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| Oregon Dark-eyed Junco / Photo by Peter Pearsall/USFWS |
Birds and birding news
- The first batch of proposed taxonomic changes for 2017 has been released. See the full batch of proposals here (pdf) and a discussion of changes affecting the ABA Area at the ABA Blog.
- The Black Rail has been disappearing from much of its historic range on the east coast and needs protection.
- When given testosterone, female manakins performed the wing snaps and roll snaps usually done by males but not the more complicated jumps.
- Red-breasted Nuthatches periodically irrupt far south of their usual wintering range.
- A crowdfunding campaign has boosted conservation efforts for the endangered Orange-bellied Parrot.
- The mitochondrial DNA of Heermann's Gulls shows evidence of past climate change.
- The fleshy frontal shield on swamphens is a sign of their dominance.
- New Jersey's Bald Eagle population continues to grow, with 172 nests recorded in 2016 by the annual survey of the state's breeding population. The breeding pairs produced 216 nestlings.
- Birds form larger flocks as a way to confuse potential predators.
- Crows in Queensland started building nests on urban buildings as a result of a cultural change.
Science and nature blogging
- Mia McPherson's On The Wing Photography: Pale-chested American Kestrel – Variability in the Underparts of Male American Kestrels
- Birding New Jersey!: Baja California Sur: The Bird
- 10,000 Birds: Loggerhead Shrikes breakfast
- The Meadowlands Nature Blog: Raptors Delight
- Outside My Window: Hawks Soaring
- Bird Ecology Study Group: Large nesting site of Little Grebe
- robertscribbler: The Human World Has Never Experienced A Time When Global Sea Ice Was So Weak and Reduced
- The Must-see Bird Blog: Homecoming
Environment and biodiversity
- According to NOAA's data, 2016 was the warmest year on record, the third record-breaking year in a row. See more discussion at Category 6 and RealClimate.
- Environmental issues came up during several executive branch nominee hearings this week. Nominees to head Interior and the EPA expressed skepticism about the human role in climate change. The Interior nominee also seems likely to expand fossil fuel extraction on federal land. The Education nominee suggested that schools needed guns to fight bears even though bear spray and other nonlethal deterrents are more effective.
- Audubon emphasizes the need for an effective EPA, which probably will not be the case under Scott Pruitt's leadership.
- Meanwhile four senators (including two Democrats) have introduced a bill to remove federal protection for Gray Wolves in midwestern states. The wolf bill signals a broader assault on the Endangered Species Act, possibly including full repeal. The record of successful recoveries under the law shows that tampering with or repealing the law would be a mistake.
- A crack in the Brunt Ice Shelf in Antarctica will force scientists to close a research station there during the Antarctic winter.
- A review of the current status of all primate species found that three-quarters of primates are declining and 60 percent are threatened with extinction.
- At national parks like Yellowstone, there is a fundamental tension between the wildness of the animals and how safe the setting seems to a causal visitor.
- Repair of trenches dug by the Malheur occupiers cost over $100,000 because the area is archeologically significant.
- Pollinator species, like larger animals, need habitat continuity, and a conservationist in Seattle has been trying to create a wildlife corridor for them.
- A new species of poison dart frog, Ameerega shihuemoy, was discovered in Amazonian slopes of Andes in southeastern Peru.
- Here is a gallery of all the sites Obama has protected during his presidency.
- The Atlantic killifish living in the Hackensack and Passaic Rivers seem to have evolved resistance to the toxins that permeate those waters.
- Core samples taken from New York's Pelham Bay marsh show the danger to the city from sea level rise.
