Recording lures endangered bird to Wisconsin woods

By Kaley Fech | October 10, 2018

By Kaley Fech

Every day the love song of a Kirtland’s warbler calls throughout the Bayfield County Forest in northwestern Wisconsin.

But it isn’t coming from a bird.

It’s a recording created to lure the endangered species to the forest.

“We had a handful of birds on the landscape, but none of them were finding each other,” said Nick Anich a conservation biologist for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. “We thought this technique would be a good way to get all the birds to focus in basically on the same spot.”

He got the idea from Michael Ward, an avian ecologist for the Illinois Natural History Survey at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Ward has done a number of projects using audio playback to lure species from one area to another.

The technique is referred to as conspecific attraction, meaning it is used to lure the same species to a new location using cues relevant to that species.

Anich took the idea a step further. He lures Kirtland’s warblers hundreds of miles away from their main population centers.

Wisconsin’s biggest population of Kirtland’s warblers is in Adams County in the lower center of the state.

The recording has been successful in drawing birds from there to other parts of the state, Anich said.

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Southwestern willow flycatcher keeps 'endangered' status

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife service announced the southwestern willow flycatcher would keep its protection under the Endangered Species Act.

JIM RORABAUGH/USFWS VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Posted Friday, January 5, 2018 6:00 am

By Cody Hooks

Ranching organizations in New Mexico that asked the federal government to remove a small bird from its list of endangered speeches received some disappointing news last week.

On Thursday (Dec. 28), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service announced the southwestern willow flycatcher would keep its protection under the Endangered Species Act.

The New Mexico Cattle Growers Association, New Mexico Farm and Livestock Bureau and New Mexico Wool Growers Inc. filed a petition in 2015 to have the bird removed from the federal list of at-risk species. The New Mexico organizations were joined by a building industry organization in California and represented by the Pacific Legal Foundation, a conservative law firm that has also litigated to overturn jaguar habitat designations in Southern New Mexico.

The groups challenged that the southwestern willow flycatcher is not a valid subspecies and argued that the bird no longer faced a variety of threats that put it on the endangered  list.

"An exhaustive review of the best available scientific information... led to the conclusion that the southwestern willow flycatcher is a subspecies protectable under the [Endangered Species Act]," according to the Thursday press release from the wildlife agency.

While some populations of the bird have made progress toward recovery, the bird and its habitat "are experiencing substantial threats."

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Once-Plentiful Hawaii Bird Now Protected By Endangered Species Act

By Nathan Eagle    / September 19, 2017

Facing extinction due in large part to the effects of climate change, the ‘i’iwi — a scarlet honeycreeper only found in Hawaii — will receive federal protection as a threatened species, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Tuesday.

Once common from mauka to makai throughout the islands, the small red bird is now found almost exclusively in high-elevation forests on Maui and the Big Island. The population on Kauai has plummeted 92 percent over the past 25 years and the bird is almost completely gone from Lanai, Oahu and Molokai.

Lost habitat and mosquitoes carrying avian diseases and malaria are to blame. The ‘i’iwi are no longer in places that mosquitoes thrive, which is why they have found refuge in koa and ohia forests above 3,600 feet.

But as the planet warms, the mosquitoes’ range increases, further constricting the space available for the ‘i’iwi.

Readon  

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. 

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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.

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BEER CREATED FOR ENDANGERED BIRD

25th August, 2017 by Rupert Millar

A Texas brewery and the Travis Audobon society have teamed up to create a beer to raise awareness of an endangered songbird species whose habitat is under threat.

The golden-cheeked warbler is native to central Texas but its trees it uses for nesting in and making its nests out of, oak and juniper, have been cut down in huge numbers for timber and to clear ground for housing, roads, farms for livestock and, flooded for lakes and reservoirs.

To raise awareness of the bird’s plight, The Travis Audubon Society has partnered with Blue Owl Brewery, a sour beer specialist, in Austin to create a brew dedicated to the warbler.

Head brewer Davy Pasternak decided to incorporate elements of the bird’s habitat and behaviour into the beer.

