Target: Mr. Pedro Sánchez, Prime Minister of Spain
Goal: Advocate for the conservation of the Imperial eagle and its habitat in Spain.
The Imperial eagle (Aquila adalberti) is a majestic bird of prey and a symbol of Spain’s natural heritage. However, the population of Imperial eagles has been steadily declining, primarily due to habitat loss, human disturbance, and the use of pesticides. These factors pose a severe threat to the survival of this iconic species.
The Imperial eagle plays a crucial role in maintaining the ecological balance by controlling the populations of its prey species. Its decline not only impacts the biodiversity of Spain but also disrupts the intricate web of interactions within ecosystems.
To ensure the survival of the Imperial eagle and protect its habitat, it is crucial to undertake comprehensive conservation efforts. This includes preserving and restoring its natural habitats, implementing measures to mitigate human disturbances, and promoting sustainable land use practices that minimize the use of harmful pesticides.
We have a responsibility to safeguard the Imperial eagle and its habitat for future generations. The conservation of this species is not only important from an ecological standpoint but also for preserving our cultural heritage and national identity.
Thus, we call upon Mr. Pedro Sánchez, the Prime Minister of Spain, to take a leading role in advocating for the conservation of the Imperial eagle and its habitat. We urge him to prioritize this issue, allocate adequate resources for conservation programs, and collaborate with relevant stakeholders, including conservation organizations, scientists, and local communities, to ensure the long-term survival of this magnificent bird.
By championing the conservation of the Imperial eagle, officials will demonstrate Spain’s commitment to environmental sustainability, biodiversity conservation, and the protection of our natural heritage. Help preserve the Imperial eagle and secure a thriving future for the species.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear Mr. Pedro Sánchez,
We are writing to urge you to advocate for the conservation of the Imperial eagle and its habitat in Spain.
The Imperial eagle, a symbol of Spain’s natural heritage, is facing a severe decline in population due to habitat loss, human disturbance, and the use of pesticides. This poses a significant threat to the survival of this iconic species and disrupts the ecological balance it maintains.
We implore you to take a leading role in promoting the conservation of the Imperial eagle. This can be achieved through preserving and restoring its habitats, implementing measures to mitigate human disturbances, and promoting sustainable land use practices that minimize the use of harmful pesticides.
The conservation of the Imperial eagle is not only essential from an ecological perspective but also for the preservation of our cultural heritage and national identity. As the Prime Minister of Spain, your support and advocacy for this cause will have a profound impact on the long-term survival of this magnificent bird.
We urge you to prioritize this issue, allocate adequate resources for conservation programs, and foster collaboration among relevant stakeholders to ensure the successful conservation of the Imperial eagle and its habitat.
By championing the conservation of the Imperial eagle, you will exemplify Spain’s commitment to environmental sustainability, biodiversity conservation, and the protection of our natural heritage. Let us join forces to preserve the Imperial eagle and secure a thriving future for both the species and our beloved country.
Sincerely,
Photo credit: Bernd Thaller
https://forcechange.com/618085/save-the-magnificent-imperial-eagle-from-extinction/
Aliya Uteuova
At least 1,000 birds died from colliding into a single building in Chicago on Thursday, 5 October, as they migrated south to their wintering grounds. Volunteers are still recovering bird carcasses within 1.5 miles of McCormick Place, the largest convention center in North America, which is largely covered with glass.
“It’s the tip of an iceberg but it’s it’s a huge, huge amount of birds we found both dead and injured,” said Annette Prince, director of Chicago Bird Collision Monitors, adding that this was the highest number of bird strikes that the group recorded from the grounds of one building in a single day.
From late Wednesday, 4 October, through early Thursday, 5 October, a peak estimate of 1.5 million birds were in the air over Cook county, home to the Chicago metropolitan area. Carcasses of Tennessee warblers, hermit thrush, American woodcocks and other varieties of songbirds were recovered.
“Not every bird that hits the window is going to leave behind a body,” said Brendon Samuels, who researches bird window collisions at the University of Western Ontario.
He noted that the true extent of affected birds will unravel over a couple of days as people continue to pick up birds around downtown Chicago.
“In fact, we often see birds collide with glass and they continue flying some distance away, seriously injured in ways that ultimately they won’t survive past a few hours,” Samuels added.
Birds dying in large numbers in a small geographic area tends to occur during peak migration periods in spring and fall. Weather conditions like opposing wind, rain and fog can make it difficult for birds to orientate themselves, in addition to light pollution from cities that can draw them in and trap them among deadly structures.
“Anywhere you’ve got glass, you’re gonna have birds hitting the windows,” said Bryan Lenz at the American Bird Conservancy. Annually, up to a billion birds die due to collisions, and in the case of Chicago, the dead and injured birds were most likely flying from Canada en route to South and Central America.
Everywhere birds visit, they perform essential ecosystem services that have economic value and are necessary for the functioning of ecosystems. Following major wildfires like those in Canada, birds that return to burned areas can disperse seeds and aid forest landscape regeneration. Global increases in temperatures contribute to the increase in insect populations, and birds that feed on them can help curb the issues that pose a threat for humans and food systems.
Of all cities in the US, Chicago’s light pollution poses the greatest risk for migrating birds. Turning off building lights is one way to reduce fatalities. A 2021 study done in McCormick Place, the same site of Thursday’s bird deaths, found that shutting off half the lights in large buildings can reduce collisions by six to 11 times. McCormick Place is a participant of the Lights Out Chicago program, which has buildings voluntarily switch off or dim lights at night unless someone is inside.
“It is important to understand that there is an event going on at Lakeside Center [part of McCormick Place] this week, so, therefore, the lights have been on when occupied. Once the space is unoccupied, the lights have been turned off,” said a representative from McCormick Place.skip past newsletter promotion
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“It’s a known hazard, and yet we still can’t see action being taken about it,” says Prince.
Having window glass with visual markers like dots or patterns can break up the appearance of reflection and let birds recognize whether there is a safe passage for them to fly through.
In 2020, Chicago approved a bird-friendly design ordinance but it is yet to take effect. In 2021, the Illinois governor, JB Pritzker, signed the Bird Safe Buildings Act, which “requires bird-friendly design to be incorporated into the construction and renovation of state-owned buildings” in the state, per Audubon.org.
“We have a lot of existing buildings that are killing birds, not just new construction,” said Samuels, adding that investments in retrofits, creating tax credits for such environmental initiatives and making windows more bird-friendly can be an economical way to solve this. “We already have solutions, we just need to put those into policy.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/07/chicago-mccormick-place-building-bird-deaths-windows
Manlius, NY – Over the Memorial Day weekend, a beloved mother swan was killed by a group of teenage friends who took her body home to be cooked and eaten by their friends and family. For more than a decade, the residents of Manlius had enjoyed watching Faye and her devoted companion, Manny, at Manlius Swan Pond.
