Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital have discovered H5N1 avian influenza viruses gained the ability to cause severe disease and target the brain in mammals as they spread across North America.
Oxytocin, the so-called “love hormone,” plays a key role in the process of how a young zebra finch learns to sing by imitating its elders, suggests a new study by neuroscientists at Emory University. Scientific Reports published the findings, which add to the understanding of the neurochemistry of social learning.
Current conservation practices likely won’t do enough to save the black tern, a migratory bird species that nests in the northern U.S. and southern Canada, from disappearing. That’s according to new research from Michigan State University and the National Audubon Society published in the journal Biological Conservation. But the team’s report also reveals new opportunities to enhance the outlook for these birds by strategically expanding conservation and land management practices. Furthermore, the team’s approach can help inform conservation practices for other species.
Birds across the Americas are getting smaller and longer-winged as the world warms, and the smallest-bodied species are changing the fastest.
A new WCS-led study that analyzed 17 years of migratory bird-nesting data in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, revealed that nest survival decreased significantly near high-use oil and gas infrastructure and its related noise, dust, traffic, air pollution, and other disturbances.
Researchers conducted the first ever systematic and comprehensive study of Mountain Quail habitat associations and fire ecology in the Sierra Nevada.
Researcher will discuss the study which involved a sleeping aid known as suvorexant that is already approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for insomnia, hints at the potential of sleep medications to slow or stop the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.
In an effort to generate high-quality images based on text descriptions, a group of researchers in China built a generative adversarial network that incorporates data representing common-sense knowledge. Their method uses common sense to clarify the starting point for image generation and also uses common sense to enhance different specific features of the generated image at three different levels of resolution.
A panel of experts will hold a WCS media briefing on High Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) that is currently wreaking havoc around the world and is the largest known outbreak since scientists have begun tracking the disease.
Below are some of the latest headlines in the new Avian Flu channel on Newswise.
Many birds’ feathers are remarkably efficient at shedding water — so much so that “like water off a duck’s back” is a common expression.
Since the 1950s, humanity has produced an estimated 8.3bn tons of plastic, adding a further 380m tons to this amount each year. Only 9% of this gets recycled.
A new study demonstrates that birds can partially compensate for these changes by delaying the start of spring migration and completing the journey faster. But the strategy comes with a cost—a decline in overall survival.
Avian research often focuses on forests as breeding habitats, but scientists are now working to understand the vital role that small forest patches play in migration. For the first time, a team of researchers from Princeton University and the University of Delaware has created a comprehensive map of migratory pathways and stopover locations in the Eastern United States.
Every year, millions of birds crash into windows in cities along their migratory path.
As an ecological modeler and the director of BRI’s Quantitative Wildlife Ecology Research Lab, Evan spends much of his time considering innovative ways to analyze large datasets such as the 2023 Maine Bird Atlas, or working with offshore energy wind developers along the Atlantic coast.
A new study led by researchers at the University of Utah explores a record of birds’ diets preserved in their feathers and radio tracking of their movements to find that birds eat far fewer invertebrates in coffee plantations than in forests, suggesting that the disturbance of their ecosystem significantly impacts the birds’ dietary options.
Montane forests, known as biodiversity hotspots, are among the ecosystems facing threats from climate change.
The 2023 Great Backyard Bird Count exceeded all expectations. Organizers estimate that more than 500,000 participants from around the globe made the latest count the best ever.
When exotic species such as parrots, snakes, monkeys, or aquarium fishes are kept as pets, this may lead to unsustainable trade and impact negatively the conservation of these species globally.
Spring has arrived officially and brings with it another season of the NestWatch citizen-science project from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, building its ever more valuable database on nesting birds. NestWatch participants say watching birds raise their young is incredibly rewarding.
An eagle twice the size of the modern-day apex predator the wedge-tailed eagle, which soared over southern Australia more than 60,000 years ago, had a wingspan up to 3m wide and powerful talons wide enough to grab a small kangaroo or koala.
Researchers at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University found that an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) was associated with the deaths of more than 330 New England harbor and gray seals along the North Atlantic coast in June and July 2022, and the outbreak was connected to a wave of avian influenza in birds in the region.
