Foreign donations prop up Australia's endangered parrot response

Western ground parrot needs millions spent on it, but volunteers say Coalition is trying to shift costs to not-for-profits

Lisa Cox

Mon 18 Jun 2018 23.19 BSTFirst published on Mon 18 Jun 2018 19.00 BST

The Turnbull government helped broker a $200,000 agreement for a German not-for-profit to fund conservation work for a critically endangered Australian parrot, bolstering criticism it is shifting the cost of protecting threatened species to community and philanthropic organisations.

The western ground parrot is one of only three ground nesting parrots found in Australia and is one of 20 birds the government has committed to helping as part of its threatened species strategy.

But the parrot is receiving just $80,000 in species-specific funding from the federal government through its threatened species recovery fund to construct new facilities for “a captive breeding trial at Perth zoo”.

The environment department says additional money to support the birds is coming from a $1.7m feral cat baiting program in WA and an agreement it “brokered” with a German parrot association for $200,000 for a western ground parrot project.

The Association for the Conservation of Threatened Parrots, a Berlin-based not for profit, agreed to provide the funds in 2017 for work by the WA Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions to increase feral animal control, “monitor existing populations and enhance captive breeding methods”, an environment and energy spokeswoman said.

Conservation groups say the international donation is an example of the government increasingly trying to move the cost of threatened species work onto volunteers and charities and at a time when it has been trying to stop not-for-profits from accepting overseas donations for political advocacy work.

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The loss of a parent is the most common cause of brood failure in blue tits

Date:  June 12, 2018

Source:  British Ecological Society

Summary:

Complete brood failure in blue tits is almost always associated with the sudden and permanent disappearance of one of the parents. Scientists show in their study that the remaining parent substantially increased its effort to raise at least some of the chicks, which turned out to be successful in two thirds of the nests.

Single parent males generally do worse, probably because they are not able to keep their chicks warm. Their findings are published today in the Journal of Animal Ecology.

Apart from being a popular garden feeder visitor, blue tits have been the focus of much research on the causes and consequences of variation in reproductive success. Blue tits typically lay between 8-15 eggs, of which a varying number of young will survive to leave the nest. In some nests, however, all the offspring die before they are old enough to leave the nest.

Finding out what causes these cases of complete brood mortality has proven challenging. Does one parent leave all the care to its mate? Can a single parent not cope with the demands? Do both parents decide to desert their brood? To find out, we need to know exactly when parents stop bringing food and when the offspring perish.

Therefore, Peter Santema and Bart Kempenaers from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Seewiesen equipped all adult blue tits in their study site with a tiny, passive integrated transponder.

Continued  

Dramatic drop in native bird numbers spotted in gardens

There's good and bad news for stay-at-home bird spotters across the country.

The latest State of New Zealand Garden Birds report has been released - and shows that while the number of some native species spotted in gardens is on the rise, there has been a dramatic drop in others.

And researchers say the numbers show birds could be a sign of major environmental change.

You may not recognise the sound of the tauhou - or silvereye - but in the last eleven years, the number of the native birds spotted in New Zealand gardens has dropped by 43 percent.

And it's not just the silvereye bird enthusiasts are struggling to spot in their gardens - the number of starling, song thrush and goldfinch has also dropped.

According to Landcare research associate Dr Eric Spurr the birds could be signalling major environmental changes.

"We don't know what changes they are signalling, but they are signalling that something is going on - whether it's increased human population, increased urbanisation, increased use of herbicides, insecticides, pesticides - we don't know, and that's what we need to find out," he said.

These findings are part of the annual State of New Zealand Garden Birds report produced by Landcare research.

For the past eleven years, 31,000 volunteers have taken part in the survey - recording the birds they see in their garden for an hour, for seven days in winter.

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Bird population increases around Lake Erçek in Van

June 19 2018 00:01:00

VAN – Anadolu Agency

The number of birds in eastern Turkey’s Van lake basin have increased following heavy rains in the region, according to a biology professor. 

Atilla Durmuş, a professor at Yüzüncü Yıl University’s Department of Biology in Van, told state-run Anadolu Agency that the birds enjoy easy nourishment and breeding due to rainfall this year. 

Visitors in the region can observe around 213 bird types among hundreds of other birds in the Van lake basin, which is home to one five of wetlands in Turkey. Different bird species in the basin offer unique beauties to visitors. 

The basin, which is also one of the places preferred by scientists for their research, is home to birds like flamingoes, swans, white-headed ducks, black-winged stilts, avocets, herons, ringed plovers, wild geese and others. 

As the region is on the migratory route, various bird species can be seen in every season. Festivals are organized to promote the region to the world. 

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More than 60 baby seagulls found dead, injured in South Loop ‘bird chaos’

06/18/2018, 07:25pm

About 40 dead and 25 injured baby seagulls were found and rescued from South Jefferson Street on Sunday in what seems to be the result of attacks between seagulls.

The Chicago Birds Collision Monitors, which works under the Chicago Audubon Society, received a phone call through its hotline about 2 p.m. When volunteer Chava Sonnier arrived at the scene on her way home, expecting to pick up just one or a few birds, she was “totally shocked.”

“I’ve personally never seen anything of this large a scale before,” she said. “It was truly bird chaos.”

Sonnier rescued about 20 injured seagulls from a sea of eggs, birds and feathers. It was “heartbreaking,” she said, to see surviving birds curled up near their dead siblings or trying to remain with family members.

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Hope for ‘extinct’ bird

Sunday 17 Jun, 2018 | By Danielle Butler newsdesk@thewanakasun.co.nz

More than 100 reported sightings of the elusive South Island Kokako have given the Trust working to prove its existence hope that it is coming close.

The South Island Kokako Charitable Trust launched a search for the bird, once thought to be extinct, in January 2017, offering $10,000 to anyone who could provide credible evidence of the bird’s existence.

Potential sightings have been recorded from as nearby as Lake Hawea, although the Trust said that it was focusing its interest to the South of Reefton on the West Coast and the Granville Forest.

Trustee Ron Nilsson said, “We still need definitive evidence, a photo or video, but we really feel that we are getting closer with the help of so many people who are out walking, tramping or hunting and know what to look and listen for.

“We are very optimistic that proof will be found soon.”

Source  

RSPB urges Oxford residents to help boost ailing swift population

16th June

Pete Hughes

BIRD lovers are being encouraged to take steps to try and boost Oxford’s ailing swift population.

The bird – known as a ‘master of the sky’ – has seen numbers decline by more than half between 1995 and 2015.

For swift awareness week, which starts today, the RSPB is urging residents to help boost the food and nesting options available for the bird in a bid to make the city more habitable.

Emily Seccombe, Oxford Swift City project officer, said people can help by putting up a nestbox or growing wildflowers to attract flying insects - a swift’s main source of food.

She added: “Swifts are urban nesting birds; they make their nests in the cracks and crevices under tiles or in stonework.

“A major cause of swifts’ decline is the loss of nest spaces in buildings, due to demolition or renovation of old buildings.

“Modern buildings often lack the spaces that swifts need.”

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