But the tranquil existence of this magnificent bird was tragically cut short when a heart-wrenching incident unfolded. Three teenagers unlawfully trespassed into the fenced boundaries of the Manlius Swan pond, cruelly ending Faye’s life and callously abducting her four precious offspring.
Thanks to tips reported to the local authorities, the three teenagers accused of the abhorrent crime were identified and charged. The authorities have identified 18-year-old Eman Hussan as a participant in Faye’s killing. Two other teens, ages 16 and 17, were also arrested and charged; because of their age, their names were not publicly released.
The authorities were able to track down Manny and Faye’s offspring; two of the cygnets were found at Shop City Plaza and two were found at a Syracuse residence. It is unclear what the teens planned to do with the baby swans.
For the next four weeks, a biologist will be caring for the orphaned babies, and Manny, Faye’s faithful mate, will be removed from the pond he called home because officials fear that he will become combative now that his lifelong companion is gone.
The teens involved in this disgusting act of cruelty have tried to claim that they thought Faye, a large, regal swan, was a duck, and that they were “hunting.” It is impossible to comprehend that they would break into a fenced enclosure, in the middle of the night, and hold down and behead a nesting swan, with a claim of “hunting.” The authorities are not buying their story.
If you believe that Faye’s slaughter is pure evil, please add your name to the petition today.
Watch Eman Hussan’s arrest; he is smiling and seems to show zero remorse. Hussan is due in court on June 15. The court dates of the other two teenage suspects are unknown at this time.
We the undersigned demand that Eman Hussan and the two teenage accomplices are held responsible for breaking into the Manlius swan pond and killing a nesting swan named Faye. We are petitioning for these teenagers to receive the maximum punishment allowable by law for their felony counts of grand larceny and mischief, as well as misdemeanor counts of conspiracy and criminal trespass stemming from the Memorial Weekend killing of Faye. This is an appalling and senseless crime that must be taken seriously by the court system.
https://animalvictory.org/petitions/sign-justice-for-beloved-mother-swan-killed-and-eaten-by-teens/
Zoo Miami has expressed its deepest apologies for the way it handled a kiwi bird named “Paora” after a video surfaced showing visitors petting the nocturnal bird under harsh lighting conditions. The incident has caused significant outrage in New Zealand.
“Though Paora has thrived at Zoo Miami while receiving the best care available, the development of the Kiwi Encounter was, in hindsight, not well conceived with regard to the national symbolism of this iconic animal and what it represents to the people of New Zealand, especially the Maori,” the zoo said in a Tuesday statement.
The zoo also stated that such interactions will no longer be available in the future.
Born as part of Zoo Miami’s breeding program in 2019, Paora played a crucial role in the conservation efforts aimed at preserving the species.
Kiwi birds hold immense national significance in New Zealand, representing the country’s natural heritage and even serving as a nickname for its citizens.
The viral footage of Paora being petted by visitors, despite the bird’s visible distress and attempts to seek refuge in darkness, sparked an immediate outcry. In response, an online petition was swiftly initiated in New Zealand. Prime Minister Chris Hipkins later expressed gratitude towards the zoo for taking prompt action in addressing the situation.
“They’ve acknowledged what they were doing wasn’t appropriate, or wasn’t right, or wasn’t fair, to the kiwi,” he said a press conference.
“We give you our word that the public will never handle Paora again,” said the zoo’s communications director Ron Magill.
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According to the New Zealand Department of Conservation, kiwis are classified as an endangered species, with a global population of only around 70,000 remaining.
Conservation initiatives have primarily concentrated on safeguarding the bird’s natural habitats from predators, and it is highly unusual for them to be kept in captivity.
New Zealand authorities have expressed their intention to engage in discussions with the U.S. Association of Zoos and Aquariums to address the concerns raised regarding the housing and handling of kiwis, following the incident at the zoo.
Oddly enough, there are people out there who don’t know that roadrunners are a real animal. They think it’s only a cartoon character named because it is always running on the road. After you get them to realize it’s real, you then have to explain that they run on more than roads. Also, that they aren’t the size of a coyote. Let’s just say I’ve had a few lengthy conversations in the past about this one.
Roadrunners come in two species. You have the Greater Roadrunner found in Mexico and the Southwestern United States. Then, you have the Lesser Roadrunner found in Mexico and Central America. They are part of a larger subfamily of birds called New World ground cuckoos, which are birds primarily found in the Americas and tend to stay on the ground. Keep in mind that roadrunners aren’t flightless. They can fly, but they prefer to run away from predators at about 20-27 mph.
There is no risk to the roadrunner. They are not endangered or even at risk of becoming so. That means you can probably see one if you go into their desert habitat. Of course, the territory of the Greater and Lesser Roadrunners don’t overlap. So, you won’t find them together. Probably for the best since they would be competing with each other. Now, how about some facts?
Pictures and videos time. No, I’m not going to include the cartoon.
Greater Roadrunner
Greater Roadrunner
Lesser Roadrunner
Lesser Roadrunner
https://legendsofwindemere.com/2023/05/07/beep-beep-or-meep-meep-either-way-its-the-roadrunner/
Palm Warblers are migratory, insectivorous songbirds that pass through Ohio during migration. Photo by Ryan Sanderson
The issues I work on as American Bird Conservancy’s (ABC’s) resident pesticides guy rarely receive national attention. Imagine my shock when “chemical regulation,” “contaminant mitigation,” and, as an Ohio resident, “East Palestine on the Ohio-Pennsylvania border” became household phrases when the Norfolk Southern train derailed last month.
News of the derailment was soon followed by stories of the chemical spill’s impacts on wildlife. Ohio’s Division of Natural Resources estimated that 40,000 individual animals died in the weeks immediately following the crash, mostly minnows and other small fish. Frogs, snails, insects, and other small animals were found dead as well. So far, there is no direct evidence of bird deaths connected to the chemical spill, but I see plenty of warning signs that this is something that could impact them.
With large-scale pollution events, birds often suffer the most as indirect victims of long-term effects. Before the EPA banned DDT in 1972, this insecticide accumulated up the food chain and killed birds by thinning eggshells, making successful chick hatching nearly impossible for species like the Peregrine Falcon and Bald Eagle. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010 coated the feathers of many nearby seabirds and hindered their ability to fly, but the loss of habitable coastline probably led to a higher loss of birdlife in the long run.
In the case of this chemical spill, mass die-offs of a single species, like minnows, may hamper local population recovery for years to come, with impacts that echo up the food chain. Water contamination may decrease habitability for insects and other invertebrates, which are vital food sources for birds trying to raise chicks. Fewer plants and less fertile streams mean fewer places to nest, rest, and refuel during migration. Plant die-offs could also pave the way for opportunistic nonnative species like Amur Honeysuckle, Purple Loosestrife, and Giant Hogweed — plants that crowd out the native species most valuable to birds and other wildlife.
