By Rex Graham BirdsNews.com Nocturnal predators and full moons are deadly combinations for many mammals. No wonder rabbits, deer mice and even bats exhibit “lunar phobia,” becoming less active and more vigilant as moonlight intensity increases. They tend to spend moonlit nights in thickets and other safer areas even if there is less food to [...]
By Rex Graham BirdsNews.com The San Francisco Planning Commission by a 5-1 vote on July 14 approved new Bird Safe Building Standards. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is expected to consider at its August or September meeting the new standards, which were supported by the American Bird Conservancy and Golden Gate Audubon. “Bird deaths [...]
By Rex Graham BirdsNews.com On July 12, ornithologist Dr. Colin Miskelly received a phone call with mind-boggling implications. A Department of Conservation colleague reported that Broad-billed Prions, which spend their lives at sea, had been blown over the Tararua Range of New Zealand’s North Island. And then reports of massive prion fatalities on New Zealand’s [...]
The not-for-profit research organization Global Forest Watch Canada (GFWC) says whooping cranes regularly fly over and land within Alberta’s oil sands region and are increasingly threatened by development of the fossil fuel. The area in northeastern Alberta includes a surface-mineable area containing facilities, mine pits and toxic tailings ponds. Scientists estimate the avian mortality at [...]
Humans and birds are united thousands of times a day worldwide in an ornithological ritual. Researchers catch birds in mist nets, place metal or plastic bands around their legs or wings, make a few measurements and let them go. Since mist-netting became the preferred method to capture wild birds for banding studies in the 1950s, [...]
After avian flu ravaged several farms in the Little Karoo region of South America, a flock of trained ostriches were destroyed after contracting the disease. The ostriches were a tourist attraction at the Highgate farm where visitors have been riding the birds for more than 80 years. The farm is near Oudtshoorn South Africa, the [...]
Alex Rinkert gets up around dawn three days a week and heads to his chosen survey spots among Santa Cruz Sandhills in northern California, taking a scientific tally of birds there. He says the sandhills comprise about 4,000 acres scattered throughout the valley. After a short hike, the 18-year-old waits, standing very still, for five [...]
