Surfbirds
The latest news from Surfbirds (as of Thu, 23 May 2024 06:04:33 GMT):
2024-03-08 17:33:25 +0000: New Wildlife Habitat Bill Is Introduced, but More Resources are Needed to Recover Birds and Other Wildlife
The America's Wildlife Habitat Conservation Act, introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Representative Bruce Westerman (R-AR), provides funding for wildlife conservation projects at the state and tribal levels. However, it will also repeal critical funding and programs managed by NOAA and the Bureau of Reclamation under the Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Investment […]
2024-03-07 08:00:01 +0000: Hawaiian Electric Co. and Maui County Face Lawsuit to Protect Imperiled Hawaiian Seabirds
Conservation Groups Demand Action to Stop Harm from Power Lines and Streetlights. American Bird Conservancy (ABC) and Conservation Council for HawaiÊ»i, represented by Earthjustice, notified Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO) and Maui County that they face possible litigation challenging harm to imperiled Hawaiian seabirds caused by power lines and streetlights on Maui and Lcna'i. The Endangered Species Act (ESA) requires the conservation […]
2024-03-06 07:45:19 +0000: Final Incidental Take Rule Offers Eagle Populations Stability
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has announced final revised regulations for permits under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act that will go into effect April 12, 2024. The final rule establishes both general and specific permits. General permits would be for four activities: wind energy, powerlines, disturbance take, and nest take. In contrast, specific permits are issued […]
2024-03-05 07:38:56 +0000: Mosquito Control Project to Save Honeycreepers Underway on Maui and Kaua'i
Several Hawaiian honeycreepers are facing imminent extinction due to avian malaria carried by invasive Southern House Mosquitoes. Members of the multi-agency partnership Birds, Not Mosquitoes (BNM) have begun releasing non-biting male Southern House Mosquitoes on Maui and Kaua'i that reduce invasive mosquito reproduction and cause their populations to decrease. Following years of rigorous study and analysis, the releases began in November […]
2024-03-04 07:37:26 +0000: New Reserve in Colombia will Protect Endangered Cundinamarca Antpitta
The Cundinamarca Antpitta, documented for the first time in 1989, numbers only in the hundreds. Before it had even received a name, what would soon be known in English as the Cundinamarca Antpitta, a relatively nondescript, olive-brown antpitta, let out an unfamiliar call that caught the ear of a seasoned birder. That was in 1989. Now, […]
2024-03-03 07:24:39 +0000: Flaco the Owl’s Death is a Call to Action for Bird-friendly Buildings
Flaco, an Eurasian Eagle-Owl, first gained fame when he escaped the Central Park Zoo after an act of vandalism of his enclosure over a year ago. His presence in Central Park drew bird lovers from New York City and beyond eager to catch a glimpse of an enigmatic "” and very large "” owl. Flaco […]
2024-03-02 07:11:11 +0000: European Parliament seals the deal on Nature Restoration Law
The Nature Restoration Law represents an historic opportunity to bring nature back to Europe. At a time when the continent is ravaged by floods, droughts and fires, this law will help secure a safer and healthier future for Europeans. Despite last-minute efforts of far-right and conservative groups, and disinformation from anti-nature lobbies to torpedo the […]
2024-03-01 08:10:34 +0000: Saving East Asia's Last Dalmatian Pelicans
By understanding the culture and traditions of Mongolia, conservationists have developed targeted outreach in the hopes of saving one of the rarest birds along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway. At the end of the Dalmatian Pelican breeding season in 2006, a researcher was searching along the shores of Lake Airag in western Mongolia for signs of the […]
2024-02-29 08:00:51 +0000: Mixed fortunes for UK's herons and egrets
Surveys show colonising egrets and Spoonbills continuing to increase in many parts of the UK, while breeding Grey Herons seem slow in bouncing back following recent declines. The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) marked World Wetlands Day (2 February) with the latest findings from its long-running Heronries Census. First launched back in 1928, the study set out to […]
2024-02-28 07:56:30 +0000: British gulls contribute to plastic pollution in European wetlands
Researchers in Spain have discovered that gulls visiting from Britain are transporting significant amounts of plastic waste from landfill sites to key wetland areas. The threats posed by plastic pollution to marine environments have long been understood but this study sheds new light on the potential problems faced by freshwater sites. A paper recently published by the […]