These subtle changes are often the most harmful. In the Netherlands, use of a water-contaminating neonicotinoid insecticide was correlated with a population decrease in dozens of species of local birds. It was not that the birds were being poisoned themselves; rather, the insecticides reduced the supply of food to the point that it was insufficient to sustain population growth.
Regarding the question of exactly how birds will be impacted by the derailment, the most honest answer I can give is “we do not yet know.” We can take educated guesses based on the known impacts of other chemicals or past disasters, but there are no obvious precedents for the kind of spill that happened in Ohio in February. The upcoming migration season, with its influx of billions of individual birds into U.S. skies — millions of which will either pass through or even stop to breed for the summer in Ohio — will probably be the first real test of this environmental tragedy’s more immediate impacts on birdlife.
So, what can we do about it? While we cannot prepare for every possible accident or disaster, we can do a better job of addressing the threats we do know about, the events we can plan for. The more we cut back on existing environmental stressors, the better equipped ecosystems will be to bounce back from this kind of shock to the system. For example, we need fewer chemicals used in farming so that there are fewer contaminants already in the environment when there is a spill. We need fewer rodenticides in our communities so there is one less chemical threat posed to our pets, children, and native raptors. We need safer insecticides, fungicides, and herbicides that will have little to no impact on the environment.
That’s why ABC is working with lawmakers to pass important bills like the Birds and Bees Protection Act in New York, the Highways for Habitats bill in Minnesota, and the Protect America’s Children from Toxic Pesticides Act in the United States Senate. It’s why we meet regularly with representatives from the National Wildlife Refuge system to discuss agricultural chemicals on public lands, and petition the EPA to require proof that a pesticide works before it gets put onto shelves. It’s why ABC submitted nearly 50 technical comments on chemical registrations and federal wildlife regulations last year. And, it’s why we provide advice on how individuals can reduce chemical use at home or advocate for stronger pesticide regulations.
These steps help ensure that an unexpected chemical spill is not the straw that breaks the songbird’s back.
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American Bird Conservancy is a nonprofit organization dedicated to conserving wild birds and their habitats throughout the Americas. With an emphasis on achieving results and working in partnership, we take on the greatest problems facing birds today, innovating and building on rapid advancements in science to halt extinctions, protect habitats, eliminate threats, and build capacity for bird conservation. Find us on abcbirds.org, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter (@ABCbirds).
One Evening Grosbeak is a spectacular sight, but a flock of these big finches is unforgettable — an ever-shifting symphony of rich yellows, browns, and grays, set off by bright black-and-white accents. Although the females are less conspicuously colored, their size and large bills still make them standouts. In fact, the Evening Grosbeak’s genus name Coccothraustes means “kernel-cracker,” a nod to this bird’s powerful bill.
Early English settlers dubbed this species the “Evening” Grosbeak in the mistaken belief that it came out of the woods to sing only after sundown. French settlers gave it a more appropriate appellation: le gros-bec errant (the wandering big-bill, or grosbeak).
Like other winter finch species such as the Pine Siskin, Pine Grosbeak, and Purple Finch, the Evening Grosbeak is only an intermittent visitor to backyard feeders. In many years, it does not appear in some regions at all.
Evening Grosbeak flocks periodically move south when seed crops are less abundant than usual. These seasonal southern movements, or irruptions, are seen in many wintering boreal seed-eating birds, including the White-winged Crossbill and Red-breasted Nuthatch. Other northern birds such as the Snowy Owl irrupt in response to boom-and-bust cycles of their rodent prey.
People lucky enough to have Evening Grosbeaks visiting their feeders can be in for a major investment: A flock can consume hundreds of pounds of sunflower seeds over the course of a winter!
Although the Evening Grosbeak is a noisy bird, constantly vocalizing with piercing calls and burry chirp notes, it does not produce complex songs to attract a mate or defend territory.
Listen here:Doug Hynes, XC612610. Accessible at http://www.xeno-canto.org/612610.
Listen to a large flock of Evening Grosbeaks:Meena Haribal, XC460988. Accessible at http://www.xeno-canto.org/460988.
Evening Grosbeaks usually pair up before arriving on their breeding grounds. Since this species lacks a complex song, its courtship depends on mutual movement. The male performs a “dance” for the female, swiveling back and forth with raised head and tail and drooping, vibrating wings. Partners alternately bow to each other, and the male will offer food to his mate.
The female Evening Grosbeak builds her nest — a loose cup of twigs lined with softer grasses, pine needles, and lichens — in a tree or large shrub, 20 to 60 feet above ground. She lays two to four eggs, which she incubates for about two weeks. Her mate brings her food while she sits on the eggs, then both parents feed the nestlings. Young birds fledge about two weeks after hatching. This species has one or two broods per year.
Seeds make up the bulk of an Evening Grosbeak’s diet, especially seeds of boxelder and other maples, ash, locust, and other trees. This chunky songbird also feeds on tree buds, berries, small fruits, and sap. During the summer, the Evening Grosbeak adds insects to its diet, particularly spruce budworm larvae and other caterpillars, and aphids.
Evening Grosbeak flock. Photo by valleyboi63/Shutterstock.
Evening Grosbeak range map by ABC.
The Evening Grosbeak breeds in mature and second-growth coniferous forests from the boreal forest belt down through the Rocky Mountains; it also occurs as a scarce resident of mountain forests in northwestern and central Mexico (small central Mexican population not shown on map). Depending on the year, wintering birds can be found well below the winter range indicated on the map at right. Three subspecies are recognized; birds of the western mountains have longer, thinner bills and darker female/juvenile plumage.
This species expanded its range rapidly across the eastern U.S. during the 20th century, possibly due to the increased planting of boxelder, a major food source, in cities. Unfortunately, the bird has become scarce in the East once again, and the specific cause is unknown.
The State of the Birds 2022 Report has identified the Evening Grosbeak as a “tipping point” bird species — one that has lost 50 percent or more of its population from 1970 to 2019. Many other bird species, including the Allen’s Hummingbird, Chimney Swift, and Sprague’s Pipit, are in a similarly critical situation.
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Potential causes of the Evening Grosbeak’s decline may include habitat loss, such as from tar sands development, hastened by accelerating climate change in boreal regions. Pesticides used to control spruce budworm, an important food for the Evening Grosbeak and other species such as Cape May, Blackpoll, and Bay-breasted Warblers, may also be a factor in its decline. In addition, many Evening Grosbeaks are killed by window collisions and by cars during the winter, when flocks may gather on roadsides to pick up road salt and grit.
