About Those Birds

The Snowy Plover in the United States and the Kentish Plover in Europe look quite similar, almost identical. For the longest time, these two birds were thought to be of the same species, just on two sides of the Atlantic. Well, scientists at the Universities of Bath and Sheffield have found that they are two distinct species. The bird’s true identities have been questioned by scientists for some time and now those questions can rest.

The Snowy Plover is threatened in the United States and it is possible that these new findings could help conserve the bird for the future. When local populations disappear, people are not too concerned, but now that this is an entire species, conservation efforts will be more strict.

The scientists analyzed 166 birds from two populations of Snowy Plover, four populations of Kentish Plover, and a population similar species, the White-fronted Plovers in Africa. Surprisingly, the Kentish Plovers in Europe were more closely related to their African relatives. This shows that the bird populations split in America then split in Europe and Africa.

It makes sense for these populations of plover to separate into different species because the birds did not have a chance to breed with each other, which would have kept them the same species. The ocean was in-between them and they never had a chance.

Top Picture: Snowy Plover by mikebaird on Flickr.

Bottom Picture: Kentish Plover by Joaquim Antunes on Flickr.

Source.

Predicting earthquakes is not an easy feat and nearly impossible at this point in science. However, there has always been the notion that certain animals can sense earthquakes before they hit. If this were true, these animals could be monitored as early warning systems. Though, even with an early warning system, you can’t escape an earthquake, it’s not like a hurricane or tornado.

One of the animals that can possible “feel” earthquakes a couple of days before one strikes are Argus birds. There are two species of Argus bird in Indonesia. One that is extinct and one that is protected. If the Great Argus (the protected bird) can predict earthquakes before they happen, then maybe it will have a better protection status in the future.

Before an earthquake hits, there are pre-shocks that the birds can possible feel. This is the most plausible reason as to why certain animals, like Argus birds, can “sense” earthquakes before they happen. The only downside to using Argus birds is that they are very secretive and difficult to find in the wild.

Certain animals may be the future in earthquake detection. This may be a good way to save lives in earthquake prone areas. Though, that will probably be a long way off.

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On October 13, twelve birds were released into the Alaka’i Wilderness Preserve, which is a mountainous region on the island of Kauai. The puaiohi (Kaua’i thrush) is an endangered species that is part of a program to breed and then release into the wild. This species is only found on Kauai. For the last ten years government and private organizations have facilitated the captive breeding and release program.

Each of the birds has a band and a radio-transmitter, which allows the birds to be monitored for up to 30 days. This enables the scientists to know if the individual birds make it in the wild or if the release was unsuccessful. Since the program started, 188 birds have been released back into their natural habitat. However, before the birds can be released staff had to go in and rid the release site of rats. Rats are a major threat, not only to the puaiohi but to many other bird species among the islands.

David Leonard, a biologist for the Department of Land and Natural Resources – Division of Forestry and Wildlife states that the:

Release of captive birds is one strategy to ensure that the puaiohi does not go extinct; however, it cannot be the only strategy. Restoration efforts also need to include long term and landscape scale control of alien plants and non-native predators, and we are exploring innovative and cost effective approaches to achieve these. For example, we are determining if puaiohi will use rat-proof structures for nesting.

With other efforts in place, like habitat restoration and conservation, birds may well survive much longer into our future.

In 1994, there may have been as few as 200 puaiohi in the wild. Then in 1996, eggs were transferred to the San Diego Zoo’s Keauhou Bird Conservation Center. Since then the center has been able to annually release birds into the wild.

With the assistance of state and federal funds, the Division of Forestry and Wildlife set up the Kaua’i Endangered Forest Bird Recovery Project. With the assistance of biologists, information is taken on the puaiohi in order to serve the species better in the wild. Also, since the bird is listed as endangered financial aid is given to Hawaii by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to collect information and help protect birds like the puaiohi.

