Latest Bird migration Stories
Lice from 1,000-year-old mummies in Peru may unravel important clues about a different sort of passage: the migration patterns of America's earliest humans, a new University of Florida study suggests."It's kind of quirky that a parasite we love to hate can actually inform us how we traveled around the globe," said David Reed, an assistant curator of mammals at the Florida Museum of Natural History on the UF campus and one of the study's authors.DNA sequencing found the strain of lice to be...
Eurasian reed warblers captured during their spring migrations and released after being flown 1,000 kilometers to the east can correct their travel routes and head for their original destinations, researchers report online on January 31st in Current Biology, a publication of Cell Press. The new evidence suggests that the birds have true navigation, meaning that they can identify at least two coordinates that roughly correspond to geographic latitude and longitude. The findings challenge the...
WASHINGTON -- Birds that once flourished in suburban skies, including robins, bluebirds and crows, have been devastated by West Nile virus, a study found.Populations of seven species have had dramatic declines across the continent since West Nile emerged in the United States in 1999, according to a first-of-its-kind study. The research, to be published Thursday by the journal Nature, compared 26 years of bird breeding surveys to quantify what had been known anecdotally."We're seeing a...
BONN, Germany - Disoriented by erratic weather, birds are changing migration habits and routes to adjust to warmer winters, disappearing feeding grounds and shrinking wetlands, a migration expert says.Failure to adapt risks extinction. Birds face starvation when they arrive too early or too late to find their normal diet of insects, plankton or fish. In the north, some birds have stopped migrating altogether, leaving them at risk when the next cold winter strikes."Species that adapted to...
Why do some birds fly thousands of miles back and forth between breeding and non-breeding areas every year whereas others never travel at all? One textbook explanation suggests either eating fruit or living in non-forested environments were the precursors needed to evolve migratory behavior. Not so, report a pair of ecologists from The University of Arizona in Tucson. The pressure to migrate comes from seasonal food scarcity. "It's not just whether you eat insects, fruit, nectar...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. surveillance efforts to monitor wild birds for the deadly H5N1 avian influenza virus will be expanded to include the lower 48 states, Hawaii and other Pacific islands, the U.S. government said on Wednesday. The U.S. departments of Agriculture and Interior are working with the states to collect between 75,000 and 100,000 wild bird samples in addition to more than 50,000 environmental tests throughout the United States. An estimated 10,000 wild bird samples...
By Ingrid Melander and Tom Pfeiffer RABAT (Reuters) - European and African ministers said on Monday the waves of illegal migrants seeking a better future in Europe would not be stopped unless Europe helped Africa fight poverty. The ministers, meeting in Rabat to reach a plan on migration, came from 50 nations, grouping for the first time countries where migrants leave, travel through and end up. They said legal migration should be encouraged to channel money and skills back to Africa,...
By Marie-Louise GumuchianLAIKIPIA, Kenya -- Kenyan children recited poems and Peruvian artists portrayed migrating birds alongside dozens of performers and conservationists gathered in Kenya to celebrate World Migratory Bird Day.Conservationists, artists and activists met on the edge of the Great Rift Valley to try to counter the negative influence which bird flu has had on how people view migratory birds.Their meeting in Laikipia, about 112 miles north of Nairobi, precedes a U.N....
By Marie-Louise GumuchianLAIKIPIA, Kenya -- Conservationists and artists gathered at the edge of the Great Rift Valley in Kenya on Sunday to put an end to bad publicity they say migratory birds receive as the main vectors for spreading avian flu.From Kenyan children reciting poems on birds to Peruvian and Turkish artists portraying different stages of migration, dozens of performers descended on the lush green hills of central Kenya's Laikipia to launch World Migratory Bird Day.Millions of...
As thousands of pink-footed geese (Anser brachyrhynchus) prepare for their spring migration north to breeding grounds in the Arctic, ecologists are warning that the escalating conflict between farmers and the geese is threatening the birds' survival. Writing in the new issue of the British Ecological Society's Journal of Applied Ecology, Professor Marcel Klaassen of the Netherlands Institute of Ecology says that international action is urgently required. Farmers in northern- and mid-Norway...
Latest Bird migration Reference Libraries
The Green Pygmy Goose (Nettapus pulchellus) is a small perching duck found in southern New Guinea and northern Australia. It is largely resident, apart from dispersion during the wet season. The habitat is well vegetated lowland lagoons and other permanent fresh waters.
The Canada goose (Branta canadensis), also called the Canadian Goose in North America, belongs to the Branta genus of geese. This genus contains species with largely black plumage, distinguishing them from the grey Anser species. The species name, canadensis, is a New Latin word meaning "of Canada". The black head and neck with white "chinstrap" distinguish this goose from all except the Barnacle goose, but the latter has a black breast and grey, rather than brownish, body plumage. There...
The Red Knot (Calidris canutus), or Knot in Europe, is a species of bird found in the tundra and Arctic mountains in the far north of Canada, Europe and Russia. North American birds migrate to coastal Europe and South America, while European birds migrate to Africa, Papua New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand. This species has an extensive range and a large population of about 1.1 million individuals. There are six subspecies. The adult is 9 to 10.25 inches in length with an 18.5 to 20.8...
The Whooping Crane (Grus americana) is a very large crane and the tallest North American bird. Adult birds are white with a red crown and a long dark pointed bill. They have long dark legs which trail behind in flight and a long neck that is kept straight in flight. Black wing tips can be seen in flight. Immature birds are pale brown. Their breeding habitat is muskeg; the only known nesting location is Wood Buffalo National Park in Canada and its surrounding area. They nest on the...
