Feature Channels: Birds

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Released: 23-Jun-2021 10:45 AM EDT
What Bird is Singing? Ask the Merlin Bird ID App for an Instant Answer
Cornell University

With a new feature in the free Merlin Bird ID app from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, you can now ID a bird by its sound.

   
Released: 16-Jun-2021 12:05 PM EDT
What Factors Put Philippine Birds at Risk of Extinction?
University of Utah

A new study from University of Utah researchers suggests that, due to deforestation and habitat degradation, more bird species may be endangered that previously thought – including species that may not have been discovered yet.

Released: 14-Jun-2021 3:40 PM EDT
More Than a Bumpy Ride: Turbulence Offers Boost to Birds
Cornell University

By combining wind speed data with the measured accelerations of a golden eagle outfitted with GPS tracking instruments, researchers suggest that, rather than hindering flight, turbulence is a source of energy that birds may use to their advantage.

Released: 12-Jun-2021 1:35 AM EDT
Los Alamos Teams with International Group to Examine Spread of Infectious Disease by Migratory Birds
Los Alamos National Laboratory

A multinational effort is underway to understand and control the spread of disease among migratory birds.

Released: 7-Jun-2021 3:50 PM EDT
Darkened Windows Save Migrating Birds
Cornell University

Building lights are a deadly lure for the billions of birds that migrate at night, disrupting their natural navigation cues and leading to deadly collisions. But even if you can’t turn out all the lights in a building, darkening even some windows at night during bird migration periods could be a major lifesaver for birds.

Released: 6-Jun-2021 8:05 PM EDT
Conserving coastal seaweed: a must have for migrating sea birds
University of South Australia

As Australia officially enters winter, UniSA ecologists are urging coastal communities to embrace all that the season brings, including the sometimes-unwelcome deposits of brown seaweed that can accumulate on the southern shores.

Released: 4-Jun-2021 4:25 PM EDT
Songbirds can control single vocal muscle fibers when singing
University of Southern Denmark

The melodic and diverse songs of birds frequently inspire pop songs and poems, and have been for centuries, all the way back to Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" or "The Nightingale" by H.C. Andersen.

Released: 3-Jun-2021 12:10 PM EDT
Polar vortex, winter heat may change bird populations
University of Wisconsin–Madison

Researchers set out to learn how extreme winter cold and heat affected 41 common bird species in eastern North America. They found that individual bird species respond differently to these weather events, and extreme winter heat may lead to longer-term changes in bird populations.

Released: 1-Jun-2021 2:40 PM EDT
Duetting songbirds 'mute' the musical mind of their partner to stay in sync
New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT)

Art Garfunkel once described his legendary musical chemistry with Paul Simon, "We meet somewhere in the air through the vocal cords ... ." But a new study of duetting songbirds from Ecuador, the plain-tail wren (Pheugopedius euophrys), has offered another tune explaining the mysterious connection between successful performing duos.

Released: 27-May-2021 2:15 PM EDT
Seabirds face dire threats from climate change, human activity — especially in Northern Hemisphere
University of Washington

Many seabirds in the Northern Hemisphere are struggling to breed — and in the Southern Hemisphere, they may not be far behind. These are the conclusions of a study, published May 28 in Science, analyzing more than 50 years of breeding records for 67 seabird species worldwide.

Released: 24-May-2021 3:10 PM EDT
Experimental broadcast of whitewater river noise drives bats and birds away
Boise State University

While many might consider a walk in the woods to be a quiet, peaceful escape from their noisy urban life, we often don't consider just how incredibly noisy some natural environments can be.

Released: 19-May-2021 8:00 AM EDT
UNC Biological Education Doctoral Candidate Awarded $20,000 Award
University of Northern Colorado

Karina Sanchez, a Biological Education Ph.D. candidate at the University of Northern Colorado, has been awarded a $20,000 American Dissertation Fellowship award from the American Association of University Women (AAUW), an organization that promotes education and equity for women and girls. Her dissertation involves researching how noise and light pollution and landscape composition in urban settings affects American robins, specifically their bird song.