Ornithology - The Science of Birds
The latest news from Ornithology - The Science of Birds (as of Thu, 23 May 2024 06:04:35 GMT):
2024-05-16 12:37:05 +0000: Birds Named After People
It is considered the height of arrogance, and now against the rules of nomenclature, for the discoverer of a species to name the organism after his or herself, but many species have been named in honor of others, such as Baird's Sandpiper, Queen Anne's Lace, and Bouganvilla. Spencer Fullerton Baird (1823 -1887) was an American naturalist, ornithologist, ichthyologist, herpetologist, and …
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2024-05-10 00:19:17 +0000: Bird Names
There are a number of species of birds with widespread distributions such as the Peregrine Falcon, Mallard, and European Starling. Each has a designated scientific name, but all of the nearly 11,000 species of birds have an official common English name as well, as established by the International Ornithological Committee. So for every English-speaking country …
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2024-05-10 00:10:23 +0000: Cabinets of Curiosities
Museums did not come about as we know them, places for education, study, and research, until the late 19th century. Before museums, wealthy individuals made their own collections, sometimes in the form of "cabinets of curiosities," which came about in the sixteenth century. They were not actually cabinets but rooms with a plethora of natural …
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2024-05-09 23:58:47 +0000: Birds and the Eclipse
On April 8, 2024, there was an eclipse. On average, there are total eclipses of the sun every 18 months, so every two or three years. In this century, there will be 224 eclipses, 68 of them in total. Some people are so fascinated by the phenomenon that they travel the world to see each …
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2024-05-09 23:36:45 +0000: Mimics of the Bird World
There are lots of examples of birds looking like other things in order to avoid or frighten away predators. Many nightjars (Order Caprimulgiformes) look like leaf litter, bark or leaves. The Brown Creeper blends in with the tree trunks it climbs. The winter plumage Willow Ptarmigan is all white to blend into their snowy landscape. …
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2024-05-09 23:17:58 +0000: AI and Birdwatching
There's a new development in AI and this one pertains to birds. Swarovski is coming out with Optik Ax Visio smart binoculars - the world's first AI-supported binoculars that claim to help you identify 9000 species of birds as well as other animals. I haven't used them so I can't speak from personal experience and …
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2024-05-09 22:25:27 +0000: Avian Coprophagy
The strange title is simply a euphemism for "birds eating poop." You are familiar with bird poop as that white stuff deposited on car side view mirrors, pool decks, and window ledges, but new research reported in the National Library of Medicine provides a different way to look at it. Just as in our gut, …
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2024-05-09 22:01:07 +0000: Intuitive Birdwatching
Throughout my biological education and career, identification "keys" were very handy. Called "dichotomous" keys because they typically branch in two, they look like an upside-down tree with many branches. Identifying bird specimens in the hand with a key is pretty simple. The first choice might ask whether the bill is straight or curved. If it …
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2023-12-03 23:23:19 +0000: Economic View of Birdwatching
There's a recent (Oct 2023) article in the journal Ornithological Applications entitled "Historical racial redlining and contemporary patterns of income inequality negatively affect birds, their habitat, and people in Los Angeles, California." It's rather complex but the basic idea is that well-to-do or even moderate-income neighborhoods have a greater diversity of birds than do low-income …
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2023-11-26 17:01:29 +0000: The Twelve-wired Bird-of-Paradise
Regularly I like to blog about some of the more interesting birds of the world. Today, one of the 45 species of Birds-of-Paradise. Birds-of-Paradise, family Paradisaedae, are only found in Indonesia, New Guinea, and a small part of Australia. In the early years of exploration, European Traders shipped Bird-of-Paradise skins from New Guinea to collectors …
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