Policies enacted by the U.S. Congress and federal agencies, such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, have a huge impact on migratory birds. You can help shape these rules for the better by urging lawmakers to prioritize birds, bird habitat, and bird-friendly measures. To get started, visit ABC’s Action Center.
Living a bird-friendly life can have an immediate impact on migratory birds in the United States. Doing so can be as easy as adding native plants to your garden, avoiding pesticides, and keeping cats indoors. To learn more, visit our Bird-Friendly Life page.
Diana Kwon
Scientists demonstrate that crows are capable of recursion—a key feature in grammar. Not everyone is convinced
Crows are some of the smartest creatures in the animal kingdom. They are capable of making rule-guided decisions and of creating and using tools. They also appear to show an innate sense of what numbers are. Researchers now report that these clever birds are able to understand recursion—the process of embedding structures in other, similar structures—which was long thought to be a uniquely human ability.
Recursion is a key feature of language. It enables us to build elaborate sentences from simple ones. Take the sentence “The mouse the cat chased ran.” Here the clause “the cat chased” is enclosed within the clause “the mouse ran.” For decades, psychologists thought that recursion was a trait of humans alone. Some considered it the key feature that set human language apart from other forms of communication between animals. But questions about that assumption persisted. “There’s always been interest in whether or not nonhuman animals can also grasp recursive sequences,” says Diana Liao, a postdoctoral researcher at the lab of Andreas Nieder, a professor of animal physiology at the University of Tübingen in Germany.
In a study of monkeys and human adults and children published in 2020, a group of researchers reported that the ability to produce recursive sequences may not actually be unique to our species after all. Both humans and monkeys were shown a display with two pairs of bracket symbols that appeared in a random order. The subjects were trained to touch them in the order of a “center-embedded” recursive sequence such as { ( ) } or ( { } ). After giving the right answer, humans received verbal feedback, and monkeys were given a small amount of food or juice as a reward. Afterward the researchers presented their subjects with a completely new set of brackets and observed how often they arranged them in a recursive manner. Two of the three monkeys in the experiment generated recursive sequences more often than nonrecursive sequences such as { ( } ), although they needed an additional training session to do so. One of the animals generated recursive sequences in around half of the trials. Three- to four-year-old children, by comparison, formed recursive sequences in approximately 40 percent of the trials.
This paper prompted Liao and her colleagues to investigate whether crows, with their renowned cognitive skills, might possess the capacity for recursion as well. Adapting the protocol used in the 2020 paper, the team trained two crows to peck pairs of brackets in a center-embedded recursive sequence. The researchers then tested the birds’ ability to spontaneously generate such recursive sequences on a new set of symbols. The crows also performed on par with children. The birds produced the recursive sequences in around 40 percent of trials—but without the extra training that the monkeys required. The results were published today in Science Advances.
The discovery that crows can grasp center-embedded structures and that they are better at doing so than monkeys “is fascinating,” says Giorgio Vallortigara, a professor of neuroscience at the University of Trento in Italy, who was not involved in the work. These findings raise the question of what non-human animals might use this ability for, he adds. “They do not seem to possess anything similar to human language, thus recursion is possibly relevant to other cognitive functions,” he says. One speculation is that animals might use recursion to represent relationships within their social groups.
When the 2020 study on recursive capacities in humans and monkeys was published, some experts remained unconvinced that the monkeys understood recursion. Instead, some argued, the animals chose the recursive sequences by learning the order in which the brackets were displayed. For example, if the training sequence was [ ( ) ], and the monkeys were later shown a different pairing, such as ( ) and { }, they would first pick a bracket they recognized from training, then pick the new bracket pair they had never seen before. Finally, they would pick the matching bracket from the training session at the end of the sequence (because they had learned that the matching bracket comes at the end).
To address this limitation, Liao and her colleagues extended the sequences from two pairs to three pairs—such as { [ ( ) ] }. With three pairs of symbols, the probability of producing the sequences without grasping the underlying concept of recursion becomes much lower, Liao says. Here, too, the researchers found that the birds were most likely to choose center-embedded responses.
Some scientists remain skeptical. Arnaud Rey, a senior researcher in psychology at the French National Center for Scientific Research, says the findings can still be interpreted from a simple associative learning standpoint—in which an animal learns to link one symbol to the next, such as connecting an open bracket with a closed one. A key reason, he explains, lies in a feature of the study design: the researchers placed a border around the closed brackets in their sets—which the authors note was required to help the animals define the order of the brackets. (The same bordered layout was used in the 2020 study.) For Rey, this is a crucial limitation of the study because the animals could have grasped that bordered symbols—which would always end up toward the end of a recursive sequence—were the ones rewarded, thus aiding them in simply learning the order in which open and closed brackets were displayed.
In Rey’s view, the notion of “recursive processing” as a unique form of cognition is in itself flawed. Even in humans, he says, this capacity can most likely be explained simply through associative learning mechanisms—which is something he and his colleagues proposed in a 2012 study of baboons—and to date, there have been no satisfactory explanations of how the ability to recognize and manipulate such sequences would be coded in the human brain. According to Rey, researchers currently fall largely into two camps: one that believes that human language is built on unique capacities such as the ability to understand recursion and another that believes it emerged from much simpler processes such as associative learning.
But Liao notes that even with the help of the borders, the crows still had to figure out the center-embedded order where open and closed brackets were paired from the outside in. In other words, if the birds only learned that open brackets were at the beginning of the sequence and closed ones were at the end, you would expect an equal proportion of ( { ) } mismatched and correct responses. But, she says, her and her colleagues found that the crows chose more of the latter than the former, even with the more complex sequences of three pairs of brackets.
For Liao, seeing that birds whose ancestors long ago diverged from those of primates on the branching evolutionary tree of life—also appear to be able to parse and generate recursive sequences implies that this capacity is “evolutionary ancient” or that it developed independently as a product of what is known as convergent evolution. Because birds’ brain lacks the layered neocortex of primates, this observation, Liao adds, suggests that the latter brain architecture may not be necessary for displaying this cognitive ability.
For Mathias Osvath, an associate professor of cognitive science at Lund University in Sweden, who was not involved in the new paper, its findings fit into a long line of studies indicating that birds possess many of the same cognitive skills as primates. “To me, this just adds to the catalog of amazing data showing that birds have been completely misunderstood,” Osvath says. “Saying that mammals took over the world cognitively is just simply wrong.”
Diana Kwon is a freelance journalist who covers health and the life sciences. She is based in Berlin. Follow Kwon on Twitter @DianaMKwon Credit: Nick Higgins
Lady Freethinker
Eleven seagulls cruelly and fatally run over in Prince George’s County, Maryland, received no justice from the Upper Marlboro District Court or the State Attorney’s Office, which prosecuted the case.