   
Released: 17-May-2021 2:25 PM EDT
URI students learn about animal behavior by training chickens to perform tasks
University of Rhode Island

Each of the 13 students in URI Assistant Professor Justin Richard’s class is assigned a chicken and is instructed to train it to do several required behaviors, as well as other behaviors the students choose themselves. All train the birds to understand that when they hear a clicker, a food reward will be delivered. They also train the birds to peck at a target. Some students are also training their chickens to get on a scale to be weighed, identify a particular color, or jump through a hoop.

Released: 17-May-2021 1:40 PM EDT
Bird data from Ethiopia fills in baseline data gaps
University of Utah

The study establishes baseline observations for tropical birds in East Africa, filling in an important data gap for monitoring biodiversity and tropical ecosystem health in a warming world.

Released: 12-May-2021 3:55 PM EDT
Iconic bird makes its home on campus
University of California, Irvine

With its tree-laden campus and adjacent protected natural reserves, UCI enjoys being home to a great variety of bird species. One particular raptor continues to capture the attention of the many avid birders in Orange County: the white-tailed kite. This iconic bird of Orange County – named for its ability to hover in the air while hunting –nearly went extinct throughout California in the early 1900s due to human-related threats.

7-May-2021 4:25 PM EDT
Tweet and re-tweet: songbird stuttering allows researchers to pinpoint causes in the brain
Tufts University

Biologists have identified specific neural firing patterns that can induce stuttering and stammering in songbirds. The discovery offers a model system that could enable researchers to uncover the origins of speech dysfunction in humans, and possible treatment to restore normal speech.

   
Released: 4-May-2021 4:05 PM EDT
Climate change impacts conservation sites across the Americas
Durham University

A continental-scale network of conservation sites is likely to remain effective under future climate change scenarios, despite a predicted shift in key species distributions.

Released: 30-Apr-2021 1:25 PM EDT
New View of Species Interactions Offers Clues to Preserve Threatened Ecosystems
University of California San Diego

Scientists from around the world have produced a new analysis—believed to be the most detailed study of specialized ecological data from global forests—that is furthering science’s understanding of species interactions and how diversity contributes to the preservation of ecosystem health.

Released: 23-Apr-2021 2:15 PM EDT
Climate change impacts conservation sites across the Americas
Durham University

A continental-scale network of conservation sites is likely to remain effective under future climate change scenarios, despite a predicted shift in key species distributions.

Released: 23-Apr-2021 10:15 AM EDT
Citizen science data tracks battle of birds vs. bacteria
Cornell University

House finches are locked in a deadly cycle of immunity and new strains of bacterial infection in battling an eye disease that halved their population when it first emerged 25 years ago, according to new research from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Released: 21-Apr-2021 2:30 PM EDT
The Math Behind How Pelicans Surf the Waves
University of California San Diego

It’s a common sight: pelicans gliding along the waves, right by the shore. These birds make this kind of surfing look effortless, but actually the physics involved that give them a big boost are not simple. Researchers at the University of California San Diego have recently developed a theoretical model that describes how the ocean, the wind and the birds in flight interact in a recent paper in Movement Ecology.

Released: 16-Apr-2021 2:30 PM EDT
Buffalo State Biology Professor Publishes Research on Avian Hybridization
SUNY Buffalo State University

Several biological factors and behavioral traits—like migrating habits and social bonds—play into whether certain species of birds are more likely to produce hybrid offspring than others

Released: 7-Apr-2021 1:20 PM EDT
Why lists of worldwide bird species disagree
University of Utah

Biologists set out to compare four main lists of bird species worldwide to find out how the lists differ—and why. They found that although the lists agree on most birds, disagreements in Southeast Asia and the Southern Ocean could mean that some species are missed by conservation ecologists.

Released: 26-Mar-2021 10:40 AM EDT
International investigation discovers bald eagles’ killer
University of Georgia

Eagle and waterfowl deaths occur in late fall and winter within reservoirs with excess invasive aquatic weeds, and birds can die within five days after arrival.

