White-crowned Sparrow / Photo by Dave Menke (USFWS)Bird and birding news
- A new study shows that birds can change their songs to adapt to different landscapes. In areas of the west coast where open habitat has given way to woodier plants, male White-crowned Sparrows lower the pitch and slow the tempos of their songs. These changes allow the songs to be heard more readily in denser foliage.
- Hundreds of dead penguins and baby flamingos have turned up dead in Chile. So far the cause is unclear.
- African Penguins have lost almost three-quarters of their population over the past fifty years. Causes may include extra predation by fur seals or disruptions in their food supply from overfishing.
- While Australian fairy-wrens are known for widespread extra-pair mating, the vast majority of Purple-crowned Fairy-Wren pairs are monogamous. The finding suggests that mating systems can evolve very quickly.
- Cyprus has agreed to end its traditional spring bird hunt. Crow control will now take place in June to reduce its impact on migratory species.
- A stork in Hungary has received a prosthetic beak from a wildlife rehabilitator. The bird may have broken its original beak by flying into a wall.
- Some newspaper coverage of World Series of Birding participants: on Team Sapsucker; on Pete Dunne's solo run; on the Highlands Hawks. (Also see birdspot's commentary on it.)
- Great Auk or Greatest Auk: The Fall of the Sparrow
- Mike's Birding & Digiscoping Blog: Ghost of a Bird
- The Clade: Biodiversion: Pygmy Nuthatch
- Drawing the Motmot: The Tinamou’s Mysterious Song
- Birding in Maine: BPW: Osprey Catching Fish
- Prairie Ice: Amelanistic American Avocet
- Outside My Window: Two peregrine chicks banded at Gulf Tower
- IBRRC: When hazing birds doesn't go well
- Tails of Birding: Matt's Landing
- The House Energy and Commerce Committee approved the Waxman-Markey bill to establish a cap-and-trade system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The bill must pass through several more committees before coming to a vote before the full House.
- The plan better work because climate change could be twice as bad as predicted. A new model's median prediction indicates the Earth's temperatures would rise 5.2 degrees Celsius by 2100.
- Meanwhile, carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S. fell by 2.8% in 2008 due high gas prices and the economic crash. Transportation is still the highest end-use source of greenhouse gases.
- Obama announced stronger fuel economy standards this week. By 2016, cars will rise to 39 mpg and light trucks to 30 mpg.
- Despite a promise of more rigorous reviews, the Obama administration has approved 87.5% of applications for mountaintop removal strip mining permits.
- The chemical bisphenol A (BPA) leeches from polycarbonate plastic bottles (#7) into the food or drink they contain. BPA acts as an endocrine disruptor, which means that it interferes with the natural level of some hormones.
- Rob's Idaho Perspective: The Tyranny of Nature’s Plan
- TreeHugger: Scientists Say River Systems Take Second Fiddle in Nature Reserves
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