This week in birds - #26

News from the world of birds and the environment this week:

(Picture courtesy of ABC.)

The American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week is the Chestnut Antipitta, a South American species that lives on the eastern slopes of the Andes in north and central Peru. It is a small, plump, and rather inconspicuous bird of montane forests and secondary woodlands and is usually found on or near the ground. Its status is not well-documented but it is thought to be declining in numbers.

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Who has better warblers - Europe or the Americas? Maybe it depends on what you want in a warbler. American warblers are clearly the more colorful, but some maintain that European warblers, while often drab as sparrows, have better songs. It's a question that has no "correct" answer really.

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A three-judge panel of the U..S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia this week upheld the Environmental Protection Agency's findings that heat-trapping gases from industry and vehicles do endanger public health and that the Clean Air Act requires the federal government to impose limits on the emission of the gases since it has been established that they are doing harm.

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The Pinta Island tortoise called Lonesome George was the last of his kind on Earth. "Was" being the operative word because this week George, estimated to be at least 100 years old, died. One more species gone forever.

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Blue Tits, European relatives of our Tufted Titmouse and Carolina Chickadee, show a positive response to birds with more intense ultraviolet coloring on the crown. Researchers have found that such better looking birds - from a tit's perspective - get more help from their partners with raising chicks. Life is not fair for plainer individuals, even in the world of birds!

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A father-daughter team in New Jersey is trying to save the world - or at least the wood turtles in it. The reptile is threatened in the state and the duo is working to identify nest sites and protect the turtle's habitats so that it can be saved.

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Bolivia has set aside a 44-acre reserve for the protection of the rare Tucuman Parrot.

(Tucuman Parrot photo by Luis Rivera.)

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Sea levels along the Atlantic Coast of the United States are rising much faster than in other parts of the world. It is estimated that they are rising up to three or four times as fast as the average.  Scientists believe that faster rise is related to melting ice in Greenland which is slowing the Gulf Stream current. 

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In other ocean-related news, the seas are being acidified by the same gases that are polluting our atmosphere and contributing to global warming. This is a serious problem for the planet and for humanity and yet MediaMatters has determined that the news media give 40 times more news coverage to the Kardashians than to ocean acidification. Why am I not surprised?  

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Around the backyard:

In mid-afternoon on Thursday, I witnessed a Mississippi Kite circling over the yard. Suddenly, it was attacked by an Eastern Kingbird. The smaller kingbird harassed it relentlessly until it flew out of my sight.

That same afternoon, I had a female Orchard Oriole visiting in the yard. Beautiful bird! 

(This is actually not the one I saw this week but one I photographed earlier this year. But this week's bird looked just like this!)

The Red-bellied Woodpeckers have been escorting two very noisy fledglings around the yard this week. Whiny little birds! They never shut up! I'm sure their parents will be glad when they graduate to taking care of themselves.

I've continued to monitor the bluebird nest. There are now four beautiful blue eggs in it, but I don't think Mama Bluebird has started brooding yet.

Wordless Wednesday: Glossy Ibis

Three beauties

Lady Blue has been busy! I checked the bluebird box this morning and the Eastern Bluebird nest contained these three beauties. A typical bluebird clutch contains four eggs and that's how many her previous clutch had so I suspect she may lay at least one more egg before she starts brooding.

I am a bit concerned because of the temperature. It was over 100 degrees yesterday, will be again today and is predicted to be again tomorrow. After that the heat is expected to abate just a little but it will still be in the high 90s. Is it possible the heat could damage the eggs, perhaps causing them to start developing before Mama is ready to brood? Could it perhaps even "cook" them? It is a concern, but, frankly, I don't know what I could do to alleviate the situation at this point. I'll just have to trust to Mama Bluebird and Mother Nature to know best how to take care of this new generation.

The bluebirds are nesting again

Before we went on vacation a couple of weeks ago, I noticed that the Eastern Bluebirds were showing interest in one of the bluebird boxes once again. I thought they were probably getting reading to build a second nest and raise another family. After we returned last week, I got sick with an upper respiratory infection and didn't get outside much during the week. Finally, over the weekend, I was able to make my rounds of the yard and check the nesting boxes and I found that, sure enough, the bluebirds had constructed one of their neat little nests made of pine straw in the old box where they have raised families in previous years. There were no eggs in the nest yet.

