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Much of a centuries-old debate over where and how new bird species form has now been resolved. Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have provided evidence that birds in mountainous areas—where the vast majority of the planet's species live—have left lowland habitats for higher and higher mountain elevations throughout their evolution. Millions of years of climatic fluctuations have contributed to pushing bird species upslope—as is probably happening now.View the full article
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Prescribed fires, often called controlled burns, have become increasingly important tools for land management and wildlife conservation. Research shows that they not only prevent forest overcrowding and reduce the risk of wildfires, but they also improve habitat for a wide range of plants and animals.View the full article
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The California scrub-jay, a generally non-social bird, can learn just as well as another species of jay that lives in groups, a finding that surprised animal intelligence researchers who devised a novel food puzzle to study cognition in the wild.View the full article -
While it had been assumed that unstable gliding was the key to agility in bird flight, a collaboration between aerospace engineers at the University of Michigan and biologists at the University of British Columbia revealed that stability plays a role.View the full article
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Lithium is powering the world's electric vehicles, making the metal a key part in the quest to reduce carbon emissions. But the combination of lithium mining and climate change in the Andes Mountains may be negatively influencing flamingo populations, according to a study published today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. View the full article
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A new study shows how knowledge of climate change threats could be better connected with conservation efforts to help protect seabirds and other at-risk species.View the full article
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A new study from researchers at The Australian National University (ANU) rolls back the curtain on half a century of evidence detailing the impact of climate change on more than 60 different bird species.View the full article
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Sex roles in birds describe sex differences in courtship, mate competition, social pair-bonds, and parental care. Different explanations have been put forward to explain these differences but none are based on a comprehensive study. Therefore, an international team of experts set out to analyze data on 1,800 of the approximately 9,000 different species of birds as their study organisms. The results show that adult sex ratios are the main driving force for differences in sex roles. A paper on this study was published in Ecology Letters on 25 February.View the full article
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Avian influenza has been detected in a sixth commercial poultry flock in southern Indiana, state officials said Tuesday.View the full article
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With lush green jungles brimming with wildlife, Costa Rica has become a global tourism hotspot—and government leaders would like to keep it that way. They worked with researchers from the Stanford Natural Capital Project to understand how nature supports the country's most visited and valuable tourist destinations. The team found that tourists flock to areas where roads and hotels make it easy to access Costa Rica's famous wildlife, including charismatic mammals like howler monkeys and reptiles like crocodiles. The research, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, demonstrates the importance of protecting nature to keep tourism revenue flowing. Costa Rica plans to build on the study's results to create a nationwide accounting system to track the benefits that nature provides to its economy.View the full article
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Black ash wetlands cover approximately 1.2 million acres of wetland forest in the western Great Lakes. They are an ecologically significant part of Minnesota's landscapes and provide critical habitat for wildlife. View the full article
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Curtin University researchers have identified a "game-changing" way of protecting native animals—including pygmy possums, western bush wallabies and Australian painted-snipe birds—using sophisticated DNA technology.View the full article
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Vision is often regarded as first among the human senses, as our eyes are the way most of us come to know the world. However, vision has its limits.View the full article
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"Who's peeing in the water?" Unlikely as it may seem, there is a great deal of science behind this question. Determining the source of fecal contamination—an important public health issue—requires years of research. Doctoral student Rose Ragot and Professor Richard Villemur of the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) are working on genetic primers, a short DNA sequence that serves as a starting point for sequencing. Primers make it possible to identify potential sources of fecal contamination, particularly in water that flows through urban and agricultural environments. Their work has been published in the journal Environmental Monitoring and Assessment.View the full article
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What bird beaks say about tropical biodiversity
PhysOrg posted a topic in Bird Research in the Media
Areas of the globe where fruit-eating birds have wider beaks also have larger palm fruits, a new study shows. This sounds banal, but it provides new insights into tropical biodiversity and clues for solving species conservation, forest restoration and animal reintroduction challenges.View the full article -
A new database called AVONET contains measurements of more than 90,000 individual birds, allowing researchers to test theories and aid conservation.View the full article
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In a study published in Ibis, investigators combined the power of big data and machine learning, a type of artificial intelligence, to predict population declines for bird species with unknown population trends and used correlation analyses to identify predictors of bird population declines worldwide. View the full article
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A supportive environment can bring out the best in an individual—even for a bird.View the full article
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Federal scientists have confirmed cases of an infectious avain flu strain in several species of Florida birds, the state announced Tuesday.View the full article
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Conservation group BirdLife Cyprus reported Wednesday a "worrying increase" in illegal bird trappings last year, blaming authorities for reducing fines for killing protected species.View the full article
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A newly discovered extinct duck that lived in ancient Aotearoa New Zealand could be key to dating other finds from an ancient lake bed uncovered in St Bathans, Central Otago.View the full article
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How migratory animals find their way to the wintering grounds, thousands of kilometers apart from their breeding ground, is a fascinating riddle of nature. Previous studies have suggested they possibly follow the geomagnetic field lines and olfactory cues to determine the direction. However, the physiological mechanisms behind this magnetic orientation remain unknown. Now, neuroscientists and ecologists from Doshisha University and Nagoya University, Japan, conducted a study to understand how birds know which direction to follow during long-distance flight. The study has been published on Feb 4, 2022, in the latest issue of the journal Science Advances.View the full article
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When we attached tiny, backpack-like tracking devices to five Australian magpies for a pilot study, we didn't expect to discover an entirely new social behavior rarely seen in birds.View the full article
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Biodiversity conservation and the careful management of natural resources are key issues today in international relations. In the field of environmental protection, transnational cooperation is growing thanks to the reserves that are part the world network of the UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere (MaB) Programme.View the full article
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Wild horses roaming the Snowy Mountains have long been the subject of fierce debate. Some say they're feral pests destroying Kosciuszko National Park's fragile native ecosystem. Others argue they're national icons and an important part of Australia's colonial heritage.View the full article