Nathaniel Thompson, whom Laurel Police charged with animal cruelty and aggravated cruelty, took an “Other” plea and opted to be placed on the state’s STET Docket for one year— meaning he’ll face no jail time, no fines, no restitution, and no probation unless he reoffends.
All record of the fatal and intentional animal cruelty also will be expunged after that one-year period.
The State Attorney’s Office told Lady Freethinker that the office was “unable to move forward with the prosecution of this case due to witness unavailability, including the State’s essential witness.”
“On the trial date, the State requested a continuance to allow the essential witness to travel back to the area,” a spokesperson said. “However, the court denied the request.”
That statement does not tell the full story – including that the reason the witnesses weren’t available was because the prosecutor had first contacted them a week before the trial, despite more than two years of court continuances.
The cruelty case inspired significant media coverage when first breaking in January 2020, with reports that someone had intentionally lured a group of seagulls with popcorn near the Dollar Tree in the Laurel Shopping Plaza and then run them over.
The police incident report from the time notes the responding officer found ten sea gull corpses, with popcorn visible in their ruptured intestines, when arriving on scene, and that the birds’ injuries included “broken necks, broken wings, broken legs, and some of the seagulls’ bodies were flattened.” The officer transported an eleventh sea gull, found nearby with a severely broken wing, to a wildlife sanctuary, but the bird also perished despite treatment, with a compound fracture and “excessive blood loss” identified as the cause of death, according to public records documents.
According to the police log, accessed via public records request, Laurel police officers preserved that dead seagull as evidence, assiduously tracked down surveillance footage from local businesses and street cameras to identify the individual responsible, and provided witness contact information to the prosecutor to help obtain justice for the birds.
The case was scheduled for multiple hearings in 2021, with delays attributed to COVID-19, and its first – and only – hearing finally happening on Feb. 23, 2022 — more than two years after news first reported the crime.
To learn more about the lack of accountability for such a truly heinous crime once the case hit the court system, Lady Freethinker ordered the court transcript from Thompson’s scheduled trial hearing on Feb. 23, 2022.
The 5-minute audio we received, spread across two short clips, details that State Attorney’s Office Prosecutor Jason Fields agreed to the STET Docket terms after his request for a later hearing date was denied.
The audio also indicates that presiding District Court Judge Katina Steuart denied the requested continuance because Fields had not given key witnesses adequate time to to testify at the trial — instead reaching out a mere week before the scheduled trial date.
During the Feb. 23 hearing, the State’s Attorney’s Office’s Fields acknowledged that the case was more than two years old but asked for an additional delay to allow for key witnesses – one of whom had moved to Georgia, and one who had a doctor’s appointment – to be present.
The judge then asked Fields when he had reached out to witnesses to check their availability.
He responded, “That was Wednesday of last week, your Honor.”
Thompson’s defense attorney objected to the request, saying that Thompson was 78 years old and that “having this case hanging over him has caused considerable stress” and that “the additional anxiety and stress of this case has continued to not help his health.”
Fields then reminded the judge that the intentional cruelty of the case had garnered “a lot of attention.”
“It is a highly concerning case for the community,” he said.
Steuart then asked Fields why he hadn’t reached out to witnesses sooner.
“With that being said, wouldn’t it have been prudent for the State to maybe have reached out to the witnesses prior to last week to determine their availability for trial?” she said.
“Everybody knew about the trial date as of December 2,” she continued. “I’m sympathetic to the fact that these witnesses do want to go forward. I think it’s obviously pretty difficult if you live in another state to say, ‘Yes, I can be in Maryland for a trial date that very next week,’ and I understand why they might not be able to make it.
“But the problem is, it is an old case,” Steuart continued. “There have been some delays due to COVID obviously, but Mr. Thompson is here, he has counsel, he’s ready, so to delay this any further because there was not adequate notice given to the State’s witnesses by the State would not serve the interest of justice.”
Steuart then denied the prosecutor’s request for a continuance, and the provided audio cuts out. A second audio clip, also provided via public records request, picks up with the court acknowledging the parties had reached a “resolution” of Thompson going on the STET docket for a year.
People who don’t want the stress or anxiety of criminal court proceedings shouldn’t intentionally and fatally kill animals.
There is absolutely no excuse for someone who commits an act of fatal and intentional violence to not be held accountable for that conscious act.
There’s also no excuse for contacting witnesses a week before a scheduled trial starts, when the case has been ongoing for more than a year, with other public records documents showing that the State Attorney’s Office repeatedly reached out to connect with law enforcement mere days before the scheduled trial dates.
We are extremely disappointed that this case involving multiple defenseless birds — and severe, fatal, and intentional violence — wasn’t taken seriously.
Prince George’s County State Attorney’s Office could have – and should have – done better by these birds. We hope that prosecutors, moving forward, will treat animal cruelty cases with the severity they deserve.
We thank the more than 25,000 people who signed our petition for these innocent sea gulls. We’ll continue to do all we can to hold animal abusers accountable — and also to call out agencies who give them a free pass.
Migrant birds suspected of carrying the avian flu are seen here washed up on the shores of Point Lance, Newfoundland, Canada, on July 25, 2022. (Reuters/Greg Locke)
The carcasses of thousands of migrant seabirds have washed up on the shores of eastern Canada this week and preliminary findings showed that the birds died of avian flu.
Since May 2022, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has confirmed 13 positive cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza in the eastern Canadian province of Newfoundland.
Environment and Climate Change Canada is conducting more investigations to confirm that the seabirds deaths are linked to avian flu, Peter Thomas, wildlife biologist for the center said.
Dead herring gulls, Iceland gulls, common ravens, and American crows are the among the most affected by the influenza, Thomas added.
According to the Canadian Wildlife Service, the avian influenza virus is contagious and can affect domestic and wild birds throughout the world.
ZOOS IN US RESPOND TO BIRD FLU OUTBREAK AS INFECTION RATES MOUNT
Canadian Wildlife Service is working closely with the provincial government of Newfoundland and Labrador, as well as the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative to contain the spread.
The highly pathogenic avian influenza has also been spreading rapidly in Vancouver Island, the British Columbia Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said, infecting birds like great horned owls, bald eagles, great blue herons, ducks and geese, and even crows.
Migrant gannets nesting at Cape St. Mary’s Ecological Reserve, Newfoundland, Canada July 25, 2022. (REUTERS/Greg Locke)
“Every day I receive phone calls saying 10 are dead,” Elizabeth Melnick, of Elizabeth’s Wildlife Center, BC, said.
“Wildlife centers in the country usually choose to save the dying ones as dead ones are picked up by the city,” she said.
