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| Ring-necked Pheasant / Photo by Tom Koerner/USFWS |
Birds and birding news
- A new study doubles the estimated number of bird species by using an evolutionary species concept instead of a biological one. The paper is available to read at PLoS ONE. The results emphasize the need to protect distinct populations beyond what are currently accepted as species.
- Birds are reaching their summer breeding grounds about one day earlier for each degree the Earth warms.
- A bird's shape can change with the seasons, particularly as it engages in displays leading into the breeding season.
- Adélie Penguins have special adaptations to allow them to live in the harsh cold and saline environments on and around Antarctica.
- This PDF has tips for identifying gulls of the North American Pacific coast.
- Some of the owls from Project SNOWstorm have started returning data from the past year as they migrate back into cellular range.
- A Snowy Owl was recently found at Island Beach State Park in New Jersey; visitors are asked to stay on marked trails and not walk through dunes (which is good practice generally).
- Willets may soon become two species.
- Hundreds of Red-winged Blackbirds died mysteriously in South Jersey.
Science and nature blogging
- Living Alongside Wildlife: The Animals That Went Extinct in 2016
- Snapshots of Nature: Gulls
- mocosocoBirds: Rock Wren continues in Somerset Co. – Dec. 27, 2016
- Beetles In The Bush: Cicindela scutellaris rugata (the “wrinkled festive tiger beetle”)
- Inkfish: Why Giant Salamanders Make Great Dads
Environment and biodiversity
- President Obama this week named two new national monuments, Bears Ears National Monument in Utah and Gold Butte National Monument in Nevada. Coverage of the monuments has emphasized conservative opposition, but the same politicians complaining about overreach use parks and monuments to market their states. There may be a few more monument designations on the way.
- The Obama administration's record on endangered species has been mixed; while many species have been delisted (a mark of successful conservation programs) and some backlog has been cleared, new rules have made it harder to nominate species for protection.
- The National Whistleblower Center is launching a website to help people report wildlife crime, which often goes unreported or underinvestigated.
- The deaths of four bears in Pennsylvania were probably caused by eating toxic berries from an English Yew, a nonnative ornamental shrub.
