About Those Birds

Note: This will probably be my last post for a few days because of the holidays. I’m really busy at the moment and cannot make it to a computer most of the time. I hope you have a good Christmas tomorrow!

Obviously birds want their offspring to survive. They aren’t going to favor sick or small offspring instead of healthy ones. Parasites do pose a threat to young birds. If the parent birds can detect parasites in their young, they may cut those young out. This will save their energy and food resources for the unaffected young and for future breeding possibilities.

A recent study shows that parents will even cut their losses before the eggs even hatch.

The study focused on spotless starling nests. These nests are often infested with bloodsucking flies. The feces from the flies will stain the eggs. The more brown spot staining, the greater the chance for the babies to be infected with the flies.

The study of the starlings showed that human-cleaned eggs received more care from the males, but not females. The other eggs that were not cleaned received less care overall from both parents. It is thought that the males gave more attention than the females to the cleaned because they can have more broods during the breeding season, whereas females do not. The females want to have the best, most promising young because they do not breed as often.

This really makes sense because parents want to have the best for their young.

Picture credit to Armando Caldas on Flickr.

Credit to Flickr user 鳥勇士.

After nearly a decade, vultures are once again seen in Bihar, which is in Eastern India. Nests and babies have been sighted in the Valmiki Tiger Reserve. As many as four nests have been counted, which is a great increase from before when they were thought to be extinct. A few months ago a flock of about thirty vultures were sighted.

The reason for the vulture decline was the use of diclofenac, which is a veterinary medicine. The use of the medicine is the main reason for the vulture decline. The birds suffer from renal failure and eventually die. They ingest the medicine from dead carcasses. After the medicine was in tighter control, the vultures started to recover.

Recently a raid recovered over a thousand diclofenac vials that were going to be used for veterinary practices.

The ban of the medicine will enable the vultures to come back to the region, but this has not happened as of yet.

In an area that stretches from the Wash to the Thames Estuary, a marine conservation proposal is up for consideration. These new sites will be an extension to the Natura 2000 network, which is a network designed for habitat and species protection throughout Europe. Firms will be consulted over these possible new additions, such as fishermen, energy firms, leisurely interests, and sediment extractors. Possible impacts to the site will also be considered when consulting firms.

The areas are mostly coastal areas that can use the protection because they are used by many species, like shorebirds. The Outer Thames Special Protected Area contains nearly 40% of the entire country’s red-throated diver population. It also hosts more than 6,000 wintering birds.

Impacts to the sites also need to be considered. These impacts are usually from sediment mining, recreational activities, wind farms, and fishing.

If the sites are approved, it will be a great addition to the Natura 2000 network that protects marine sites. These sites are important for many species and they need to be protected.

Picture credit to Flickr user Dave Appleton.

As most people know, the males are usually the prettier sex in many animal species. It is very prominent in birds where the males are very colorful and the females are left drab. This may be due to choosy females and the males have to compete amongst themselves. However, in some species that live in family groups where not everyone breeds, the females get to have pretty plumage. This is so they can compete for males.

In many bird species there is just no incentive for females to be pretty because even the most drab will still mate. It’s the males that have to worry if they’re going to mate or not. When species work together to raise young, the females are not as drab because they have to compete to mate.

The research was done on the different species of starling in Africa. Starlings can be very diverse and when the work together in communities there is less difference between males and females. This proves the reason why many females have less than pretty coloring – they just have less work to do to mate. Its just when they work together when they have pretty feathers.

Picture: superb starling, which is a cooperative breeder.

Credit to Walter Kitundu

I participated in my first Christmas Bird Count on Tuesday. It was a great experience and I was out with some really good birders, which is good because I’m not. It was really fun and I would totally do it again next year. The only downside was that it was cold, windy, and raining. Also, we were standing on a hill looking for oystercatchers while there was thunder and lighting. So safe. For the most part – we car birded, but we still saw a lot even though we couldn’t get the scope on anything.

The part we birded in was Virginia Point, the wetlands alongside I-45 before the causeway to Galveston, a superfund site (awesome, I know), and a water treatment plant which had some great ducks.

Here are the birds that I saw on Tuesday.