COLORADO REPORTS FIRST HUMAN CASE OF H5 BIRD FLU IN US IN POULTRY WORKER
According to the World Organisation for Animal Health, avian influenza is a respiratory pathogen that causes a high degree of mortality and becomes a serious threat to the poultry industry. It is naturally spread among wild aquatic birds worldwide and can infect domestic poultry and other bird and animal species.
According to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, pet birds can be infected by avian influenza and spread the disease to humans, so wild birds should not be handled when they are sick or dead.
Image credit: Photowork by Sijanto/Getty
www.australiangeographic.com.au
By Bec Crew
If social distancing has inspired you to take up wholesome new hobbies like knitting and needlecraft, this clever bird might serve as the inspiration you need.
TO CONSTRUCT ITS nest, the common tailorbird (Orthotomus sutorius) uses its delicate beak to stitch together leaves in exactly the same way we humans would if given a needle and thread.
Found throughout South and Southeast Asia, including in Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam, this little songbird gathers plant fibres and spider’s web, which it threads through perfectly placed holes in the edges of large leaves.
It pulls these threads tight to create a deep cradle, and inside that, it packs in a cosy nest of grass and down. If you’re a fan of the Jungle Book, you’ll remember Darzee was a tailorbird.
Here’s ornithologist John Gould’s illustration of the nest:
The tailorbird is so good at what it does, it knows to create the tiniest of holes in the edges of the leaves so it doesn’t wither and brown. This is important, because keeping its cradle looking the same as all the leaves around it is how the tailorbird camouflages itself and its young.
Watch it in action here, it’s kind of mind-boggling:
The common tailorbird belongs to the tailorbird genus, which includes 13 species, many of which have ruddy crowns and pretty green or yellow plumage.
One of the most recently identified species is the Cambodian tailorbird (Orthotomus chaktomuk), which was discovered in 2009 during routine checks for avian flu in Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh.
If we take this full circle and back to your new quarantine hobbies, you could knit nests of your own for rescue birds, particularly those in areas that have been affected by bushfires.
Here’s a video showing you how to do it, but make sure you contact Wires first to see where the nests are most needed:
Matthew Koehler
SAN FRANCISCO—A federal court has ruled that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service illegally withdrew its proposal to list the bi-state sage grouse as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley on Monday vacated the agency’s 2020 withdrawal of the bird from the proposed listing, reinstated the 2013 proposal to list the birds as threatened and ordered the Fish and Wildlife Service to issue a new final listing decision.
“These rare dancing birds have a shot at survival thanks to this court decision,” said Ileene Anderson, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity. “We’ve watched for more than a decade as these sage grouse have continued to decline. Without the Endangered Species Act’s legal protection, multiple threats will just keep pushing these grouse toward extinction.”
The bi-state sage grouse is a geographically isolated, genetically distinct population of greater sage grouse, which are famous for their showy plumage and mating dances, during which the males make popping sounds with large, inflated air sacs. They live only in an area along the California-Nevada border and face multiple threats. Population declines are particularly acute at the northern and southern ends of the birds’ range.
The court found that the Fish and Wildlife Service’s 2020 decision to withdraw the bird’s proposed listing failed to consider the small overall population of the bi-state sage grouse and the significance of the potential loss of subpopulations most at risk of being wiped out.
“These unique sage grouse populations in the Eastern Sierra are heading toward extinction from numerous threats, including livestock grazing, cheatgrass invasions, raven predation and extreme droughts,” said Laura Cunningham, California director at Western Watersheds Project. “They deserve a chance to thrive with legal protection.”
The birds were originally proposed for listing as threatened in 2013, but the Fish and Wildlife Service abandoned the proposal in 2015. In 2018 a federal court found the Service had wrongly denied Endangered Species Act protection to the bi-state sage grouse and required the agency to re-evaluate the bird’s situation. The bird was again proposed for protection, but in March 2020 the Trump administration withdrew the proposal.
“The court’s decision is a win for the bi-state sage grouse, which deserve Endangered Species Act protections,” said Joe Bushyhead, endangered species attorney with WildEarth Guardians. “The Fish and Wildlife Service must address the threats to these birds and their habitat, as well as the failure of existing efforts to halt their decline.”
Sage grouse populations in California and Nevada are isolated from other sage grouse by unsuitable habitats and former habitat that has been heavily developed. The bi-state sage grouse populations together are estimated to be no more than 3,305 birds, far below the 5,000-bird threshold that scientists consider the minimum viable population.
“The decision reinforces important legal principles for endangered species: that agencies must base their decisions on the best available science, fully explain their decisions, and carefully consider the status of an imperiled species, especially segments that are small and vulnerable,” said Daniel Ahrens, a law student with the Stanford Environmental Law Clinic, which represented the conservation groups in court.
Stanford law student Zach Rego, who also represented the conservation groups, said the court was right to hold that the Service “must do more to show that conservation measures, like the removal of invasive cheatgrass, will be effective in preventing the bi-state sage grouse’s extinction.”
Efforts to protect the birds, including placing markers on barbed-wire fencing in cattle and sheep operations to reduce collision deaths and vegetation treatments, have failed to stem their decline. Federal scientists predict localized extinctions in the north and south ends of the range. Scientists also estimate occupied habitat has decreased by more than 136,000 acres over the past 11 years.
Bi-state sage grouse are found on lands originally inhabited by the Washoe and Paiute peoples.
The conservation groups that successfully challenged the withdrawal include Desert Survivors, the Center for Biological Diversity, Western Watersheds Project and WildEarth Guardians. The groups are represented by attorneys from the Center and the Stanford Law Clinic.
The bi-state sage grouse lives only in an area along the California-Nevada border and faces multiple threats, including grazing, mining and habitat loss. Photo by USFWS.
Media Contact: Jordan Rutter, Director of Public Relations| jerutter@abcbirds.org | @JERutter
American Bird Conservancy (ABC) and partners are following the migratory journeys of three Swallow-tailed Kites to gather data that will help inform conservation measures across this bird’s range, to help assure a brighter future for the kites and their southeastern forest habitats. Photo by David Spates
(Washington, D.C., September 17, 2021) Swallow-tailed kite is one of North America’s most beautiful birds of prey, with distinctive black-and-white plumage, narrow wings spanning four feet, and a forked, elongated tail. Although the U.S. population of this migratory raptor is considered stable, it is much-reduced from numbers of the past. American Bird Conservancy (ABC) and partners are following the migratory journeys of three Swallow-tailed Kites to gather data that will help inform conservation measures across this bird’s range, to help assure a brighter future for the kites and their southeastern forest habitats.
ABC collaborated in June with International Paper and the Avian Research and Conservation Institute (ARCI) to successfully capture, tag, and release the three kites near Georgetown, South Carolina. Other partners included Resource Management Service, Forest Investment Associates, and White Oak Forest Management.
