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| Lark Sparrow / Photo by Tom Koerner/USFWS |
Birds and birding news
- The color of a bird's bare parts (like its bill and legs) are an important signal of an individual's condition or dominance, particularly on less colorful birds.
- Flamingos are more stable on one leg than two, possibly because that way their weight is fully centered.
- Birders have to deal with a variety of annoying (and sometimes disease-carrying) invertebrates. Here are some ways of dealing with them.
- Western lowland Hermit Thrushes sing a lower introductory whistle in their songs than other Hermit Thrush populations in North America.
- A bill in the state assembly would require large projects in the New Jersey Meadowlands (like the unfinished megamall) to use bird-safe glass in its windows.
- An excerpt from Birds Art Life: A Year of Observation describes watching a family of Red-necked Grebes raise their young one summer in Toronto.
- Where individual birds that hatch in Europe winter in Africa is influenced by winds during their first fall migration.
- Migrating songbirds are arriving too late to their breeding grounds as spring comes earlier because of climate change.
- The proposed budget puts a lot of conservation programs, including for birds, in danger of cutbacks or elimination.
- About 20 million birds die each year from ingesting lead ammunition and lead fishing weights.
- Here are 10 bird species that were saved from extinction by conservation efforts.
- Cowbird mothers carefully select nests with smaller egg sizes as foster parents for their young.
Science and nature blogging
- PLOS Ecology Community: A U.S.-Mexico Border Wall Could Be Bad News for Wildlife
- awkward botany: Love and Hate – The Story of Purple Loosestrife
- Shorebird Science: Migratory Connectivity of Semipalmated Sandpipers and Implications for Conservation
- 10,000 Birds: Ruby-throated Hummingbird Nest at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge
- Shanghai Birding 上海观鸟: ‘One of My All-time Ornithological Highlights’
- Outside My Window: Why He’s Called Orange Crowned
- Coffee & Conservation: Sips: Recent coffee-related news
Environment and biodiversity
- The Endangered Species Act is once again under threat of being repealed or undermined, despite its success in saving plants and wildlife from extinction.
- The rate of sea level rise has tripled since 1990.
- Scientists are worried they will lose the ability to monitor Arctic sea ice as satellites stop working without being replaced.
- According to a new legal analysis, national monument designations under the Antiquities Act cannot be revoked without an act of Congress.
- Public lands, especially national monuments, provide recreational opportunities for all Americans and deserve protection. The deadline to submit comments on Bears Ears is today and July 10 on the other national monuments the Trump administration is reviewing.
- Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind the Dakota Access pipeline, has been responsible for a series of spills across the country.
- The number of extreme rain storms in the Northeast has increased by 53% in the past two decades.
- According to a buried audit, five plant species in Western Australia became extinct in the wild and several ecological communities collapsed.
- A bill supported by prominent Tennessee politicians would designate part of Cherokee National Forest as protected wilderness.
- NOAA is forecasting an above-average hurricane season, with 11-17 named storms.
- The House of Representatives voted to eliminate a requirement for pesticide users to apply for a permit before spraying pesticides directly into water.
- The National Marine Fisheries Service is deciding whether to designate the Pacific Bluefin Tuna as endangered.
- A new federal lichen database will include observations from across the continent to make forest monitoring easier.