With efforts like these it seems that the puaiohi will not go extinct now. Its is when species loss is taken seriously that the species will be able to recover. The puaiohi loss is taken seriously and it is on its way to recovery.

Click here for the full article.

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The Chesapeake Bay salt marsh birds will become threatened in the coming future due to sea level rise. Populations of clapper rail, Virginia rail, willet, seaside sparrow, and marsh wren could decline by as much as 80% by 2100. This number is taken from a possible sea level rise of three to six feet. The Center for Conservation Biology at the College of William and Mary produced the study that found the black rail and saltmarsh sharp-tailed sparrow the most vulnerable. These birds rely on irregularly flooded salt marshes and their breeding grounds will be in jeopardy due to the rising sea.

Chesapeake Bay has more of a problem with sea level rise due to subsidence. The Bay is losing their marshland twice as fast as the rest of the world. The subsidence isn’t even human caused like it is here in Galveston – its due to the movement of the North American plate.

Scientists propose that the sea level will rise by about two to six feet by 2100. The problem with marshes is that they are the first to go and with human barriers in place the marshes cannot move farther inland. This causes the entire marsh to disappear, which along with it species that cannot adapt. Wetlands are extremely productive and supply homes for a variety of plants and animals. Many species are specifically adapted to salt marsh or wetland habitats. With sea level rise those areas will become inundated with water – then its adapt or die.

What will places like the Chesapeake Bay do to keep their salt marshes – I don’t know, but I do hope they will do something.

Click here for the full article.

Top Picture: Black rail credit to amkhosla from Flickr.

Bottom Picture: Saltmarsh sharp-tailed sparrow credit to Odephoto from Flickr.

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Two specimens sat for over a hundred years in the New York American Museum of Natural History. These specimens were of a crow found in 1900 and thought to be long extinct, the Banggai Crow to be exact. In 2007, two more specimens were found on Peleng Island, a remote Indonesian island, by biologists. The specimens were confirmed by Michigan State University zoology assistant professor Pamela Rasmussen.

The two new specimens were thought to be a sub-species of another crow found on the Banggai Islands, the slender-billed crow. The studies Rasmussen did showed that the slender-billed crow and the four specimens of the Banggai crow were similar, but still distinct species. Also, before the identity was made, sightings and recordings were made of the Banggai crow.

Mochamad Indrawan of the University of Indonesia and the chairperson of the Indonesian Ornithologists’ Union is now working to protect to rediscovered species. Local people do hunt the crow and Indrawan is hoping to stop that. Also, he is working to protect the habitat the crows live and to provide ecotourism to the area, which will help the local economy.

This is good news and I really hope that they can work to help save this rediscovered bird.

Click here for the full article.

Picture: the Banggai Crow – Corvus unicolor. Credit to Philippe Verbelen.

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Nearly every birder has heard of Hawk Mountain, located 75 miles northwest of Philadelphia. It was that one place where hunters went with their families to slaughter hawks on their southward journey. This slaughter was for no purpose other than sport because they thought hawks killed chickens and other small game animals. Hawks and other large birds of prey had a bad image with the public and when they were killed everybody cheered. Even our country’s symbol was slaughtered for fun.

It was a dim time for hawks crossing over Hawk Mountain in the early 1900s, that is until a socialite named Rosalie Edge stepped in and stopped the slaughter. Rosalie Edge is little known in the environmental world, but she was an important person in the American environmental movement. She raised enough money to purchase a 1,400 acre plot on Hawk Mountain and step up a guard in 1934 to turn the hunters away. Today, Hawk Mountain covers 2,600 acres, is owned and operated by a non-profit group. This group has more than 9,000 members and has a yearly budget of $1.8 million.