• Red-winged blackbird
• Osprey (we saw a few and we saw one catch a fish)
• Tricolored heron
• Double crested cormorant
• Some hybrid ducks
• Mourning dove
• White ibis
• Great egret
• Gadwall
• American coot
• Loggerhead shrike
• Spotted sandpiper
• Sanderling
• Killdeer
• Caspian tern
• Ring-billed gull
• Black-bellied plover
• Brown pelican
• Common loon
• Common goldeneye
• Red-tailed hawk
• Herring gull
• Crested caracara
• Whimbrel
• Marsh wren
• Palm warbler
• Snowy egret
• Common merganser
• White pelican (something other than brown! finally)
• Eastern meadowlark
• Northern harrier
• Roseate spoonbill
• American oystercatcher
• Lesser scaup
• Savannah sparrow
• Least tern
• Ruddy duck
• Black-necked stilt
• Blue-winged teal
• Red-breasted merganser
• Cooper’s hawk
• Northern shoveler
• Western sandpiper
• American avocet
• Falcon species (we couldn’t tell which)
• Tree swallow
• Cave swallow
• Cliff swallow
• Black skimmer
• Bufflehead
• Laughing gull
• Sprague’s pipit
• Great blue heron
• European starling
• Northern pintail
• Mottled duck
• Eastern phoebe
• Lesser yellowlegs
• And even a nutria (not a bird)

For the most part it’s a pretty good list considering the conditions. Some of the birds I had never even seen before, which makes it even more worthwhile.

Credit to Flickr user ER Post.

Between November 28th and December 1st a whooping crane was shot. If you are not in the know – whooping cranes are endangered. So why would anybody want to shoot one? The answer is being investigated right now. The shooting happened near Cayuga, Indiana during migration.

Like I said above, whooping cranes are endangered, and there are only a few hundred left in the wild. Now there’s one less. For part of the year the whooping cranes spend a lot of time in Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, which is along the Texas coast and the other time in Canada.

There is only one population of the cranes, which makes them highly vulnerable. In 2001, biologists attempted to create another population that bred in Wisconsin and wintered in Florida. However, the population is only sustained through captive breeding and releasing into the new population. The crane that was shot was a part of this new population.

Sadly, the crane that was shot was the only successful breeding female. Her and her mate had three chicks, two of which died. Now she will not be able to raise anymore chicks and the potential new wild population just got another set back.

When the chicks are hatched they are taught to fly and feed by people wearing crane costumes. An ultra-light airplane flown by a person in a costume is used to teach them to fly and then also flies them to Florida during migration. With all of this work and care taken to raise these chicks to be successful in the wild – its terrible to find one killed in the wild of unnatural causes.

This could be a hunter who mistakenly shot the crane and won’t come forward or it could be something else. Two other cranes from this new population have been shot since the program started in 2001. Also, in late November one of the migration hangars was vandalized. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the International Crane Foundation are offering a reward to anybody who has any information on the shooting or vandalizing.

Why anybody would want to sabotage a program that is trying to save a species is beyond me. I just really hope its just mistaken identity.

Top picture: credit to Flickr user sugarzebra.

Bottom picture: operation migration, credit to Flickr user D.L. Lindsey.

Here’s a tough decision: should barred owls be killed to save the northern spotted owl? The spotted owl’s numbers are declining despite efforts to save it. The barred owl is larger and more aggressive, which may be a reason the spotted owl cannot come back. There are talks about shooting or trapping and moving barred owls. If this works, then this practice will be done over a larger area.

The problem is really ethical issues. Should we shoot one species to save another species? Or should we let one species go extinct? It will not be an easy choice to make and I do not envy the person who has to make it.

The spotted owl uses the old growth forests of the region, which are not what they used to be due to logging. The owl is on the endangered species list and has been for quite some time, but its numbers still decline. Since logging has collapsed in the area, scientists are now looking towards the larger barred owl as the reason for the continued decline. The barred owl has mostly been found in the east, but has been moving towards the northwest in recent years.

Choosing one species over another is not a new idea. Sea lions are either moved or killed because they feed on the salmon, which is protected. Ravens and raccoons that feed on snowy plover nests are trying to be driven away by hunters.

However, the decision to kill/trap barred owls will not be made until more information is known about why the spotted owl is still declining. Though if barred owls are found to be contributing to the decline of spotted owls – they will be removed from the region.

Top Picture – northern spotted owl

Bottom Picture – barred owl