Hummingbirds have the fastest metabolism of any animal. The tropical hummingbirds that live in the Andes Mountains in South America must expend considerable energy to maintain their high body temperatures in cold environments. One tool that they use to survive cold nights is called torpor, a hibernation-like state that allows them to ramp down energy consumption to well below what they normally use during the day.
A study of chicken farms in the West found that high winds increased the prevalence of Campylobacter in outdoor flocks, a bacterial pathogen in poultry that is the largest single cause of foodborne illness in the U.S.
Bald Eagles and dairy farmers exist in a mutually beneficial relationship in parts of northwestern Washington State. According to a new study, this "win-win" relationship has been a more recent development, driven by the impact of climate change on eagles' traditional winter diet of salmon carcasses, as well as by increased eagle abundance following decades of conservation efforts.
The arrival of the new year is a prime time for Antarctic birds like the south polar skua, Antarctic petrel, and snow petrel to build nests and lay their eggs.
Exercising too much and not getting enough rest is bad for your health. A new study from Lund University in Sweden shows that the same is true for migratory birds. They need to rest not only to renew their energy levels but also in order to boost their immune system.
Much of the progress made in understanding the scope of bird deaths from building and window collisions has come as the result of citizen science, according to a newly published study. But the study also concludes that such grassroots efforts need more buy-in from government and industry, and better funding so they can keep a foot on the gas in their efforts to reduce bird-window collisions.
There are reasons to assume that not only humans but also some non-human species of animal have conscious perception.
Avian functional diversity patterns in the Western U.S., where species and functional richness are both highest during the breeding season, are the polar opposite of what is seen in the East, where functional diversity is lowest when species richness is high, according to new research.
The mainly brown woodcock uses its bright white tail feathers to communicate in semi-darkness, reflecting 30% more light than any other known bird.
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Germany and Swansea University have revealed how different seabird species use distinct strategies to cope with cyclones, with some flying directly into the storm, and others using avoidance tactics.
Scientists wanted to learn if birds that have evolved to be more social have also evolved to be less aggressive.
Australia’s rarest bird of prey - the red goshawk - is facing extinction, with Cape York Peninsula now the only place in Queensland known to support breeding populations.
Changes in peregrine falcon diets during COVID-19 lockdowns highlight the impact of human behaviour on urban predators.
Three years into a five-year pledge to completely phase out lead shot in UK game hunting, a Cambridge study finds that 94% of pheasants on sale for human consumption were killed using lead.
Modern birds capable of flight all have a specialized wing structure called the propatagium without which they could not fly.
New research examining the perilous state of dying species calls for urgent international conservation efforts to develop unified management plans that could help plants and animals return from the brink of extinction.
Climate change isn’t the only threat facing California’s birds. Over the course of the 20th century, urban sprawl and agricultural development have dramatically changed the landscape of the state, forcing many native species to adapt to new and unfamiliar habitats.
Daurian redstarts move their nesting sites closer to or even inside human settlements when cuckoos are around.
World first research from CSIRO and the University of South Australia shows that the feathers of seabirds such as the Wandering Albatross can provide clues about their long-distance foraging, which could help protect these species from further decline.
Goffin’s cockatoos have been added to the short list of non-human animals that use and transport toolsets.
Hatching failure rates in birds are almost twice as high as experts previously estimated, according to the largest ever study of its kind.
New research from William & Mary published in PeerJ Life & Environment reveals that decals intended to reduce incidents of bird window strikes—one of the largest human-made causes of bird mortality— are only effective if decals are placed on the outside of the window.
Computer scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, in collaboration with biologists at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, recently announced in the journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution a new, predictive model that is capable of accurately forecasting where a migratory bird will go next—one of the most difficult tasks in biology. The model is called BirdFlow, and while it is still being perfected, it should be available to scientists within the year and will eventually make its way to the general public.
Fleeing isn’t the only way by which songbirds can protect themselves against predators.
Careful siting of renewable energy development seems to play a key role in minimizing impacts to wildlife, but this requires detailed knowledge of where animals breed, winter, and migrate. To address this need, BRI established a wildlife and renewable energy program in 2009, which has evolved over the past 12 years into BRI’s Center for Research on Offshore Wind and the Environment (CROWE).
Julia Gulka tackles emerging environmental issues in an office surrounded by photographs, illustrations, and personal watercolor paintings of the birds she studies and the places she has traveled.
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