In the 75 years since its inception as a reserve, Hawk Mountain gets thousands of visitors each year. Instead of guns, these visitors come with cameras and binoculars. This fall it is estimated that 60,000 people will visit the mountain. The most popular spot is the North Lookout, which offers a 180 degree, 50 mile view of Kittatinny Ridge. Every kind of birder comes to Hawk Mountain – the experts, the counters, the listers, or the ones that just want to see the hawk’s incredible journey. Ever since 1934, people have been counting hawks on the mountain and this is important to assess populations.

I give great thanks to people like Rosalie Edge. Environmentalists like her give a second chance to wildlife and remove the oppression granted to them by humans.

Click here for the full article.

Picture: Credit to Faded Kodachrome on Fickr.

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Seven years ago the Earth Summit met in Johannesburg, one of the policies agreed upon was for countries to reduce their biodiversity loss by 2010. What have these countries done? Not much, sadly. Lately, scientists have been saying that there is an increase or that animal extinction has been faster than previously thought. This is especially true in freshwater habitats. Climate change, habitat loss, over development, and pollution are only a few of the threats to the biodiversity of our world. The Earth Summit set standards, but its seems that many leaders are either forgetting or just putting those standards on the back burner and letting the loss of biodiversity escalate.

The most threatened species are those in the freshwater environment – like frogs, fish, turtles, and crocodiles. Scientists say that these species are becoming extinct almost six times faster than other animals in different environments. The scientists, from the group Diversitas, also say that no river will reach the ocean under normal conditions in China by 2025. That’s shocking and devastating information. The problem really lies in the leaders of countries and no one can force them to stop harming the environment. Every country will exploit anything if it will bring in money. What can scientists really do except tell them the bad news?

Side note: Bush did not go or did not send anyone to this Earth Summit back in 2002, why? – well, I really shouldn’t get into that. The best things won’t be said.

Another note: I know this post does not have to do with birds, but birds are included in biodiversity loss. They are important to this world and I thought this was a good article discussing biodiversity loss.

Click here for the full article.

Pictured: sturgeon

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Here’s an amazing video of a hummingbird that I came across a few weeks ago. I just don’t know how that hummingbird let that guy do that. Just wow.

Click here to see the video (I was unable to embed it in the post – sorry).

I love kingfishers and I find it rather unfortunate that there aren’t amazingly colorful kingfishers here in North America. They are rather mundane in coloring, but that’s ok, I still love to see them. Last week, I found this awesome picture of a diving kingfisher. I don’t know how the photographer got this picture, but it’s awesome.

Picture: credit National Geographic

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Hi and welcome to About Those Birds.

This site is designed around birds, especially news about birds. It will focus on the conservation and news side of the avian world. I will later add an information page about birds that you can see around North America, but let’s focus on news first.

I will aim to post nearly everyday, so please check back frequently. There’s so much information and new things happening in the birding world, that there’s fresh information everyday. That means no redundancy, which is good and what you want.

Thank you for visiting and I sincerely hope you come back soon!

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Over the past few decades, bird migration has been shown to be declining. Migratory songbirds in Europe migrate from the UK down to sub-Saharan Africa. These songbirds include the common cuckoo, European turtle-dove, common nightingale, and the spotted flycatcher. The organizations that have taken on the role to research the declines are BirdLife in the UK (RSPB), the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), Ghana Wildlife Society, Naturama in Burkina Faso, Vogelbescherming Nederland of the Netherlands, and Dansk Ornitologisk Forening of Denmark. These organizations hope to document the birds on their journey down to Africa and to understand why they are declining.

Recent research has shown that about 40% of the migratory species in Europe and Africa have declined in the last few decades. Also, some of these species are threatened on the IUCN Red List. Climate change, changes in rainfall, and land degradation are all apart of the most likely reason the migrants have declining populations. Also, human encroachment on important habitats is also an issue that can possibly be difficult to address.

The organizations involved will be banding birds and tracking their progress. The declining populations of migrants is an issue that needs to be addressed now if it is going to be reversed, otherwise Europe may lose a lot of its common species.

Click here for the full article.

Pictured: Spotted flycatcher