Plastic found in almost all gannet nests on Alderney

09/01/2019

Virtually all of the 8,000 Northern Gannet nests on Alderney are contaminated with plastic pollution, a survey has found.

This shocking statistic comes despite the fact that, as recently as 20 years ago, only small quantities of plastic were seen in the nests on the third-largest of the Channel Islands. According to the Alderney Wildlife Trust (AWT), plastic build-up in the breeding colonies is killing the birds, with some entangled gannets found hung or missing legs.

Northern Gannets are known to forage as far as 20 nautical miles in order to collect nesting materials and the plastics found in the nests generally consist of rope or line from the fishing industry. Alderney, 15 km from France and the northernmost of the inhabited Channel Islands, holds around 2 per cent of the entire global population of Northern Gannets.

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Stress in the nest can have lifelong effect

Date: August 16, 2017

Source: The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)

Summary:

Why do some sparrows hatch six chicks while others don’t hatch any? How does upbringing affect the remainder of their lives? Physiological stress in the nest can actually affect birds’ DNA and possibly their lifespan.

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19 critically endangered giant ibis nests discovered in Cambodia: conservationist group

Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-02 18:49:57|Editor: Song Lifang

PHNOM PENH, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- A conservationist group has found 19 nests of globally endangered giant ibis during the current breeding season in the Northern Plains of Cambodia in Preah Vihear province, a Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) statement said on Wednesday.

Community members and conservationists are working together under the Bird Nest Protection Program to protect these nests from human disturbances and other threats, the statement said.

Giant ibis (Thaumatibis gigantea), Cambodia's national bird, is listed as critically endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List and exists only in Cambodia and Laos, it said, adding that about 99 percent of the global population, estimated to contain 194 mature individuals, lives in Cambodia.

"As of July this year, our research team has recorded 19 nests of the giant ibis; 14 located in Chhep Wildlife Sanctuary and five in the Kulen Promtep Wildlife Sanctuary," said Thong Sokha, wildlife research and monitoring team leader for Environment Ministry and WCS in Chhep Wildlife Sanctuary.

He said the species' breeding period is between June and September, and the team is now working closely with local communities to monitor those recorded nests and search for new ones in both sanctuaries.

Continued http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2017-08/02/c_136494183.htm

Nesting in cavities protects birds from predators, to a point

Date: July 12, 2017

Source: American Ornithological Society Publications Office

Summary: Nesting in cavities provides birds with some protection from predators -- but it isn't foolproof. A new study explores how Poland's cavity-nesting marsh tits deal with predator attacks and finds that while tactics such as small entrances and solid walls do help, adaptations like this can only take the birds so far.

Read on

Artificial nests to boost breeding of threatened shy albatross

“Bit of mud, bit of dirt, bit of vegetation, the bones of their previously dead chicks which they pack into a little pile…”

Bit of morbid practicality from the shy albatross when it comes to nest-building material!

The birds may use “anything they can get their beak on” but the bird scientists are a little more discriminating in what they use to craft artificial nests for the endemic Tasmanian birds, according to Dr Rachael Alderman, Seabird biologist with the Department of Primary Industries, Park, Water and Environment (DPIPWE).

They’re not using bones, then? “We didn’t go that far. Ideally the birds will augment some of the nests themselves over time, maybe they can choose to add that.”

“One of the things we’ve observed in all our years of monitoring (shy albatross) is that some birds make really good nests and some birds, for whatever reasons, make low-quality nests. If you have a low quality nest, you’re less likely to successfully raise a chick from an egg through to hatching, for a chick that survives at the end of the season. We’re coming in with some nests that we’re making back here that we think the albatross will quite like, and they’re all good quality ones, and we’re going to put them in spots where the albatross aren’t making good nests and we’re going to let them use them and ideally hopefully it will produce more chicks through these nests than would otherwise have been produced on the island.”

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Gravel-camouflaged nests give threatened shorebirds a boost

Date: August 12, 2015

Source: Central Ornithology Publication Office

Summary: When it comes to reproduction, not every individual equally pulls his or her weight. Researchers spent 13 years tracking the reproductive success of individual Snowy Plovers, and more than anything else they considered, the one factor that stood out was whether plovers nested on sandy beaches or gravel bars: gravel provided better camouflage, leading to more successful fledglings, in turn leading to higher lifetime reproductive success for birds that nested at gravel sites.

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How to beat monk parakeets at their own game: Scientists prevent nests on utility poles

Date:

September 30, 2014

Source:

University of Connecticut

Summary:

Researchers have announced they have found a way to prevent Monk Parakeets from building huge nests on utility poles by blocking access to the electric lines that are the gateway to their nesting sites.

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Bird's nest that can bring down a tree!

IANS | London 

August 24, 2014 Last Updated at 16:28 IST

Can a bird's nest bring down a huge tree? For Africa's incredible social weaver birds, pulling down a tree is a child's game.

About the size of sparrows, these birds come together in colonies of as many as 500 to build enormous nests that weigh over 900 kg, are 20-feet-long, 13-feet-wide and seven-feet-thick.

"The structures are so big they can collapse the trees they are built on and so well-constructed they can last for a century," Gavin Leighton, a biologist at University of Miami, said.

This is how they weave monstrous nests.

Social weaver birds line the insides of the chambers with grass and feathers and, occasionally, cotton balls taken from fields.

One chamber provides three or four birds a warm place to rest as winter settles in.

