Powerful Animal Tracking System Helps Research Take Flight
North Carolina State UniversityCall it a bird’s eye view of migration. Scientists have created a new animal tracking system using a big data approach.
Call it a bird’s eye view of migration. Scientists have created a new animal tracking system using a big data approach.
A team of scientists with the Wildlife Conservation Society, BirdLife International, and other groups have discovered a new species of bird with distinct plumage and a loud call living not in some remote jungle, but in a capital city of 1.5 million people.
On June 3rd, JoVE will publish a research technique that allows neural imaging of auditory stimuli in songbirds via MRI. The technique, developed by Dr. Annemie Van der Linden and her laboratory at the University of Antwerp in Belgium, will be one of the first published in JoVE Behavior, a new section of the video journal that focuses on observational and experimental techniques that seek to understand human and animal behavior through physiological, neurological, and genetic means.
A novel disease in songbirds has rapidly evolved to become more harmful to its host on at least two separate occasions in just two decades, according to a new study. The research provides a real-life model to help understand how diseases that threaten humans can be expected to change in virulence as they emerge.
The world premiere of the film "Ordinary Extraordinary Junco: Remarkable Biology From a Backyard Bird" -- a fascinating science documentary developed by biologists at Indiana University about one of North America's most beloved songbirds -- was a local success and a box office sell-out.
A new study from scientists at Boise State University shows that even species considered “tolerant” of human activity may be adversely impacted by human disturbance; Kestrels nesting in close proximity to roads and developed areas had elevated stress hormones and high rates of nest abandonment.
In a groundbreaking move that provides new insight into avian evolution, biology and conservation, researchers at Texas A&M University have successfully sequenced the complete genome of a Scarlet macaw for the first time.
Scientists at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna have discovered iron balls in sensory neurons of birds' ears. These cells might be associated with the magnetic sense of birds.
It’s hard not to catch sight of at least one black crow in the pursuit of our daily lives. For most of us, however, that is where the interaction ends. For Binghamton University Associate Professor of Biological Sciences Anne Clark, that single sighting is the open door to hours of observation.
A genetic analysis of the avian flu virus responsible for at least nine human deaths in China portrays a virus evolving to adapt to human cells, raising concern about its potential to spark a new global flu pandemic.
Whether it’s an influx of magnificent Snowy Owls, live cameras focused on a hawk nest, or a viral hoax about a toddler-snatching eagle, raptors command attention. Now is the perfect time to take notice – in the midst of the annual spring migration. Brian Sullivan, a leader of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s eBird program, and co-author of the “Crossley ID Guide: Raptors,” comments on some of the fascinating facts about raptors.
A new University of Florida study of nearly 5,000 Haiti bird fossils shows contrary to a commonly held theory, human arrival 6,000 years ago didn’t cause the island’s birds to die simultaneously.
Bird watchers from 101 countries made history in the first global Great Backyard Bird Count, Feb. 15 to 18. In the largest worldwide bird count ever, bird watchers set new records, counting more than 25 million birds on 116,000 checklists in four days – and recording 3,138 species, nearly one-third of the world’s total bird species.
A major milestone has been achieved by the Macaulay Library archive at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. All archived analog recordings in the 150,000-recording collection, going back to 1929, have now been digitized and can be heard online at www.MacaulayLibrary.org.
Turkey releases non-native guineafowl to eat ticks that carry deadly Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever. Yet research suggests guineafowl eat few ticks, but carry the parasites on their feathers, possibly spreading the disease they were meant to stop, says a Turkish biologist working at the University of Utah.
A tiny, digital tag provides a first peek at the social lives of small animals. Using the tags to track New Caledonian crows revealed a surprising amount of interaction among the tool-using birds.
Using those notes, professor Stan Temple and Christopher Bocast, a UW-Madison Nelson Institute graduate student and acoustic ecologist, have recreated a "soundscape" from ecologist Aldo Leopold's 70 year-old notes.
Late last week, a 12-year-old boy near Vancouver sighted an American Robin and submitted the 100 millionth observation to eBird. Launched in 2002 by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Audubon, eBird is an online application for birders to record their checklists, and for scientists to collect a massive database of citizen-science observations.
Compared with open farmland, wooded “shade” plantations that produce coffee and chocolate promote greater bird diversity, although a new University of Utah study says forests remain the best habitat for tropical birds.
A colorful, fruit-eating bird with a black mask, pale belly and scarlet breast – never before described by science – has been discovered by Cornell University graduates following an expedition to the remote Peruvian Andes.
With high-definition and nighttime cams streaming 24/7 from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Sapsucker Woods in Ithaca, N.Y., viewers around the world are now able to follow the surprising lives of herons, including rare views still little known to science.
A University of Alabama geographer and ornithologist is leading an effort to build houses on campus for the purple martin, a popular migratory bird. Dr. Michael Steinberg stands near one of the birdhouses designed to invite purple martins to stay.
A new nest camera high above a Cornell University’s athletic fields is streaming up-close, high-definition views of a Red-tailed Hawk nest via the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s All About Birds website: www.allaboutbirds.org.