A kleptomaniac parrot briefly stole a GoPro camera and took it on a sweeping tour of a remote region of New Zealand. The kea took off with the device after it was placed outside by the Verheul family, who were hiking in Fiordland. The bird pecked off parts of the camera after it landed, before the device was recovered by the Verheuls
Continue reading...Category Archives: Birds
Swedish firm deploys crows to pick up cigarette butts
Clever corvids become newest weapon in Södertälje’s war against street litter
Crows are being recruited to pick up discarded cigarette butts from the streets and squares of a Swedish city as part of a cost-cutting drive.
The wild birds carry out the task as they receive a little food for every butt that they deposit in a bespoke machine designed by a startup in Södertälje, near Stockholm.
Continue reading...‘The fight goes on’: the struggle to save Europe’s songbirds
Campaigners help close the loophole allowing glue-trapping in France, but the battle to save endangered bird species goes on
- ECJ orders France to ban glue-trap hunting of songbirds
- Read more in our series Biodiversity: what happened next?
“Chasse à la glu has ended, but the fight to save other birds is not over,” says campaigner Yves Verilhac. “We are now battling to stop other cruel hunting methods that lead to the killing of skylarks, lapwings, golden plovers, thrushes and blackbirds.”
Two years ago, Verilhac, of France’s Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux (LPO), was fighting to stop the French tradition of chasse à la glu – hunting songbirds with twigs and branches covered in adhesive.
Continue reading...Running around Waimapihi Reserve in the dark my headtorch revealed hidden treasures | Ashleigh Young
At first I was full of dread but as I pressed on I noticed things I had never seen in daylight
- Guardian writers and readers describe their favourite place in New Zealand’s wilderness and why it’s special to them
I’m scared of getting lost in the bush. This is unusual for an essayist. Most of us like to go for a walk in disorienting landscapes and get completely lost so that we can write about it.
Rebecca Solnit wrote that getting lost is “a voluptuous surrender” but this sounds to me like walking in increasingly frantic circles, getting cold and hungry as night closes in, until you have no option but to dig yourself a little hole and cover yourself in leaves.
Continue reading...Scientists use ostrich cells to make glowing Covid detection masks
Japanese researchers use bird antibodies to detect virus under ultraviolet light
Japanese researchers have developed masks that use ostrich antibodies to detect Covid-19 by glowing under ultraviolet light.
The discovery, by Yasuhiro Tsukamoto and his team at Kyoto Prefectural University in western Japan, could provide for low-cost testing of the virus at home.
Continue reading...‘Mesmerising’: a massive murmuration of budgies is turning central Australia green and gold
After a bumper wet season, huge flocks of budgerigars are on the move in the deserts of the Northern Territory
The humble budgerigar has transformed the red centre into a sea of green and gold.
A massive murmuration – the phenomenon of thousands of birds flocking together – has swarmed the Northern Territory.
Continue reading...Climate crisis pushes albatross ‘divorce’ rates higher – study
Researchers say warmer waters mean birds are travelling further for food and becoming more stressed, triggering relationship breakdowns
Albatrosses, some of the world’s most loyally monogamous creatures, are “divorcing” more often – and researchers say global heating may be to blame.
In a new Royal Society study, researchers say climate change and warming waters are pushing black-browed albatross break-up rates higher. Typically after choosing a partner, only 1-3% would separate in search of greener romantic pastures.
Continue reading...Strike me pink: Australia’s last two flamingos resurrected as gay emblems
Birds Chile and Greater, painstakingly restored by taxidermists, will be on display at SA Museum as part of Feast festival
Australia’s last flamingos will go on display this weekend after taxidermists restored the magnificent pink birds.
The last flamingo in Australia (named Chile) died in 2018, the second last (Greater) in 2014 – but they have been resurrected as gay emblems for South Australia’s Feast festival.
Continue reading...Best bird a bat: tiny flying mammal wins New Zealand bird of the year competition
No stunt, say organisers, who wanted to raise awareness of the pekapeka-tou-roa, which faces the same threats as native birds
In a huge upset to New Zealand birds, but a win for one of the country’s only native land mammals, a bat has swooped in “by a long way” to take out the annual bird of the year competition.
Forest and Bird, which runs the election, thew the bat among the pigeons as a surprise entry this year. The pekapeka-tou-roa, or long tailed bat, is one of two bats in the country and one of the rarest mammals in the world. It is as small as a thumb, and the size of a bumblebee when it is born.
Continue reading...South Australian eagle fossil identified as one of the oldest raptor species in the world
The 25m-year-old fossil reveals ancient eagle had features unlike any seen among modern hawks and eagles
A 25m-year-old eagle fossil discovered on a remote outback cattle station in South Australia has been identified as one of the oldest raptor species in the world.
Palaeontologists discovered the eagle fossil on the shore of a dry lake known as Lake Pinpa in 2016, and have since identified it as a new species, Archaehierax sylvestris, in a study published in the journal Historical Biology.
