Tree Swallow / Photo by Thomas G. BarnesBirds and birding news
- A toxic molecule called superoxide may help birds see Earth's magnetic field. Superoxide reacts with cryptochrome, another molecule known to play a role in bird navigation, and the reaction results in an electron transfer that interacts with the magnetic field, thus orienting the bird.
- On a related note, researchers in Europe are using neurologgers to record homing pigeons' brain activity as they navigate. Their brains show significant activity when they pass over visual landmarks.
- One of the Black-tailed Godwits banded and radiotagged in northern Europe has already made its way back to Africa, in what appears to have been a nonstop flight. The bird flew four thousand kilometers in two days, for an average speed of about 50 km/h.
- This spring, there are at least 11 Kirtland's Warbler males, 8 mated pairs, and six nests in the state of Wisconsin. (via)
- The critically endangered Seychelles Paradise-flycatcher has expanded its breeding range onto a new island for the first time in 60 years.
- Here is a slideshow of gulls attacking whales near Argentina. The gulls feed off the whales by pecking skin and blubber off their backs.
- Climate change may favor generalist bird species as they are in the best position to take advantage of changing conditions.
- Steven Hilty is conducting birding tours in Colombia for the first time since 1986.
- An Australian study is trying to calculate the benefit birds provide to farmers.
- In some New York City neighborhoods, mockingbirds sing through the night.
- A raid in New Delhi seized 70 illegally-held birds including parrots and munias.
- A teen in Colorado was keeping 53 birds in his room; 13 of them survived.
- Earbirding: Sounds of Extinct Birds
- Birder's Report: A Nuttall’s Woodpecker Juvenile Foraging In An Oak Tree
- BES Group: Lineated Barbet’s household chore
- Outside My Window: Not So Common Nighthawks
- Grist: Urban hawks take flight on New York’s Upper West Side
- Snail's Tales: Catbird in the backyard with something in its beak
- Dreambirding: A Giant, Robotic, Albino House Finch - need I say more
- Vote to send Grrlscientist on a science blogging expedition to Antarctica
- One-third of amphibians are threatened with extinction by a deadly fungal disease.
- Sustainable forest management is extremely profitable compared to other land uses.
- Multiple people were arrested during a protest against mountaintop removal mining this week.
- The rate of growth in carbon emissions fell in 2008, largely thanks to the recession.
- Fragmented forests tend to lose much of their biodiversity.
- The Interior Department has authorized four companies to build towers off the coasts of New Jersey and Delaware to study the potential for wind farms.
- The gum trees of southeastern Australia are disappearing because the older trees are dying off at about 1-2% per year without getting replaced. Land use alteration for livestock agriculture appears to be the main culprit.
- A new comprehensive study shows that ten percent of the world's dragonflies and damselflies are threatened.
- Ice sheets can retreat in just a few hundred years.
- Nutrient delivery to the Gulf of Mexico is at its highest level in thirty years. Nutrients from agricultural runoff are associated with the development of dead zones offshore.
- Coffee and Conservation: When is 100% not 100%?
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