirds and found that some birds breeding near Barrow, at the state's northern end, have mercury concentrations upwards of two micrograms per gram of blood.

"These species already face a lot of tough new challenges, from climate change to disappearing stop-over habitat, so throwing a neurotoxin in the mix that can reduce reproductive success is likely to harm their populations," according to Dan Cristol of the College of William & Mary, an expert on mercury in birds who was not involved with the new study. "The mercury concentrations reported in this paper are likely to reduce reproduction, but not catastrophically, based on what we know from other species. What may be even worse, though, is that these mercury levels probably spike when they leave the breeding grounds and start burning their reserve fuel, making their already arduous continent-jumping trips even harder."

Continued … 

Sex in the city: Peregrine falcons in Chicago don't cheat

Date: July 15, 2016

Source: Field Museum

Peregrine Falcons, in their normal habitat on isolated cliffs, mate for life. But some 25 pairs now nest on Chicago skyscrapers and bridges, and city living has them in much closer quarters than they used before humans dominated the landscape. A group of Field Museum and University of Illinois, Chicago scientists investigated whether typical breeding patterns hold true for these new city-dwellers and, in a paper published in PLOS ONE, confirmed that even in the big city, the birds that prey together, stay together.

"Peregrine Falcons that now live in the Chicago region are living in very different conditions than you'd normally see for these birds, so we wondered if the falcons' mating habits had changed too. They're in much closer proximity to each other than they'd be in a more rural environment, and we thought they might be more promiscuous with more potential mates nearby," explains co-author John Bates, Associate Curator of Birds at The Field Museum. "Each spring this population also has migratory Peregrines passing through on their way to all parts of Canada, so we didn't know what we were going to find, but it turns out that almost all of the mated pairs in the city remain monogamous through the years."

Peregrine Falcons nearly went extinct in the US in the 1960s due to thinning of their eggshells caused by the pesticide DDT. However, historic egg collections at the Field and other museums provided evidence for the harm caused by DDT, and it was banned. In the decades since, reintroduction efforts have enabled Peregrine Falcons to make a comeback in the Midwest, with populations thriving in urban areas in twelve states. Ninety percent of the breeding pairs in the Midwest nest on buildings and bridges in the Chicago area.

Read more … 

Ornithologist captures rare Amur Falcon in Bastar

Rashmi Drolia| TNN | Jul 13, 2016, 09.52 AM IST

Raipur: Fondly called 'cutest falcon' by birdwatchers, Amur Falcon, a lesser known threatened species of raptor that breeds in south-eastern Siberia and Northern China was spotted for the first time in Central India's Bastar region by a birder recently.

Birder and head of department, zoology of Government PG College, Jagdalpur, Dr Sushil Dutta released his first research papers with photographic documentation on Tuesday.

He stated that Eastern red-footed Falcon, one of the least talked-about species, was spotted for two successive days while it was migrating from China to South Africa in November last year. Earlier, spotted in Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh, the Falcon crosses 22,000 kilometres via India and halts in MP and Chhattisgarh as well.

Dr Dutta told TOI, "On November last year, this bird first arrived at north eastern side of Rajnagar tank, about 26 kilometres from Jagdalpur. Thereafter, it moved on to a nearby power line and next morning, the bird was seen perched on the power line. These birds on their trans-equatorial migration come from China and north east and fly across to South Africa in the south west and Bastar seems to be the pathway on the route."

Dr Dutta added that they usually return in March-April from South Africa and fly away to far north east. But in February, March and April, I made several visits to the spot where I had sighted the bird but it was not to be seen."

It is the first ever photographic documentation of the bird in Central India. The two sighting events revealed most of the morphological characters helpful for identification.

Talking to TOI, ecologist ML Naik said, "Certainly it's a good report to know that area of distribution of species has been observed to be wider than earlier. Such news is good for the state if rare species of birds feel safe here. If they get food, they might stay longer, which is also an indication that state's area is safer and suitable for birds."

Read on …