As such it was fermented in oak and Black Spanish grapes, a hybrid American variety grown in the Texas Hill Country right in the heart of the bird’s range, were added to give a light rosé tint to the beer and some tannic grip.

Pasternak told a local news station: “The character from the grapes that you get, it’s got a slight amount of tannins, but nothing that’s too harsh, so similar to a rosé, it’s very refreshing, so it has this sort of earthiness from the oak, and grape vinous quality from the grapes.”

Jordan Price, membership director of the Audubon added: “We really wanted to draw attention to a serious problem.

Read more

In search of Edwards' pheasant: Almost extinct?

Genuinely extinct or just not worth looking for? Scientists set out to discover just how endangered certain species are

Date: August 17, 2017

Source: Newcastle University

Summary: Scientists say we need to improve our information about little-known species to reduce the risk of one going extinct just because no-one is interested in looking for it.

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Ibis Revival Helps Town Take Flight

- Midori Aoki

A wild bird once thought to be extinct is making a comeback in inland China. The endangered crested ibis' population is now in the thousands. Its revival is also hatching economic spinoffs in the area.

"The crested ibis is known for its beautiful color. In China, we believe that it brings luck and beauty," says Photographer Li Ping.

For more than 2 decades, Li has dedicated his life to capturing photos of the endangered crested ibis. He wants to raise awareness about the rare species.

"In order to save the crested ibis, more people need to know about it. We need to understand that saving the bird also means protecting the environment," says Li.

The wild bird used to live in East Asia and the Russian Far East. But its population plunged as human development encroached on the bird's habitat. At one point, researchers thought the crested ibis was extinct.

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Declining male offspring further imperil endangered flycatchers in southern California

Date:  December 21, 2016
Source:  Central Ornithology Publication Office

A new study in The Condor: Ornithological Applications documents the steep decline of a population of endangered Southwestern Willow Flycatchers over 16 years -- and the change in the sex ratio that has left the birds' future hanging on a dwindling number of males.

Changes in sex ratios can cause problems in small, declining populations, reducing individuals' ability to find mates and reproduce. From 2000 to 2015, Barbara Kus of the U.S. Geological Survey and her colleagues monitored federally endangered Southwestern Willow Flycatchers on Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in southern California, collecting data as the population declined from 40 individuals to only five. They found that the number of adult males was stable until 2004, but then began to decrease sharply until females outnumbered males at least two to one from 2012 on.

As the number of males plummeted, more and more of them became polygynous, mating with multiple females. Kus speculates that this may have prevented even faster declines. "It was particularly amazing to watch two or three males manage 10 or so females between them," says Kus. "They seemed to be able to increase their individual efforts such that every female was mated."



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Straw-headed bulbuls find a safe haven in Singapore

Dec 10, 2016, 5:00 am SGT

Plunge in numbers worldwide but songbird now classified as endangered thrives here

Janice Heng

Singapore is one of the remaining havens for a rare songbird now classified as endangered worldwide, according to wildlife experts.

There are only an estimated 600 to 1,700 straw-headed bulbuls left in the wild. Singapore is thought to have at least 200 - and counting.

The bird's conservation status was raised from "vulnerable" to "endangered" on the latest edition of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, released on Thursday.

Illegal wildlife trade has caused several species to move up to higher threat categories.

"There is now evidence that unsustainable levels of capture for the cagebird trade, largely centred on Java, are driving the deteriorating status of many species," said IUCN .

But in Singapore, the straw-headed bulbul seems to be doing better.

Creatures under threat in Singapore

Singapore is home to over 200 species of animals considered globally threatened, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.

Source  

Hunted to the brink, but Africa’s reviled vultures are vital in fight against disease

Wildlife photojournalist of the year exposes the plight of the endangered scavenger

Robin McKie Observer science editor

Sunday 16 October 2016 00.05 BST


Vultures are rarely viewed as the poster boys and girls of the natural world. They have repulsive eating habits and are strikingly ugly. Nevertheless, they play a critical role in maintaining the ecological health of many parts of the world.

