This week in birds - #91

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

Photo by Ron Dudley, courtesy of the American Bird Conservancy.

The largest hawk in North America is this week's Bird of the Week, designated by the American Bird Conservancy. This hawk is so big, in fact, that it is sometimes mistaken for an eagle. It is the Ferruginous Hawk. It is a bird of the prairie and open spaces. Its range is mostly west of here, and yet on our New Year's Day visit to Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge a few years ago, we saw one perched on a utility pole. This is only one of the two species of hawks in America that have feathered legs, right down to their toes. (The other is the Rough-legged Hawk.)  That makes them easier to distinguish from the bare-legged Red-Tailed Hawk which they somewhat resemble - unless you get a good look at the tail. 

The Ferruginous is stable in its population and seems to be doing well in most areas of its range.

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The big news in the world of birds on this continent this week is the continued invasion of the more southerly parts of the continent by that beautiful bird from the High Arctic, the Snowy Owl. Birders everywhere are all atwitter and aflutter with the excitement of possibly encountering one of the owls. Amazingly, one of the owls has even been sighted in Bermuda!

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Did you see the story of the confused young Sea Eagle in Australia who picked up a wildlife camera that had been set to record the activities of crocodiles, apparently thinking it was edible? The camera was in the process of filming when he picked it up and it continued to film as he flew away with it and then set it down and tried to dismember it. Thus, the eagle became the first known animal to make its own wildlife film!

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This is the season when migrating birds often wind up far out of their normal range, having either been confused and lost their way, or maybe just attempting to see a new part of the world. Recently, a vagrant Fork-tailed Flycatcher, a bird that rarely crosses the southern border into the United States, except in the Rio Grande Valley, was found in Connecticut. 

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And speaking of our southern border, U.S. policy in recent years, motivated by totally irrational fears, has created an environmental and humanitarian disaster along the border, stripping the land of much of its vegetation.

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We all know that hummingbirds are amazing, almost magical creatures. One of their "super powers" is that they are able to switch from burning glucose to fructose and back again in order to maintain their high metabolism. This is something which no other creature is known to be able to do. 

Furthermore, hummingbirds are able to function and thrive at high altitudes because their hemoglobin has evolved high oxygen-binding capabilities.

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House Finches in North America suffer from an epidemic of conjunctivitis.  The progress of the disease has been tracked for years, including by citizen scientists participating in Project FeederWatch. The data from such tracking are yielding new information about how a disease becomes epidemic and spreads. 

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What is it about the magnificent tail of the peacock, male of the Peafowl, that attracts the female, the peahen? Researchers set up cameras to determine where the peahen focused her attention and found that it was on the lower regions of the tail.

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Senate Bill 1731, dubbed the "Endangered Species Management Self-Determination Act" by its author Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, would bar the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from listing any new species under ESA without the approval of the governors of any states in which that species resides, and require a joint resolution approving each listing by Congress as well. It would effectively gut the ESA which has done so much to protect and restore many species, including the Bald Eagle, which would probably be extinct by now without it. A similar bill has been introduced in the House of Representatives. Neither of these bills is likely to become law in the present political make-up of Congress, but we know that these people never give up. They will keep introducing these bills, hoping to wear down resistance. Meanwhile, they get a helping hand in seeking to destroy the environment from the right-wing lobbying group known as the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) 

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Studies of the Pukeko, a New Zealand relative of our Purple Gallinule, show that the fleshy shield or badge on top of the bird's head is an accurate barometer of each bird's status in the group. The badge grows or recedes according to heightening or lowering of the bird's status. 

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The Northern Bald Ibis is a migratory bird that once spent part of its year in northern Europe, but it was extirpated by hunting some 300 years ago. Now, scientists are attempting to reintroduce the distinctive bird to its former range.

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Will printed field guides finally give way to apps for mobile devices that birders can carry into the field and easily access? They no doubt have their place and they are convenient, but, for me at least, nothing can ever quite take the place of a beautifully rendered paper field guide that I can hold in my hands and thumb through at my leisure. 

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Around the backyard:  

Sadness descended on my backyard yesterday and it is the reason this post is a day late. I lost a good friend.

Bubba

03/26/98 - 12/07/13

Rest in peace, my sweet friend.