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Australia's crafty, sulphur-crested cockatoos appear to have entered an "innovation arms race" with humans, scientists say, as the two species spar over the rubbish in roadside bins.View the full article -
Burmese pythons are not just big snakes, growing to more than 18 feet and 200 pounds, but big eaters, taking on prey as large as deer.View the full article
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In the midst of today's cost of living crisis, many people who are critical of the idea of economic growth see an opportunity. In their recent book The Future is Degrowth, for example, prominent advocates Matthias Schmelzer, Aaron Vansintjan and Andrea Vetter argue that the post-COVID inflation has predominantly been caused by the inherent instability in the capitalist system.View the full article
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How songbirds' striking colors put them at risk
PhysOrg posted a topic in Bird Research in the Media
Bright, uniquely colored songbirds are at higher risk of extinction and more likely to be traded as pets, according to researchers reporting in Current Biology on September 15. The researchers also predict that almost 500 additional bird species, most of them living in the tropics, are at risk of future trade based on their unique and desirable coloration.View the full article -
A bay-breasted warbler weighs about the same as four pennies, but twice a year makes an extraordinary journey. The tiny songbird flies nearly 4,000 miles (6,437 kilometers) between Canada's spruce forests and its wintering grounds in northern South America.View the full article
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Antimicrobial resistance in gut bacteria is constantly being detected on poultry farms and in poultry retail products worldwide, including in turkey flocks. Concerningly, surveillance information and studies on the associations between antimicrobial resistance and antimicrobial use in turkeys have been scarce during the last decade. In a new study, researchers across North America have modeled how antimicrobial use impacts the emergence of antimicrobial resistance in Escherichia coli isolated from Canadian turkey flocks.View the full article
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A three-year study in northeastern Illinois and northwestern Indiana found that—even at small scales—emergent wetlands or ponds support many wetland bird species. The study also found that, at least in the years surveyed, the level of urbanization had little effect on most of the studied species' use of such sites, provided the right kinds of habitat were available.View the full article
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Climate change has wreaked havoc with many species' life cycles and now a pair of Western students is shedding light on how it's affecting the survival of two high-profile insects.View the full article
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Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, masking has been one of the key public health measures put in place to combat the disease. Since March 2020, billions of disposable surgical masks have been used around the world, raising the question: What happens to all those used masks?View the full article
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The wandering albatross is the poster bird for avian monogamy. The graceful glider is known to mate for life, partnering up with the same bird to breed, season after season, between long flights at sea.View the full article
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Brown-headed cowbirds are generalist brood parasites, laying their eggs in the nests of many other bird species and letting the host parents raise their young. A new study seeks to understand the strategies cowbird chicks use to survive in prothonotary warbler nests when they hatch with different numbers of warbler nestlings. The study reveals that a cowbird chick does better with two than with four or zero warbler nest mates.View the full article
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How can a vulture in a Berlin Zoo help its conspecifics and their habitats in Namibia? Perhaps it can serve as a model and patron for a new generation of animal tags.View the full article
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An international team of researchers has found the genes responsible for converting yellow carotenoids in birds to red ketocarotenoids. In their paper published in the journal Cell Biology, the group describes the steps they took to reveal the genes and the proteins they expressed.View the full article
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Residents of southern Sydney, Australia have been in a long-term battle over garbage—humans want to throw it out, and cockatoos want to eat it. The sulfur-crested cockatoos that call the area home have a knack for getting into garbage bins, and people have been using inventive devices to keep them out. Researchers detail the techniques used by both people and parrots in a study publishing on September 12 in the journal Current Biology.View the full article
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Scientists have known that sex-determination in vertebrates happens in the germ cells, a body's reproductive cells, and the somatic cells, the cells that are not reproductive cells. Yet they have not fully understood the mechanisms by which it happens. To better grasp the process of the germ cell's sex determination, a research team has analyzed germ cells in chickens using RNA-sequencing to predict the mechanism that determines the sex. Their study provides insight into the mechanism of sex determination in birds.View the full article
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Birds have impressive cognitive abilities and show a high level of intelligence. Compared to mammals of about the same size, the brains of birds also contain many more neurons. Now a new study reported in Current Biology on September 8 helps to explain how birds can afford to maintain more brain cells: their neurons get by on less fuel in the form of glucose.View the full article
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Many dread the smell of dog urine, including Australian predators like foxes. Deakin University ecologists are testing the utility of dog urine to protect the nests of a vulnerable shorebird.View the full article
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An outbreak of bird flu that has led to the deaths of 43 million chickens and turkeys this year across the U.S. has been found at a giant egg-laying operation in Ohio, state and federal agriculture officials said Wednesday.View the full article
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When it comes to American barn owls, forget spring cleaning.View the full article
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White-necked jacobin hummingbirds sport a colorful blue-and-white plumage as juveniles. When they grow into adulthood, males retain this dazzling pattern, while females develop a more "muted" palette of green and white—at least, most females. Curiously, about 20% of females defy the norm and retain male-like plumage into adulthood.View the full article
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Ducks contaminated by mercury pollution are significantly more likely to get bird flu, a study found Wednesday, pointing towards another way that human-driven changes to the natural world increase the risk of viruses spreading.View the full article
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In an Australian first, scientists from Edith Cowan University (ECU) have determined how long it takes for seagrass to recover after grazing by swans.View the full article
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Old-growth forests and managed forests with old-growth characteristics can provide relief from climate change for some bird species, research by the Oregon State University College of Forestry suggests.View the full article
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Mutations are the raw material of evolution. For example, a single change in an DNA base pair can cause a protein molecule to lose its function, with potentially major effects on the overall organism. However, mutations—and especially the ones that do not have major effects—can also provide a roadmap to determining if there is a pattern in the evolution of genomic attributes such as nucleotide substitutions.View the full article
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British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and RSPB are recruiting albatross detectives to help to search for wandering albatrosses in satellite images taken from space in an effort to learn more about how these sentinels of the sea are being impacted by climate change, intensive fishing, and invasive species.View the full article