Released: 24-Mar-2021 1:50 PM EDT
Bald eagle count quadruples, thanks in part to eBird data boost
Cornell University

For the past 50 years, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has been assembling counts of bald eagle nests to track the triumphant recovery of America’s national symbol. But in its new bald eagle population report – tabulated with the help of results using eBird data from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology – the USFWS found many more eagles than previously thought to exist in the Lower 48 states.

Released: 23-Mar-2021 4:05 PM EDT
Penguin hemoglobin evolved to meet oxygen demands of diving
University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Experiments on ancient proteins reveal evolution of better oxygen capture, release

Released: 12-Mar-2021 12:50 PM EST
Whooping cranes steer clear of wind turbines when selecting stopover sites
Ecological Society of America

As gatherings to observe whooping cranes join the ranks of online-only events this year, a new study offers insight into how the endangered bird is faring on a landscape increasingly dotted with wind turbines.

Released: 9-Mar-2021 5:10 PM EST
Warming climate slows tropical birds’ population growth rates
University of Utah

Monte Neate-Clegg and colleagues tracked the demographics of 21 bird species over 30 years of observations from a mountain forest in Tanzania. For at least six of the species, their population declined over 30 years could be most attributable to rising temperatures – an effect of a warming world. Smaller birds, as well as those that live at the lower part of their elevation range, were at higher risk for slowed population growth.

Released: 2-Mar-2021 10:25 AM EST
Backyard chickens risk pathogen spread
University of Georgia

Keeping backyard chickens was already on the rise, and the hobby has become even more popular during the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, a University of Georgia researcher cautions that the practice has risks not just for chickens, but for wildlife and people as well.

Released: 25-Feb-2021 12:05 PM EST
Male Lyrebirds Create an "Acoustic Illusion" to Snare Potential Mates
Cornell University

Famous for their uncanny ability to imitate other birds and even mechanical devices, researchers find that Australia’s Superb Lyrebird also uses that skill in a totally unexpected way. Lyrebirds imitate the panicked alarm calls of a mixed-species flock of birds while males are courting and even while mating with a female.

Released: 17-Feb-2021 11:35 AM EST
Birds and Rural Sprawl
Wildlife Conservation Society

A new study in the journal Diversity by researchers from Paul Smith’s College Adirondack Watershed Institute (AWI) and Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) finds that bird communities in two rapidly developing rural landscapes react differently to increased “rural sprawl.”

Released: 15-Feb-2021 1:50 PM EST
Regional variation in the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on data collection
Cornell University

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed human behavior, and that has major consequences for data-gathering citizen-science projects such as eBird, run by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Newly published research finds that when human behaviors change, so do the data.

Released: 11-Feb-2021 9:25 AM EST
Study Finds Even the Common House Sparrow is Declining
Cornell University

A new study by Cornell Lab of Ornithology scientists aims to clarify the status of the non-native European House Sparrow, using 21 years of citizen science data from the Cornell Lab’s Project FeederWatch.

Released: 9-Feb-2021 11:55 AM EST
Starling Success Traced to Rapid Adaptation
Cornell University

Love them or hate them, there’s no doubt the European Starling is a wildly successful bird. A new study from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology examines this non-native species from the inside out to learn what exactly happened at the genetic level as the starling population exploded and spread all across North America?

3-Feb-2021 3:35 PM EST
As climate change cranks up the heat in the Mojave Desert, not all species are equally affected
Iowa State University

A new study shows how climate change is having a much greater impact on birds than small mammals in the Mojave Desert in the southwestern United States. The study could inform conservation practices and shed new light on how climate change affects various species differently. The research drew on cutting-edge computer modeling as well as survey data from more than 100 years ago.

Released: 28-Jan-2021 9:45 AM EST
How Many Birds Will You Find?
Cornell University

The 24th annual Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) is a great opportunity for all budding birdwatchers and bird-count veterans to use their skills. People from around the world count the birds they see for at least 15 minutes on one or more days of the count, and then enter their checklists online. The GBBC takes place February 12 through 15.