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Why cooperation among sociable weaver birds leads to their amazing nests

A new insight into one of the biggest questions in science – why some animals, including humans, work together to maintain a common good – has been achieved by scientists at the University of Sheffield.

Massive cluster of sociable weaver

birds' nests festooning a tree

Sociable weavers, a highly gregarious and co-operative breeding bird from the savannahs of southern Africa, build the largest nests of any bird, often weighing tonnes and lasting for decades, and housing colonies of up to several hundred birds.

The massive nests consist of individual nest chambers which are used throughout the year for breeding and roosting and are embedded within a communal thatch.

The thatch covering the nest doesn’t originate from individual chamber building but requires separate investment from colony members to build and maintain it.

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Swift action creates hundreds of nests in Ribble Valley

By Jon Robinson, Reporter

HUNDREDS of new nests have been created in the Ribble Valley to house swifts returning to the UK to breed.

The RSPB and Ribble Valley Borough Council have joined forces to provide 200 purpose-built holes in the sides of homes for the birds.

With their long scythe-shaped wings, swifts have just arrived back, having spent the winter eating insects in the central African rainforests.

Swifts in the UK are almost totally dependent on holes in old buildings to raise their chicks, but these days are finding it increasingly hard to find a place to nest.

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Nests of rare bird found

Shiva Sharma

KASKI, MAY 26 - Researchers have found nests of the pied thrush, an endangered bird species, in the   (ACAP).

Parash Bikram Singh, conservation officer of the ACAP, and his assistant Srijan Gyawali said they found nests of the bird during their study some days ago in Ghandruk and Chhomrong, located 2,200 meters above from the sea level. With the onset of the summer season, the bird mostly found in Bhutan, India and Sri Lanka migrates to Nepal. The researchers said efforts are under way to enlist the bird as endangered one as they said the number of the bird species is decreasing due to habitat destruction.

“The bird is at risk due to habitat destruction. The ACAP is its suitable habitat,” said Singh, adding that the birds migrate to Nepal to hatch its eggs. Pied thrush lays eggs in areas above 1,500 to 2,500 meters from the sea.

Posted on: 2014-05-26 08:51

http://www.ekantipur.com/2014/05/26/national/nests-of-rare-bird-found/390059.html

Ganaraska Forest logging during bird nesting season ruffles feathers

CLARINGTON -- Protests are rising over migratory birds, their nests and young being accidentally destroyed when the Ganaraska Region Conservation Authority allowed logging during the spring nesting season.

“That’s just not acceptable, and it’s not necessary, that’s the most aggravating part,” said Clarington resident Jim Richards.

Approximately four per cent of the Ganaraska Forest -- 361 square miles -- is logged each year. Logging can let light into the forest floor, create new wildlife habitats and add to the biodiversity of the forest.

“It’s kind of impossible to plant a natural forest ... Most of what we’re doing in the forest is thinning the plantation (trees). Converting the plantation to a more natural forest,” said Bob Penwell, forester for the GRCA.

The problem with logging in the late spring and early summer is that migratory birds are mating, building nests, laying eggs and caring for young in those trees. Mr. Richards said in the Ganaraska Forest that breeding time is from April to the end of July.

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Male Birds Like Nice Nests

Ryder Diaz, ISNS Contributor

Date: 09 April 2013 Time: 05:23 PM ET

 (ISNS) -- One bird species may have advice on how to get its dads to take a more active role in parenting: mothers should build a snazzy crib.

Female blue tits that construct bigger nests and decorate them with fragrant plants have male partners that are more willing to invest in raising chicks, Spanish researchers report in the journal Behavioral Ecology.

A big, well-decorated home may send a signal to males about the health of their partners, said Gustavo Tomás of the Estación Experimental de Zonas Áridas in Madrid, and co-author on the study.

Females in many animal species are often believed to be the picky sex when it comes to choosing a mate. That’s because females usually devote more time and energy than males to raising their offspring. 

A female blue tit – which is about the size of an adult hand, from beak to tail – picks her partner based on his colorful blue and yellow plumage and the sweetness of his song. The better looking and sounding a mate, the better the chances he won’t be teeming with parasites and that the couple will have healthy chicks. 

But the research team found that males might also judge their mates.

“It was traditionally thought that only males need to show of their quality,” said Tomás. “Now we’re revealing it’s not that simple. It’s an interaction between sexes.“

Different bird species divide the work of building nests in different ways.  Female blue tits work alone to build nests, although males may add feathers later on. That means the nest may provide a window to the female's health.

Continued:  http://www.livescience.com/28587-male-birds-like-nice-nests.html

Conservation officials: Let plovers nest in peace

Updated 12:02 am, Monday, April 1, 2013

BOSTON (AP) — State conservation officials are asking beachgoers to not disturb piping plover nests as the rare birds return to Massachusetts this spring.

The shorebirds come back to Massachusetts' coastal beaches to nest and raise their young.

Experts say visitors should avoid marked areas where the birds nest. They also say to watch out for plover eggs and chicks, which can blend in with the sand and be vulnerable to people and pets.

Atlantic Coast piping plovers were listed as threatened by the federal government in 1986.

Government officials say that means the birds would become endangered and face possible extinction without Endangered Species

During spring and summer, the small, stocky birds nest from Newfoundland south to North Carolina.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/news/science/article/Conservation-officials-Let-plovers-nest-in-peace-4399025.php#ixzz2PatVHHBmAct protection.