Powdermill Nature Reserve Announces They’ve Banded 800,000 Birds

Field scientists at the longest-running, year-round, professional bird banding program in the United States announce they’ve banded their 800,000th bird

Bird Banding Program Manager, Annie Lindsay, shows off a very special bird, a juvenal cedar waxwing, which was the 800,000th bird banded at Powdermill Nature Reserve in Pennsylvania. (Image courtesy of Powdermill Nature Reserve.)

Field researchers at Powdermill Avian Research Center (PARC), also known as Powdermill Nature Reserve, had been anticipating this particular bird’s arrival…

How To Save Wild Parrots: Lessons From the Grey Parrot

Grey parrots are endangered and their populations are collapsing across Africa — except for one small oceanic island. Why?

Wild grey parrots taking flight (Credit: Andrew Bernard, USFWS / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

According to a number of recent studies (for example, this one from 2020), the world’s wild parrots are on a fast track…

Current Protected Areas Cannot Save Parrots From Extinction

A recent study finds that parrots will rapidly go extinct if we allow deforestation, agriculture and poaching to continue unabated

Glossy black cockatoos (Calyptorhynchus lathami) fly in for a drink of water during the devastating Australian bush fires of 2020. The glossy black cockatoo is one of is one of Australia’s rarest cockatoo species. The red tail panels reveal these are two males. (Credit: Bowerbirdaus / CC BY-SA 4.0 International)

. . . Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you got ’til it’s gone
They paved…

More Birds Make You As Happy As More Money

Conservation of nature is as important for human happiness and well-being as financial security

A bluebird of happiness. Adult male mountain bluebird (Sialia currucoides). (Credit: Sunny / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

I felt my lungs inflate with the onrush of scenery — air, mountains, trees, people. I thought, “This is what it is to be happy.”
— Sylvia…

How One Becomes Two: Genetic Shuffling Gave Rise To A New Bird Species

Sudden changes in bird songs and plumage colors provides female songbirds with mate choices that can rapidly lead to establishment of new species in closely related birds — a finding that challenges the typical model of how new species form

Adult male Iberá seedeater (Sporophila iberaensis) (left; image credit Abel Fleita) and adult male tawny-bellied seedeater (Sporophila hypoxantha) (right; image credit Sheela Turbek) live alongside each other without obvious ecological barriers to reproduction. They recognize their species by song and plumage colors. (Image composite created by GrrlScientist.)

Speciation…

How Lovebirds Keep Their Cool When It’s Really Hot

Some birds may develop unique behaviors to deal with extreme heat created by global warming

A small flock of rosy-faced lovebirds (Agapornis roseicollis). These small parrots became established in Arizona after pet lovebirds were intentionally released or escaped. (Credit: Charles J. Sharp / CC BY-SA 4.0)

Global climate change is giving rise to a variety of rapid and diverse impacts, including shifts in growing seasons, food sources and species distributions and, as…

Pets versus pests: Does the global exotic pet trade favor invasive pests?

Exotic pets — companion animals that are not native to the area where they are kept — can become invasive pests when they escape or are released by pet owners, breeders, collectors and wholesalers

Fire ants (genus: Solenopsis) are annoying and sometimes dangerous pests throughout the southeastern United States. There are more than 200 species of ants that both sting and bite. (Credit: Stephen Ausmus, USDA / Public Domain)

It’s no secret that the global market…

Using Misinformation To Protect Vulnerable Breeding Shorebirds

Although ‘fake news’ and misinformation are big problems for human society and addressing it is a big challenge, the same ‘fake news’ misinformation tactics can be used to trick invasive predators into ignoring a meal

An adult double-banded plover (Charadrius bicinctus), also known as known as the banded dotterel or pohowera in New Zealand, in nuptial plumage. This ground-nesting shorebird is one of the three bird species that could most benefit from scent deception of invasive mammalian predators. (Credit: Andrej Chudý / CC BY-ND 3.0)

Invasive predators, particularly feral and free-roaming…

Bird-Friendly Coffees Really Are For The Birds

But surprisingly, only half of all birders have ever heard of certified Bird-Friendly coffees

Adult male cerulean warbler (Dendroica cerulea). This migratory songbird breeds in eastern North America and depends on shaded coffee plantations in Central and South America during the winter. This traditional farming technique is at risk as coffee prices fluctuate and as pressure to switch to higher-yield sun coffee or other crops intensifies. (Credit: Mdf / CC BY-SA 3.0)

A little more than one year ago, a study reported that North America lost 3 billion birds in less than 50 years (more here). One of the…

The ‘Mona Lisa’ Of Ancient Egyptian Art Depicts Extinct Goose

A 4600 year old painting from a tomb in Egypt depicts an extinct and previously unknown species of goose

Meidum Geese (Detail), Tomb of Nefermaat and Itet. Is this an extinct goose species? (Credit: Anthony Romilio)

An extinct and previously unknown species of goose has been identified from an ancient Egyptian painting that once adorned the walls of a mastaba, or tomb, according to a recently published analysis. This mudbrick tomb was the final resting place of Nefermaat, a prince in Egypt’s Fourth Dynasty (c. …

𝐆𝐫𝐫𝐥𝐒𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐭, scientist & writer

PhD evolutionary ecology/ornithology. Psittacophile. scicomm Forbes, previously Guardian. always Ravenclaw. discarded scientist & writer, now an angry house elf

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