Each bird was fitted with a GPS transmitter that will track its movements throughout the year. Swallow-tailed Kites are long-distance migratory birds, spending their spring and summer months in the southeastern U.S. and wintering in Central and South America.
“Since early spring, these kites were roosting, feeding, and nesting within the same working forest landscape where International Paper and other forest companies produce and procure the wood fiber that goes into many of the products we use every day,” says Emily Jo Williams, ABC’s Vice President for the Southeast Region.
“The data these birds provide will help us ensure that these sustainable working forest landscapes provide society with renewable forest products and critical habitat for Swallow-tailed Kites and a host of other wildlife species,” Williams says. ”We look forward to what the kites can tell us about their wintering grounds over the next few months, and to learn more when they return to the southeastern U.S. in spring 2022.”
A map of the tracked flight paths for three Swallow-tailed Kites that were successfully captured, tagged, and released through ABC’s collaboration with International Paper, Avian Research and Conservation Institute, Resource Management Service, Forest Investment Associates, and White Oak Forest Management.
Over the past two months, the team has been “watching” the three tagged birds, each carrying the name of its nesting location along with its GPS transmitter. As of September 2, all three kites departed breeding areas in South Carolina, traveled through Florida, and successfully crossed the Gulf of Mexico.
According to ARCI, the timing and tracks across the Gulf for these Swallow-tailed Kites are shaped by the prevailing winds of hurricanes and tropical storms that were active in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico at the time. These birds apparently can sense related changes in the atmosphere and respond by using favorable tailwinds to cross the open water as fast as possible.
“Despite all the tropical storm activity in late August and early September,” says Williams, “we have witnessed ‘textbook’ migration pathways used by our tagged Swallow-tailed Kites that have carried them across the Yucatán Channel and western Caribbean.”
The bird known as Carver’s Bay left Florida on August 13, crossed the Gulf for an astounding 41 hours before landing in southern Belize, and last checked in from Honduras on September 5. Big Branch left Florida on August 17, stopped over in Mexico, and is currently also in Honduras. Peters Creek was the last to leave South Carolina on August 30, traveling over Naples and the southern tip of Florida, stopping for a night in western Cuba, and then crossing to the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, where he arrived on September 2 and remains for now. As the birds continue into South America, they will have to traverse the Andes Mountains to finish their journey to wintering areas in Brazil and Bolivia.
You can follow along and keep track of these Swallow-tailed Kites at ARCI’s blog or on their Facebook page.
Read more about ABC’s and partners’ work with Swallow-tailed Kites here.
###
American Bird Conservancy is a nonprofit organization dedicated to conserving wild birds and their habitats throughout the Americas. With an emphasis on achieving results and working in partnership, we take on the greatest problems facing birds today, innovating and building on rapid advancements in science to halt extinctions, protect habitats, eliminate threats, and build capacity for bird conservation. Find us on abcbirds.org, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter (@ABCbirds).
https://abcbirds.org/article/onlookers-tag-along-with-southbound-swallow-tailed-kites/
Media Contact: Jordan Rutter, Director of Public Relations| jerutter@abcbirds.org | @JERutter
Pictured above are the top ten most wanted lost bird species, as designated by the collaboration that aims to find them. The Top 10 most wanted lost bird species, listed by row from left to right. Top: Himalayan Quail, Negros Fruit-Dove, Itwombwe Nightjar, Santa Marta Sabrewing. Middle: Vilcabamba Brushfinch, Siau Scops-Owl. Bottom: Jerdon’s Courser, Cuban Kite, Dusky Tetraka, South Island Kōkako. Illustrations © Lynx Edicions
(Washington, D.C., December 17, 2021) A new global search effort is calling on researchers, conservationists, and the global birdwatching community to help find 10 rare bird species that have been lost to science. The Search for Lost Birds is a collaboration of Re:wild, American Bird Conservancy (ABC), and BirdLife International, with data support from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and its eBird platform used by birders around the world. It’s an extension of Re:wild’s Search for Lost Species program, which launched in 2017 and has since rediscovered eight of its top 25 most wanted lost plant and animal species. As its name suggests, however, the Search for Lost Birds focuses exclusively on rediscovering enigmas in ornithology.
“During the past five years, since we launched the Search for Lost Species, our list of species that could be considered lost has grown to more than 2,000,” said Barney Long, Director for Conservation Strategies for Re:wild. “We never planned to look for all of them alone, but to encourage others to search and develop partnerships to help. Through this new partnership we’ll be able to get more targeted expeditions in the field. If we can find these lost birds, conservationists can better protect them from the threats they face.”
The Search for Lost Birds is hoping to harness the collective power of the global birdwatching community to help search for species on the top 10 most wanted lost birds list. Cornell’s eBird platform provides an example of what the global birding community can accomplish: eBird currently has more than 700,000 registered users who have collectively submitted more than 1 billion sightings of birds from around the world. However, none of those observations have included any of the top 10 most wanted lost birds.
None of the top 10 most wanted birds have had a documented sighting in the wild in at least 10 years, but they are not classified as “extinct” on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The reasons behind their disappearances range from habitat destruction to invasive species. In a few cases, species may have gone missing simply because scientists don’t know where or how to look for them, or don’t have access to their habitats, which may be remote or in places that currently have travel restrictions. Many of the lost birds are native to areas that are rich in biodiversity, but also urgently need conservation efforts to protect their biodiversity.
“By working with partners and collaborators from around the world, the Search for Lost Birds hopes to engage the knowledge and expertise of the global birdwatching community to solve these conservation challenges,” said John C. Mittermeier, Director of Threatened Species Outreach at ABC. “By directly reporting sightings and information through eBird, birdwatchers and citizen scientists from anywhere in the world can help us find and learn more about these lost species.”
The 10 birds span five continents and a variety of groups of species, from hummingbirds to raptors. Some have recently been lost to science, while others have been lost for more than a century. Two species, the Siau Scops-Owl and the Negros Fruit-Dove, have only ever been documented once, when they were originally described in the mid-1800s and in 1953, respectively.
The top 10 most wanted lost birds are:
Two expeditions, led by local and national partners and funded under the Search for Lost Birds partnership, are preparing to head into the field during the next year. The expeditions will focus on the Siau Scops-Owl in Indonesia and the Dusky Tetraka in Madagascar. Expeditions for other species are expected to be underway in the coming year as well.
The Siau Scops-Owl was last seen 155 years ago, when it was first described by science, but there have been unconfirmed reported sightings and calls of a bird that potentially matches the description of the owl during the past 20 years. Much of the forest where it was originally discovered has been destroyed, but given how challenging it can be to detect small forest owls, conservationists believe that there is a chance that a small and as-yet-overlooked population may still survive.
The Dusky Tetraka was last definitely seen in Madagascar 22 years ago; before that, there had been very few confirmed sightings of the species in the humid understory of the forests of eastern Madagascar.
