Category Archives: Birds

Breeding birds in captivity may alter their wing shapes and reduce post-release survival chances

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Research into critically endangered orange-bellied parrot finds 1mm difference in length of one feather is enough to reduce survival rate by 2.7 times

Breeding in captivity can alter birds’ wing shapes, reducing their chances of surviving migratory flights when they are released to the wild, new research suggests.

A study of the critically endangered orange-bellied parrot has found that in captive-bred birds, those with altered wing shapes had a survival rate 2.7 times lower than those born with wings close to an ideal “wild type” wing.

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Superb fairywrens more likely to help family members in distress than strangers, like humans

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Beloved Australian songbird will risk life and limb for its breeding group but ignore cries for help from unfamiliar birds, scientists say

What do superb fairywrens have in common with humans? They are more likely to help a family member in distress than a stranger.

The study, from scientists at Monash University and the Australian National University, tracked the beloved songbirds in the first research to focus on understanding how animals that live in a multi-level society, like humans, decide to help one another when in need.

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Vast national park to be created and native animals protected after NSW government land purchase

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Dominic Perrottet lauds tourism benefits of buying 440,000 hectare site Thurloo Downs in state’s north-west

Habitat for more than 50 threatened species will be preserved as part of a new land acquisition by the New South Wales government that will become the state’s third-largest national park.

The 437,394 hectare site, which is called Thurloo Downs and is about 250 kilometres from Bourke in the state’s north-west, contains globally significant arid zone wetlands, as well as salt lakes, playas and other geological formations that are unprotected elsewhere in NSW.

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WHO says avian flu cases in humans ‘worrying’ after girl’s death in Cambodia

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Child died and father tested positive for H5N1, prompting fears of possible person-to-person transmission

The discovery of two cases of bird flu within the same family in Cambodia has highlighted the concern over potential human-to-human spread of the virus, although experts have stressed the risk remains low.

On Thursday, Cambodian authorities reported an 11-year-old girl from Prey Veng province had died from H5N1, with subsequent testing of 12 of her contacts revealing that her father also had the virus.

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Canadian minister calls for emergency order to save country’s last spotted owls

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Steven Guilbeault wants to block logging of critical old-growth forest to prevent owls from going extinct in British Columbia

Canada’s environment minister plans to use a rare emergency order to protect the last of an endangered owl species in an area where critical old-growth forest is slated for further clearcutting.

Steven Guilbeault advised the environmental groups Ecojustice and the Wilderness Committee that he believed the spotted owl was facing “imminent threats to its survival” and he would use the powers to block further destruction of its habitat in British Columbia, the groups announced on Thursday afternoon.

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Bird flu: 11-year-old girl in Cambodia dies after being infected

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Case is the country’s first known human infection with H5N1 strain since 2014, health minister says

An 11-year-old girl in Cambodia has died after being infected by a strain of avian influenza, commonly known as bird flu, the government says.

It was the first known human infection with the H5N1 strain in the country since 2014, the health minister, Mam Bunheng, said in a statement on Thursday.

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Birdsong boosts mental wellbeing for 90% of people, UK poll finds

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RSPB shares results as Britons encouraged to spend an hour counting birds in annual Big Garden Birdwatch

Watching birds and hearing birdsong have a positive impact on wellbeing for more than nine in 10 people, according to a survey to mark the largest garden wildlife count in the world.

People are being urged to boost their mental health and help scientists by spending an hour this weekend counting the birds in their garden or local park for the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch.

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Suspicious death of ‘Pin’ the vulture adds to Dallas zoo’s mysterious woes

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News comes after unusual activity at the zoo that included one of its clouded leopards missing

A lappet-faced vulture at the Dallas zoo has died from a suspicious wound in its Wilds of Africa habitat. Officials called the mysterious death of 35-year-old Pin “devastating” and are offering a $10,000 reward for any information.

The announcement follows a bout of unusual activity at the zoo. Last week it shut down after it reported one of its two clouded leopards, Nova, was missing. A zoo spokesperson assured the public the 25lb cat didn’t pose a threat to humans and Nova was found later that day on zoo grounds near her habitat.

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Unusual sightings of the Asian koel in Melbourne raise mysteries for migration researchers

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Increase in reports of the koel and its loud mating call south of its usual territory may be attributable to climate change, scientists say

Climate change may be one reason why the so-called devil bird – known for its incessant late-night mating call – has become more common in Melbourne’s outer suburbs, according to researchers.

The koel, a migratory bird, usually arrives in Australia from Papua New Guinea and Indonesia to breed from late September to early October, when the male will sing his advertising call day and night to attract a female.

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Kenya declares war on millions of birds after they raid crops

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Toxic pesticides used to eradicate grain-eating quelea may harm the country’s endangered raptors, say conservationists

A drive by the Kenyan government to kill up to 6 million red-billed quelea birds that have invaded farms will have unintended consequences for raptors and other wild species, experts have warned.

The continuing drought in the Horn of Africa has reduced the amount of native grass, whose seeds are queleas’ main food source, causing the birds to increasingly invade grain fields, putting 2,000 acres (800 hectares) of rice under threat. About 300 acres of rice fields have been destroyed by the birds.

