Latest Ornithology Stories
At least 300 penguins have died in the south Atlantic after a cargo ship leaked thousands of tons of heavy oil, diesel fuel and soya bean near Nightingale Island, a British territory part of the Tristan da Cunha archipelago. "I've seen about 15 to 20 dead penguins just today. The danger now is getting the rest of these penguins past that oil slick," director Trevor Glass told CNN. Local officials and conservationists claim that thousands more are covered in the ships' oil and diesel fuel. A...
Using genetic methods to count endangered eagles, a group of scientists showed that traditional counting methods can lead to significantly incorrect totals that they believe could adversely affect conservation efforts.Andrew DeWoody, a professor of genetics at Purdue University; Jamie Ivy, population manager at the San Diego Zoo; and Todd Katzner, a research assistant professor at the University of West Virginia, found that visual counts of imperial and white-tailed sea eagles in the Narzum...
HARRISBURG, Pa., March 1, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As development continues to take over wildlife habitats, the Pennsylvania Game Commission's Howard Nursery has a way for wildlife enthusiasts to help support wildlife housing needs without having to apply for a second mortgage. The agency's Howard Nursery is selling a variety of wildlife nesting structures for several species of birds - from bluebirds to flickers, from ducks to owls - as well as housing boxes for bats and squirrels....
It takes songbirds and baseball pitchers thousands of repetitions "“ a choreography of many muscle movements -- to develop an irresistible trill or a killer slider. Now, scientists have discovered that the male Bengalese finch uses a simple mental computation and an uncanny memory to create its near-perfect mate-catching melody -- a finding that could have implications for rehabilitating people with neuromuscular diseases and injuries.Young male Bengalese finches practice their boisterous...
The number of birds flying south for the winter in the Philippines has dropped this year and experts say the cause is the collapse of wetlands and hunting. Philippine-based Danish ornithologist Arne Jensen said the despite some harsh, cold weather across the Eurasian landmass, some waterbirds that usually migrate in huge flocks to the tropical islands have been completely absent. "The flyway populations of several waterbird species are in constant and dramatic decline," Jensen, who...
You've heard the saying: One man's trash is another man's treasure - and when it comes some birds, our trash can be the perfect choice of material for their nests, according to Spanish research released Thursday. By examining 127 nests of black kites in Spain's Donana National park, researchers reported in the journal Science that the strongest birds showed their ferocity by decorating their homes with lots of white pieces of plastic they find littering the ground. And only white would do,...
It's a common assumption that animal migration, like human travel across the globe, can transport pathogens long distances, in some cases increasing disease risks to humans. West Nile Virus, for example, spread rapidly along the East coast of the U.S., most likely due to the movements of migratory birds. But in a paper just published in the journal Science, researchers in the University of Georgia Odum School of Ecology report that in some cases, animal migrations could actually help reduce...
HARRISBURG, Pa., Jan. 19, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- If you are interested in connecting with wildlife in your own backyard, beginning Monday, Jan. 24, the Pennsylvania Game Commission will be selling bluebird nesting boxes at its Harrisburg headquarters at 2001 Elmerton Avenue. The boxes sell for $7, and customers can select from assembled boxes or kits that can be assembled as a wood-working project. "Bluebirds are early nesters, so now is the time put up new nest boxes, as well as...
3,607 finches and mockingbirds housed at the California Academy of Sciences provided critical data for research about the spread of disease in Darwin's famous islandsA research team from across the United States and Ecuador has pinpointed 1898 as the year the avipoxvirus, or avian pox, hit the Galapagos Islands and started infecting its birds. This estimation is vital to understanding avian diseases that affect today's Galapagos birds. The scientists' paper on the subject, "110 Years of...
Researchers have developed a simple rubber device that is capable of replicating complex bird songs. According to the researchers, a song can be produced by blowing air through the device, which mimics a bird's vocal tract.The study challenges the theory that birds have to learn complicated neurological controls in order to produce distinctive cells. The researchers plan to share their data with biologists to see if it sheds new light on how birds produce their music. "I definitely did...
Latest Ornithology Reference Libraries
This bird of prey is known more as a pigeon hawk. The Merlin is from the Northern Hemisphere with some migrating to subtropical and northern tropical areas during the winter. There has also been a discovery that there are two different, very distinct, species: the North American and the Eurasian. The North American Merlin was first described by a Swede taxonomist, Carl Linnaeus. The Merlin is between 9 and 13 inches long with a wingspan of 20-29 inches. The Merlin is an exceptionally...
The White-throated Hawk (Buteo albigula), is a bird of prey belonging to the family Accipitridae, which includes hawks, eagles and Old World vultures. In British usage, it would be called a buzzard rather than a true hawk. It is a rather small Buteo, 42 to 45 cm in length. It lives in the Andes mountains of South America and ranges down to the coast in the O’Higgins region of Chile, favoring wooded areas. It’s closely related to the more widely distributed Short-tailed Hawk and was...
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 Great Egret (Ardea alba), also known as the Great White Egret, Large Egret, Great White Heron or Common Egret, is a large and widely distributed egret. Dispersed across most of the tropical and warmer temperate regions throughout the world, in southern Europe it’s rather localized. In North America it’s more widely distributed, and it’s everywhere across the Sun Belt of the United States and in the rainforests of South America. It’s occasionally confused with the Great White Heron...
The Great Knot (Calidris tenuirostris) is a small sized wader, although, it is the largest of the calidrid species. Their breeding habitat is tundra in the northeast parts of Siberia. They nest on the ground, laying about four eggs in a ground scrape. They are strongly migratory, wintering on the coasts in southern Asia through to Australia. This species forms extremely large flocks during the winter. It’s a rare vagrant to western Europe. This bird has short dark legs and a...