One species on the list, the South Island Kōkako, has already been the focus of an on-going search. The South Island Kōkako Charitable Trust has been leading a community-driven search for the bird for the past 11 years, following up on possible sightings and reports of people hearing what sounds like the bird’s haunting call. They launched a public search campaign in 2017 that has drawn nearly 300 reports of possible encounters with a South Island Kōkako, which, in addition to historic reports, they have rated and mapped.
“We are optimistic that the Search for Lost Birds will lead to exciting rediscoveries, but ultimately it’s about conservation,” said Roger Safford, Senior Program Manager for Preventing Extinctions at BirdLife International. “We know that with good conservation efforts, species can be rescued from the brink of extinction, but only if we know where the last populations are. We hope these expeditions will capture people’s imaginations and catalyze conservation.”
ABC supports field expeditions to search for these species and works with partners to conserve rediscovered birds. For example, ABC is supporting Brazilian partners’ efforts to recover the population of the Blue-eyed Ground-Dove, rediscovered in Brazil in 2015.
Other recent rediscoveries of bird species have fueled hope that expeditions for the top 10 most wanted lost birds will be successful. An expedition in Colombia in March 2021 seeking the Sinú Parakeet, one of Re:wild’s top 25 most wanted lost species, didn’t find the parakeet, but did document dozens of species that had never before been recorded in Cordóba Department. In Indonesia, the Black-browed Babbler, a bird that had only had one documented sighting, was rediscovered after 170 years in February 2021. The data that expeditions for the Search for Lost Birds collect will be shared with eBird.
The Search for Lost Birds may also help bring to light previously overlooked records of some of the birds on the top 10 most wanted list that have not been fully documented or confirmed. The Search for Lost Birds will work to follow up on records that may have remained in biologists’ field notebooks and memories, and attempt to collect photographic confirmation that the species still exist. If those sightings can be confirmed, it could help conservation efforts for those species.
The rediscoveries of other lost birds have also led to conservation efforts that helped them recover from threats to their survival. The Madagascar Pochard in Madagascar is another example of a lost species that was once lost, but is now increasing in population thanks to conservation efforts following its rediscovery.
ABC would like to thank the Constable Foundation and the estate of Phyllis Brissenden for their support of the Lost Birds program.
###
American Bird Conservancy is a nonprofit organization dedicated to conserving wild birds and their habitats throughout the Americas. With an emphasis on achieving results and working in partnership, we take on the greatest problems facing birds today, innovating and building on rapid advancements in science to halt extinctions, protect habitats, eliminate threats, and build capacity for bird conservation. Find us on abcbirds.org, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter (@ABCbirds).
BirdLife International is the world’s largest nature conservation Partnership: a global family of over 115 national NGOs covering all continents, landscapes and seascapes. BirdLife is driven by its belief that local people, working for nature in their own places but connected nationally and internationally through the global Partnership, are the key to sustaining all life on this planet. This unique local-to-global approach delivers high impact and long-term conservation for the benefit of nature and people.
Re:wild protects and restores the wild. We have a singular and powerful focus: the wild as the most effective solution to the interconnected climate, biodiversity and pandemic crises. Founded by a group of renowned conservation scientists together with Leonardo DiCaprio, Re:wild is a force multiplier that brings together Indigenous peoples, local communities, influential leaders, nongovernmental organizations, governments, companies and the public to protect and rewild at the scale and speed we need. Re:wild launched in 2021 combining more than three decades of conservation impact by Leonardo DiCaprio and Global Wildlife Conservation, leveraging expertise, partnerships and platforms to bring new attention, energy and voices together. Our vital work has protected and conserved over 12 million acres benefitting more than 16,000 species in the world’s most irreplaceable places for biodiversity. We don’t need to reinvent the planet. We just need to rewild it—for all wildkind. Learn more at rewild.org.
Copyright 2021 © American Bird Conservancy. All Rights Reserved. American Bird Conservancy is a 501(c)(3) organization. EIN: 52-1501259
https://abcbirds.org/article/top-10-most-wanted-lost-birds-2021/
The colorful, reclusive Agami Heron is a coveted sighting for birders visiting flooded lowland forests and slow-moving waterways of Central and South America. This long-billed, medium-sized heron is so distinctive that it occupies its own genus, Agamia. Its species name, “Agami,” comes from a Cayenne Indian word for a forest bird.
In Brazil, the Agami is sometimes called Soco beija-flor, “hummingbird heron,” for its vivid plumage. It’s also commonly known as the Chestnut-bellied Heron.
Threats to Agami Heron are poorly understood, but habitat loss is probably one of the most significant factors affecting this heron and other birds that share its lowland habitat, including Mangrove Hummingbird, Great Curassow, and Harpy Eagle.
The Agami Heron’s retiring nature and preference for dense vegetation makes the species difficult to study, and its total population is still unknown. Although resident throughout its range, it moves seasonally, abandoning nesting areas for deeper forest after the breeding season.
This heron specializes in fishing from river banks or branches overhanging the water. Its long neck and dagger-like bill — the longest of any New World heron’s — gives the Agami a significant striking range, while proportionally short legs confine the bird to shallow water. Agami Herons rarely wade in the open, preferring to forage for small fish, snails, and insects while stalking along under dense cover.
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Unusual for birds, both male and female Agami Herons flaunt colorful courtship plumage during the breeding season. Both sexes also show heightened color in the lores (the fleshy area between the base of the bill and front of the eyes), which turn an intense red during displays.
The Agami’s spectacular courtship display begins when a male chooses a display site, then starts to “dance” with shaking plumes, rocking movements, and bill-snapping. An interested female will approach the site and perform similar displays until the male accepts her presence. This process may go on for several days, as the male may aggressively repel the female at first. After some persistence on the female’s part, the birds form a pair-bond, mate, and begin to build a nest.
Agami Heron in its swanky breeding plumage. Photo by Kyle C. Moon
Recent fieldwork has found that Agami Heron, like Reddish Egret and many other waterbirds, nest in colonies. The birds hide their nests, a loose platform of sticks, within the forest canopy.
The Agami Heron is listed as Vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, based on predictions of future habitat loss in lowland forests, particularly throughout the Amazon region.
ABC partner Osa Conservation protects several conservation properties in Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula where this shy, spectacular heron can be seen, along with more than 450 other species of other birds, including the endangered Black-cheeked Ant-Tanager and Yellow-billed Cotinga.
In 2016, ABC celebrated the 10th anniversary of its sustainable tourism program, which is designed to prevent the extinction of some of the Americas’ rarest bird species. ABC’s reserve network now includes more than 70 tropical reserves, including Costa Rica’s Yellow-billed Cotinga Sanctuary, and spans close to one million acres. Find out more about visiting the Osa here.
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