Vultures consume animal carcasses more effectively than any other scavengers and because their digestive juices contain acids that neutralise pathogens such as cholera and rabies they prevent diseases spreading. They act as dead-end hosts for numerous unpleasant ailments. But many ecologists are now warning that vultures across the planet are under serious threat thanks to habitat loss, deliberate and accidental poisoning, and use of the birds’ body parts as traditional medicine cures.

All these risks will be emphasised by British photographer Charlie Hamilton James in a series of images that will be shown as part of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition, which opens at the Natural History Museum this week.

His photographs of vultures – and the growing environmental risks that threaten to wipe them out – have won Hamilton James the exhibition’s wildlife photojournalist of the year award.

“I like underdogs,” he said last week. “That is why I like vultures. The trouble is that vultures are now under such stress in the wild – for several reasons. They are facing a massive catastrophe yet they do so much for the environment and do so much to contain disease.”

Vultures are one of the fastest declining groups of animals in the world. In India, all nine species of the bird are threatened with extinction, largely through the indiscriminate use of diclofenac, a common anti-inflammatory drug administered to livestock but which is lethal for the vultures that eat the corpses of cattle.

“There is now a real danger that a disease like rabies will spread because there are hardly any vultures left to clean up corpses left in the open,” Hamilton James said.

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Rare macaws confiscated in first seizure of live birds in Hong Kong for a decade

Smugglers escape in speedboat, leaving haul of endangered species and 14 boxes of furs worth a total of HK$2 million

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 12 July, 2016, 5:09pm

Clifford Lo

Forty-six endangered macaws were confiscated along with 24 magpie robins and 14 boxes of furs in an anti-smuggling operation on Lantau Island.

The consignment worth HK$2 million was the first such seizure of live birds in the city in a decade, according to a police source with knowledge of the operation.

Marine police and customs officers launched the raid on Monday night as the goods were being loaded on to a Shenzhen-bound speedboat.

“Because of the scare of bird flu, no live birds had been discovered in any sea-bound smuggling activities in the past 10 years,” the source said on Tuesday.

It is understood a macaw is worth about HK$10,000 in Hong Kong. “But they can be sold for between HK$20,000 and HK$30,000 each on mainland China,” the source said. “A rare species could be sold for as much as US$20,000.”

He believed the macaws were imported into the city legitimately but were being exported illegally to escape stringent restrictions imposed by mainland authorities.

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Over a third of N. American bird species in danger -scientists

by Reuters

Wednesday, 18 May 2016 18:59 GMT

OTTAWA, May 18 (Reuters) - More than a third of all North American bird species are at risk of becoming extinct unless significant action is taken, scientists who are part of a tri-nation initiative said on Wednesday, adding that ocean and tropical birds were in particular danger.

The study, compiled by the North American Bird Conservation Initiative and the first of its kind to look at the vulnerability of bird populations in Canada, the United States and Mexico, said 37 percent of all 1,154 species on the continent needed urgent conservation action.

The governments of Canada, the United States and Mexico created the North American Bird Conservation Initiative in 1999.

More than half the species for oceans and tropical forests are on a special watch list because of small and declining populations, limited ranges and severe threats to their habitats.

"The outlook for oceanic birds ... is the bleakest of any North American bird group," said the report, which blamed invasive predators such as rats and cats on nesting islands as well as overfishing, pollution and climate change.

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Malta gives go ahead to shooting of 5,000 endangered turtle doves

Conservationists urge EU to take action against Malta for continuing the spring hunt despite the birds recently being added to ‘red list’ of species at risk of being wiped out

Patrick Barkham

Wednesday 16 March 2016 14.10 GMT

Last modified on Thursday 17 March 201612.27 GMT

Hunters in Malta will be permitted to shoot 5,000 turtle doves this spring despite the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) recently adding the migratory bird to the “red list” of species at risk of being wiped out.

The Maltese government, the only EU member to allow recreational spring hunting, said it was taking “special measures” to minimise the impact of its shoot on the bird’s plummeting population, cutting the shooters’ allowance from 11,000 birds.

But conservationists said continuing the spring hunt went against the best scientific advice and appealed for the EU to take action against Malta.