Released: 25-Jan-2021 12:10 PM EST
Scientists show impact of human activity on bird species
Durham University

Scientists have shown where bird species would exist in the absence of human activity under research that could provide a new approach to setting conservation priorities.

12-Jan-2021 8:45 AM EST
Foraging humans, mammals and birds who live in the same place behave similarly
University of Bristol

Foraging humans find food, reproduce, share parenting, and even organise their social groups in similar ways as surrounding mammal and bird species, depending on where they live in the world, new research has found.

   
Released: 21-Dec-2020 8:55 AM EST
Study Examines Attitudes Toward Non-Native Birds
Cornell University

A new study from scientists at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology examines public attitudes toward non-native bird species and whether people are willing to manage them to protect native cavity-nesting birds, such as Eastern Bluebirds and the American Kestrel. The findings are published in the Journal of Environmental Management.

Released: 9-Dec-2020 2:45 PM EST
Less Light, More Trees Assist Migrating Birds
Cornell University

Scientists from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Colorado State University used observations from the Lab’s eBird citizen-science program to estimate the seasonal species richness of nocturnally migrating passerines within 333 well surveyed urban areas in the contiguous U.S. “Richness” is defined as the number of different species in an area.

Released: 30-Nov-2020 2:50 PM EST
Holiday Gifts That Give Back to Birds and Nature
Cornell University

There's been a huge bump in the number of people connecting with birds and nature as people stuck close to home during this past year, and the trend is continuing. The perfect gift for new—and veteran—birdwatchers is the gift of knowledge. There's so much to learn about birds! Below are holiday gift ideas that are meaningful and environmentally friendly—and your purchase supports the nonprofit conservation work at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Released: 24-Nov-2020 1:55 PM EST
Study: Clean Air Act Saved 1.5 Billion Birds
Cornell University

U.S. pollution regulations meant to protect humans from dirty air are also saving birds. So concludes a new continentwide study published today in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Study authors found that improved air quality under a federal program to reduce ozone pollution may have averted the loss of 1.5 billion birds during the past 40 years.

Released: 23-Nov-2020 4:05 PM EST
The Impact of Mercury in New York State
Biodiversity Research Institute (BRI)

Biodiversity Research Institute announced that a series of scientific studies that assessed the impact of mercury on air, water, fish, and wildlife in New York State was published in the journal Ecotoxicology, an international journal devoted to presenting critical research on the effects of toxic chemicals on people and the environment.

Released: 17-Nov-2020 3:40 PM EST
Migrating animals 'live fast and die young'
University of Exeter

Animals that migrate "live fast and die young", new research shows.

Released: 10-Nov-2020 8:50 AM EST
Urban gulls adapt foraging schedule to human activity patterns
University of Bristol

If you’ve ever seen a seagull snatch some fries or felt their beady eyes on your sandwich in the park, you'd be right to suspect they know exactly when to strike to increase their chances of getting a human snack. A new study by the University of Bristol is the most in-depth look to date at the foraging behaviours of urban gulls and how they’ve adapted to patterns of human activity in a city.

Released: 6-Nov-2020 4:50 PM EST
Migration and Molt Affect How Birds Change Their Colors
Michigan Technological University

Before the journey, many birds molt their bright feathers, replacing them with a more subdued palette. Watching this molt led scientists to wonder how feather color changes relate to the migrations many birds undertake twice each year.

Released: 3-Nov-2020 9:00 PM EST
Study Provides First Evidence of a Relationship between a Bird’s Gut and its Brain
Florida Atlantic University

A study of the relationships between cognition and the gut microbiome of captive zebra finches showed that their gut microbiome characteristics were related to performance on a cognitive assay where they learned a novel foraging technique. Researchers also identified potentially critical bacteria that were relatively more abundant in birds that performed better on this assay. This correlation provides some of the first evidence of a relationship between a bird's gut microbiome and its brain.



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