Latest Birds of North America Stories
A U.S. biologist says she has discovered bird songs can change as a bird's habitat changes. Elizabeth Derryberry said she made her discovery while conducting her dissertation research at Duke University. She said as vegetation reclaimed formerly cleared land in California, Oregon and Washington during the last 35 years, male white-crowned sparrows have lowered their pitch and slowed their singing so that their love songs would carry better through heavier foliage. This is the first time that...
WASHINGTON, May 13 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- With the impending retirement of Justice David H. Souter, there has been much discussion about President Obama's first appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court. The HNBA has urged the President to take this opportunity to make history and to "select from among the many talented and experienced Hispanic American jurists and lawyers who are both willing and able to serve our country" on the Supreme Court. Hispanic lawyers share the interest of our...
Some Michigan mammal species are rapidly expanding their ranges northward, apparently in response to climate change, a new study shows. In the process, these historically southern species are replacing their northern counterparts.The finding, by researchers at the University of Michigan, Michigan State University and Ohio's Miami University, appears in the June issue of the journal Global Change Biology."When you read about changes in flora and fauna related to climatic warming, most of...
Human denizens of Salt Lake City are waiting for an annual blessed event, the hatching of chicks in a peregrine falcon nest high on an office building.The birds now using a nest box on the 12th floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building have produced three eggs, which are expected to hatch around May 22, The Salt Lake Tribune reported. The box has been in use for more than 20 years.Susan McFarland, a volunteer with the falcons, says that she learned of their existence four years ago after...
Study says red carotenoids that give the Common Crossbill its red coloration are produced in the liver, not the skinWhere do birds get their red feathers from? According to Esther del Val, from the National History Museum in Barcelona, Spain, and her team, the red carotenoids that give the common crossbill (Loxia curvirostra) its red coloration are produced in the liver, not the skin, as previously thought. Their findings, published online in Springer's journal Naturwissenschaften, have...
A Canadian family gathered for Easter weekend outside the capital, Ottawa, had an unexpected guest when a 25-pound wild turkey smashed through a window. Gerry Moore told the Ottawa Sun a neighbor called to say there was a female wild turkey strutting through his backyard midday Saturday. He said he and the crowd of family rushed from the family room to a back window to watch the bird. Meanwhile, a male wild turkey, apparently seeking the female, was approaching the family room window when it...
Ninth Nesting Season for Harrisburg's Female Peregrine Falcon HARRISBURG, Pa., March 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A live, 24-hour Web-cast of two Peregrine falcons who nest on a ledge on Pennsylvania's Rachel Carson State Office Building in Harrisburg resumed for the season today. "The popularity and notoriety of these magnificent creatures grow each year," said acting Secretary John Hanger. "Through technology, we are able to provide the world with a front-row seat to watch the story of...
By Joe Kosack, Wildlife Conservation Education Specialist, Pennsylvania Game Commission HARRISBURG, Pa., March 13 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The view out the window seems to be the same old, same old for many folks who feed songbirds over winter. But the Pennsylvania Game Commission is encouraging residents to look a little closer. Those LBJs on your birdfeeder may not be the same LBJs you usually see. Little brown jobs (LBJs) is a term some birders and biologists use to describe small,...
The wide-open spaces of the Flint Hills may no longer provide a secure home on the range for several familiar grassland birds, according to research by a Kansas State University ecologist and her colleagues.The researchers found that three bird species common to the Flint Hills region of Kansas and Oklahoma are experiencing serious population decline in the face of extensive land-management practices like annual burning and widespread grazingThe Flint Hills contain the largest remaining...
NEW CASTLE, Del., March 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Arkion(R) Life Sciences has received Section 18 approvals to market Avipel(R) Corn Seed Treatment in Michigan and Mississippi effective March 1, 2009. The EPA approval means that Mississippi farmers can use Avipel(R) to protect field and sweet corn from marauding blackbirds and grackles. Michigan farmers having problems with Sand Hill Cranes can also use Avipel(R) to protect their corn. Formerly known as Avitec, Avipel(R) is applied to corn seed...
Latest Birds of North America Reference Libraries
The Hooded Crane (Grus monacha) is a small, dark colored crane. Its body is grey and the top of the head and neck is white, except for a patch of bare red skin above they eye. It’s one of the smallest cranes, but is still a fairly large bird, a 3.3 ft in length, weighing 8.2 pounds and a wingspan of 6.2 feet. It breeds in south-central and southeastern Siberia. Breeding is also assumed to occur in Mongolia. Over 80% of its population winters at Izumi, southern Japan. There are also...
The Gunnison Grouse (Centrocercus minimus) is a species of grouse endemic to the United States, where it is known as the Gunnison Sage-Grouse. It’s similar to the closely related Greater Sage-Grouse in its appearance but about a third smaller in size, with much thicker plumes behind its head; it also has a less complex courtship dance. It’s restricted in range to southwestern Colorado and extreme southeastern Utah, with the largest population residing in the Gunnison Basin region in...
The Masked Duck (Nomonyx dominicus) is a small stiff-tailed duck ranging through the tropical Americas. They’re found from Mexico to South America and also in the Caribbean. They are primarily non-migratory. Masked Ducks are reported as very uncommon vagrants in the southernmost part of the United States, along the Mexican border and in Florida. Being the only member of the genus Nomonyx, it’s intermediate between the rather primitive Black-headed Duck (Heteronetta) and the very...
The White-headed Duck (Oxyura leucocephala) is a petite stiff-tailed duck. The adult males have a reddish and grey body, a blue bill, and a largely white head with black cap and neck. The adult females have a brown-grey body with a white face and a darker bill, cheek stripe and cap. On average, its length is 17 to 19 inches and the weight is 1.3 to 1.7 lbs. This duck breeds in Spain and North Africa, with a bigger population in western and central Asia. Their breeding habitat is large...
The Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) is a large wading bird belonging to the heron family called Ardeidae, common near the shores of open water and in wetlands over most of North and Central America as well as the Caribbean and Galapagos Islands. It’s a rare vagrant to Europe, with records from Spain, the Azores, England and the Netherlands. An all-white population found only in the Caribbean and southern Florida was once treated as a separate species and was known as the Great White...