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Puffin nesting sites in western Europe could be lost by end of century

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Experts create guide to help save seabirds from bleak future caused by global heating

The majority of puffin nesting sites in western Europe are likely to be lost by the end of the century due to climate breakdown, a report has warned.

Other seabirds will also be affected unless urgent action to limit global heating is taken, with razorbills and arctic terns forecast to lose 80% and 87% of their breeding grounds respectively owing to reduced food accessibility and prolonged periods of stormy weather.

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Rocket launches pose extinction-level threat to SA’s tiny southern emu wren, conservationists warn

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Tanya Plibersek could list the bird as endangered amid concerns about proposed rocket launch site

A tiny southern emu wren, which conservationists fear is under threat from rocket launches, could be listed as endangered within days.

Conservationists say planned rocket launches on the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia pose an extinction-level threat to the wren, one of Australia’s smallest birds.

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Indian states ban guns and airguns to safeguard Amur falcons

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Assam, Nagaland and Manipur officials also confiscate catapults and nets to ensure birds can recuperate

Officials in north-east India have banned the use of guns and airguns and confiscated catapults and nets in an effort to safeguard the small Amur falcons that make an autumn pit stop on their way to sunny South Africa.

Forest officers were patrolling areas of Assam, Nagaland and Manipur states to make sure no one disturbs the long-distance travelling raptors who stop briefly in India.

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Newlywed among four women chosen to run Antarctic outpost

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British women beat 6,000 applicants to spend five months counting penguins and running post office on Goudier Island

It was one of the strangest of job alerts: a call to run the world’s most remote, coldest post office – on an island with no permanent residents – and count penguins in almost continuous daylight.

But bizarre or not, it struck a chord: 6,000 people applied for the four jobs on Goudier Island in Port Lockroy, and now the winners have been announced: a newlywed, who will leave her husband behind for what she is calling a “solo honeymoon” and three other British women, who are equally thrilled by the adventure ahead.

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‘Unprecedented’ bird flu epidemic sees almost 50m birds culled across Europe

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Poultry farmers from Arctic to Portugal reported 2,500 outbreaks in past year, with migrating birds taking avian flu to North America

The UK and continental Europe have been hit by an “unprecedented” number of cases of avian flu this summer, with 47.7m birds having been culled since last autumn, according to new figures.

Poultry producers from as far north as Norway’s Svalbard islands to southern Portugal have together reported almost 2,500 outbreaks of the disease since last year.

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‘Interspecies innovation arms race’: cockatoos and humans at war over wheelie bin raids

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Research shows Sydney residents devising increasingly sophisticated ways to keep highly intelligent but ‘bloody annoying’ birds out of household waste

Cockatoos and humans are locked in what Australian researchers have described as “an interspecies innovation arms race”.

Sydney residents are resorting to increasingly sophisticated measures to prevent sulphur-crested cockatoos from opening and raiding household wheelie bins, detailed in new research published in the journal Current Biology.

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Tanya Plibersek urged to save Gouldian finches from NT defence development

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Conservationists call on government to reconsider project near Darwin after 100-plus birds were spotted in bushland marked for clearing

The environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, is being urged to intervene to save a population of endangered Gouldian finches threatened by a defence development in the Northern Territory.

The first stage of clearing has begun to allow a defence housing development in savannah woodlands at Lee Point, in Darwin’s north, having been approved in 2019.

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Mystery surrounds cluster of satin bowerbird deaths in the Gold Coast hinterland

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Landowner and bird experts cast doubt on Queensland government’s rat poison theory

In a town perched atop the rainforest hinterland of the Gold Coast, one of Australia’s most charismatic birds is suddenly and mysteriously dying.

Rumours and misinformation are swirling around Tamborine Mountain to explain the spate of satin bowerbirds deaths, with fingers pointed at everything from rat poison to 4G phone towers.

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More than 100 hen harriers fledge in England for first time in a century

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Conservationists welcome successful breeding season but say birds remain at risk of being illegally killed

Nearly 120 rare hen harrier chicks have fledged in England this year, the highest number for more than a century, England’s conservation agency has said.

Natural England and its partners recorded 119 hen harrier chicks successfully fledging from nests across uplands in County Durham, Cumbria, Lancashire, Northumberland and Yorkshire. A fledgling is a young bird that has grown enough to acquire its initial flight feathers and is preparing to leave the nest and care for itself.

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Game over – the Ritz takes grouse off the menu in victory for environment campaigners

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Some restaurants are listening, with Corrigan’s not sourcing from intensive shoots and the Ritz not serving a Glorious Twelfth dish

From 12 August to early December, it’s usually possible to walk into old-fashioned fine dining establishments across the country and order the rare British delicacy that is grouse, frequently served with bread sauce and game chips.

But those hoping to eat the tiny game bird in the gilded Ritz dining room in London will be out of luck this year, as the world-famous hotel has quietly removed it from the menu after an outcry from environmental campaigners.

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