As I walked into the den this morning, I glanced out the window and saw the female bluebird exiting the box. I imagine she is ready to lay her eggs now and get on with the process of brooding a second clutch. I worry a bit about the birds because temperatures are supposed to be over 100 degrees for the first three days this week and there is little relief in sight. Being inside a wooden box in that sun, even with its ventilation holes, can't be very pleasant.

This pair of birds were very successful with their first brood of chicks, successfully fledging all four, so they are well experienced in raising a family. I hope their second venture is just as successful.

    The female bluebird visits the box where she has built her second nest.

Silent Sunday: The watcher

This week in birds - #25

News from the world of birds and the environment this week:

(Photo courtesy of ABC.)

The Bermuda Petrel, commonly called Cahow after the sound that it makes, is the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week. The bird is Bermuda's only endemic breeding species but was long thought to be extinct. In recent years, small populations of the bird have been found and conservationists are trying to protect it and encourage a comeback. It is still seriously endangered.

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We know that the White-winged Dove is on the move, expanding its range right across the country. It was only a few years ago that the first of these doves appeared in my yard. Now they are the dominant doves here, having displaced the previous immigrants, the Eurasian Collared-dove. Now comes word that the White-winged has made it all the way to New Jersey!  

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Here's an oddment from the science news of the week: Nine turtle pairs died while copulating and their fossilized remains have now been discovered in Germany. It's the first known case of mating pairs dying in the act, being fossilized and then recovered. Scientists speculate that these turtles were going about their business in safe waters but while they were joined together they drifted into a toxic area of the lake and were killed.

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Chinstrap Penguins are losing population in a warming world. The penguins depend on krill as their main source of nourishment and the krill are dying in warming waters. Less krill means fewer penguins.

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In related penguin news, the four-foot-tall Emperor Penguin depends on the ice shelf around the continent of Antarctica as its habitat. As the planet warms and the ice melts, scientists are predicting a drastic decline in the population of these big penguins.

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A species which had been thought for 133 years to be extinct has been rediscovered. The Kandyan dwarf toad has been found to be alive and well and living in Sri Lanka.

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It's news when Kiwis fly and this week some of these normally flightless birds took to the air - with an assist from a military helicopter - as they were moved to a new habitat on the coast of New Zealand.

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Carbon that is currently trapped in the Arctic tundra could be released, scientists say, by the growth of new trees in the warming area. This is of concern because it could further exacerbate global warming.

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A study of Swamp Sparrows shows that baby sparrows prefer the songs which they can hear the clearest and adopt those into their own personal playlist. Thus, outside noises from human activities can obscure some sounds and thus affect the songs that the birds learn.

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Coyotes have recolonized the Northeast displacing the red fox in many areas. The red fox is a voracious predator of the white-footed mouse which is a carrier of the ticks which produce Lyme disease. Coyotes prey on the mice, too, but not to the extent of the foxes. When the foxes disappear from an area, the mouse population expands and the cases of Lyme disease increase. These are the findings of a new study about the increasing number of Lyme disease cases in the Northeast, and thus does a change in the habitat of an area produce sometimes unexpected results.

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Did you ever wonder how Brown-headed Cowbird chicks learn to be cowbirds? After all, they are raised by foster parents, so why don't they imitate the sparrows or warblers who have nourished them?  Blogger Kate St. John has an observation about that and about the male cowbirds calling their now fully-fledged chicks to follow them.

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Around the backyard:

Well, it's been a bit of a lost week for me. I've been laid low by a respiratory infection and unable to get out and about very much at all. I did finally get outside today to fill my bird feeders which had been empty for many days. Poor birds! Fortunately, there's no shortage of wild food for them.

Hardly had I gotten the seeds and suet and pressed seedcakes into their appropriate feeders before the dominant Northern Mockingbird was on top of the feeder pole proclaiming that this is his territory!  Some of the other birds may have other ideas though.

While I was out filling the feeders, I was delighted to hear the song of the little Brown-headed Nuthatch in my neighbor's pine trees. It's not a song that I hear in my yard every day anymore and it always makes me happy when I do.

Phriday Photo: Young Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

("This week in birds" will appear tomorrow.)