This week in birds - #93

A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment:

Photo by Tom Grey, courtesy of American Bird Conservancy.

At 3.25 inches long, the Calliope Hummingbird is the smallest breeding bird found in Canada and the United States—and the smallest long-distance migrant bird in the world. This tiny hummingbird travels over 5,500 miles round-trip during its migration! This remarkable little bird is the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week.

This is a bird of the west. It favors open forests, meadows, and canyons in high mountains, often preferring areas alongside streams.

Calliopes winter in dry thorn forest and humid pine-oak forests in southwestern and south-central Mexico. Vagrant Calliopes are increasingly found wintering in the eastern U.S., however, much like other species of western hummingbirds such as the Rufous Hummingbird.  The population of the Calliope is considered stable.

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November 2013 was the hottest November on record since 1880. Almost every region on Earth was warmer than usual with only a few exceptions, including central and eastern North America, the Southern Ocean near Antarctica, northern Australia, and southwest Greenland. On the other hand, Russia had its hottest November since 1880 with some areas seeing temperatures 14 degrees Fahrenheit (8 degrees Celsius) above normal.

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The emerald ash borer is a noxious invasive pest from Asia that has caused considerable damage to forests in parts of the United States. But its progress has be slowed and maybe halted by native bark-foraging birds like nuthatches and woodpeckers. It seems that these birds find the borer extremely tasty.  

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The Bar-tailed Godwit is the long-distance champion of migrating birds, flying from Alaska to New Zealand in autumn and then back again in the spring. Researchers believe that the bird is adapting its migration patterns to fit the new reality of climate change. This affords some evidence and provides hope that other birds may be able to do likewise.

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Some amazing bee portraits have been posted that provide views of bees that you have never seen before. You can take a look at those pictures here.

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Certain small birds engage in very energetic displays. A prime example is members of the manakin family. Researchers have studied the Golden-collared Manakin and found that these birds do not actually expend as much energy in the displays as one might imagine. 

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A recently discovered Emperor Penguin colony on Antarctica is flourishing and has been found to contain even more birds than originally thought. New estimates number the colony at around 15,000 birds.

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Some of our smallest butterflies are among the toughest and are able to survive lower temperatures than many of their larger and flashier cousins. Among the toughest is the tiny Dainty Sulphur.

I photographed this Dainty Sulphur in my backyard earlier this fall. It is tiny and very pretty but the name "Dainty" Sulphur is deceiving. It is able to survive some fairly rugged conditions.

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Scientists believe that the Kiwi bird, the national symbol of New Zealand, may actually have Australian roots. The bird may have originated in Australia and flown to New Zealand where it evolved into its present flightless state. This is based on new fossil evidence.

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There will be winners and losers in the climate change lottery. Research indicates that one of the losers may be the desert tortoise whose habitat is changing faster than it can adjust. 

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Research shows that birds that breed cooperatively, i.e., have more than the parental pair cooperating in defending the nest and care and feeding of the young, have a greater degree of success in repelling brood parasites such as old world cuckoos.

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Around the backyard:

This was the week when I saw my first Orange-crowned Warbler in the backyard since 2011. That was a very exciting moment. But this was a big week for all the "winter warblers." Yellow-rumped Warblers seemed to be everywhere in the yard and Pine Warblers appeared at the bird feeders in twos and threes rather than the singletons that I had been seeing.

It was also nice to hear the voices of the Cedar Waxwings every time I stepped outside this week. They were a reminder that winter really was near and now, as of today, it has arrived. Happy Solstice Day!