“The government has taken the wrong political decision,” said Mark Sultana, chief executive of Birdlife Malta. “Rather than giving weight to the scientific data they opted to open a season with limitations. We do not believe that there is enough will and resources to ensure those limitations will be kept.”

The turtle dove population has fallen by 96% in Britain since 1970 and its numbers have fallen across Europe by more than a third in the last 16 years.

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Seven bird poachers jailed in China

MARCH 7TH, 2016 

Beijing, March 7 (IANS) Seven people were jailed in China’s Hunan province on Monday for poisoning endangered birds and trafficking their carcasses for meat.

The People’s Court in Yueyang city sentenced one of the seven to 12 years in jail and fined him 10,000 yuan ($1,500), Xinhua reported.

Two others were sentenced to 10 years in prison and were fined 10,000 yuan while four were jailed for one to six years.

The gang poisoned, transported and sold endangered birds from the wetlands of Dongting Lake Nature Reserve and surrounding regions.

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Nest cavity competition may threaten an endangered Tasmanian songbird

Date:  November 5, 2015

Source:  Central Ornithology Publication Office

The Forty-spotted Pardalote (Pardalotus quadragintus), an endangered Tasmanian songbird, has been experiencing unexplained declines in its remaining habitat, and a new study in The Condor: Ornithological Applications describes how competition with a related species for nest cavities may be putting extra pressure on these vulnerable birds. Amanda Edworthy of Australian National University spent two years monitoring nests of Forty-spotted Pardalotes and Striated Pardalotes at three sites around Tasmania, documenting that about 10% of Forty-spotted Pardalote nests were ultimately taken over by their bigger, more aggressive cousins.

During the breeding seasons of 2013-2014 and 2014-2015, Edworthy searched for nests of both pardalote species in Tasmania's dry coastal forests, monitoring them every four days and using climbing gear to observe nests high in trees. She also used freeze-dried pardalote specimens as dummies to test how the birds responded to intruders, placing them in lifelike positions outside nests and recording the birds' reactions. While she didn't see a single instance of Forty-spotted Pardalotes taking over a Striated Pardalote nest site, Striated Pardalotes usurped about 10% of the Forty-spotted Pardalotes nesting attempts she monitored, with these takeovers occurring most frequently at sites with greater Striated Pardalote population density. Forty-spotted Pardalotes responded less aggressively to Striated Pardalote dummies than to dummies of their own species, likely due to caution in the face of a threatening competitor, while Striated-spotted Pardalotes displayed similar amounts of aggression to dummies of both species.

Accessing pardalote nests required determination and comfort with heights. "I learned to climb trees just for this project," says Edworthy. "Tasmania's gum trees are some of the tallest flowering plants in the world, and I had nests ranging from eye level to 30 meters above the ground, with most of them well above ladder height. My field assistants and I would either hike or bike all the gear out to each nest every four days or so, and haul ourselves up into the canopy. We got some great views of Tasmanian coastline and forest canopies from the tops of trees, though when the wind came up, it was a bit frightening to see the trunk of the tree moving below me and to feel how elastic trees are in the wind. Climbing let us consistently access nests of Forty-spotted Pardalotes for the first time--previous studies were done from the ground or with ladders."

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5-year plan to conserve vultures

KATHMANDU, AUG 01 - The government has prepared a five-year Vulture Conservation Action Plan with an aim to prevent the endangered vulture species from extinction, as the illegal use of toxic Diclofenac, a veterinary drug, threatens their population.

The conservation action plan (2015-2019) endorsed by the government recently is a follow-up document for the implementation of various activities targeted to protect the existing vulture population in the country.

The action plan prepared by the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC), in coordination with Bird Conservation Nepal, aims to increase the population of the vulture species that are at high risk of extinction unless immediate conservation efforts are adopted. Red-headed Vulture (Sarcogyps calvus), Slender-billed Vulture (Gpys tenuirostris) and White-rumped Vulture populations have dwindled to a critical stage over the years. It is estimated that the total number of these three critically endangered vulture species in the country is fewer than 2,550.

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