Continue reading...Country diary: my swim with a bloodthirsty hanger-on
Hartsop, Cumbria: I look down and notice a slug-sized, dark brown invertebrate clinging to my leg
A good September day can feel more like true summer than any other time of year, and this sunny, sultry Sunday in the Patterdale valley is an excellent example. The landscape has eased into a settled maturity: the hedgerows are full of dark fruits, the rowans are full of lipstick-red berries, and juvenile sparrowhawks call out from woods of deep, well-aged green. This late-summer lull feels like the equivalent of a piece of music resolving on a satisfying chord, the culmination of everything the year has been building towards.
I am on holiday here with my girlfriend and some of her family and friends, staying above the village of Hartsop, close to Brothers Water. This small, shallow lake is home to rare species such as the schelly (Coregonus stigmaticus) – a relic whitefish endemic to just four Lake District lakes – and a community of bottom-rooted plant species, some of which brush slimily against my legs as I go in for a quick dip. My companions are fazed by the reeds, but I wave away their concerns with the haughty confidence of a seasoned wild swimmer.
Continue reading...Scientists investigate hundreds of guillemot deaths on UK coastline
Seabird carcasses discovered along Northumberland, North Yorkshire and Scottish shores, with many more found emaciated
Several hundred seabirds have been found dead along the coasts of north-east England and Scotland, while many have been discovered emaciated.
The UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH), which is investigating the cause of the deaths, said the majority of the birds were guillemots.
Continue reading...Lyrebird in Australia perfectly mimics crying baby – video
Not many birds can compare to the vocal range of the Australian lyrebird, and Taronga Zoo's lyrebird, Echo, is no exception. The zoo says Echo has the ability to replicate a variety of calls, but its perfect impersonation of a crying baby is perhaps not the pleasant day at the zoo parents would be hoping for
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- Taronga zoo lyrebird perfectly mimics the ear-splitting wail of a crying baby
- Australian bird of the year 2021: a look at some of the early contenders
Wild cockatoos observed using tools as ‘cutlery’ to extract seeds from tropical fruit
Goffin’s cockatoos on Indonesia’s Tanimbar Islands crafted three different types of tools from tree branches to obtain seeds from sea mangoes
Australian bird of the year 2021: nominate your favourite for the shortlist
Wild cockatoos have been observed using three types of tools as “cutlery” to extract seeds from tropical fruit.
Researchers made the discovery while studying Goffin’s cockatoos on the Tanimbar Islands, a remote archipelago in Indonesia.
Continue reading...Female hummingbirds look like males to avoid attacks, study suggests
Some females found to have evolved with bright plumage, which seems to protect against male aggression
They may zip around looking cute and sociable, but the world of hummingbirds is rife with aggression. Now it looks like some female hummingbirds have evolved to avoid this – by adopting the bright plumage of their male counterparts.
US researchers captured more than 400 white-necked Jacobin hummingbirds in Panama.
Continue reading...Born to be wild: India’s first captive-bred endangered vultures are set free
Numbers of the country’s carrion-loving birds dropped by over 97% in the 1990s. Now, a successful breeding scheme is giving them a boost
In February, the doors of an aviary in West Bengal’s Buxa tiger reserve were flung open. Eight critically endangered captive-bred white-rumped vultures cautiously emerged and within minutes were mingling with wild vultures, devouring the meat of carcasses left out by a team of researchers from the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS).
The birds were raised in a nearby breeding centre by BNHS, led by assistant director Sachin Ranade, as part of efforts to save India’s Gyps vultures. Gradually, some of the released vultures perched on trees with their wild cousins, while others returned to the wire-mesh aviary where they had spent the previous few months getting acclimatised to their surroundings.
Continue reading...Australian bird of the year 2021: nominate your favourite for the shortlist
This year there will be a special focus on the species many of us are likely to see in lockdown
Bird of the year is back! The Guardian/BirdLife Australia poll for 2021 will begin on 27 September with a list of 50 shortlisted species.
In 2017 the magpie fought off strong support for the white ibis to win. In 2019 the highly endangered black-throated finch, which is under threat from the expansion of the Adani Carmichael coalmine, triumphed after backing from a highly organised online campaign.
Continue reading...Kiwi watchers capture bird song in previously silent sites – video
The call of New Zealand's iconic kiwi has been captured in sites that were previously silent five years ago. The recordings come after the threatened bird has begun to return to patches of forest where the population had dropped.
Hear be kiwis: New Zealand celebrates as distinctive cry of iconic bird returns
Kiwi watchers have recorded the sound of the bird’s song at many sites that were silent just five years ago
It’s a frigid, early-winter night, and across the forests and farmlands of Northland, people are crouching in the dark. They’ve timed this night for the waning moon, so moonlight doesn’t disturb any visitors. Scattered through the night, they sit, silently, and listen.
The sound they’re all hoping for is a high-pitched, piercing cry, or guttural croak – a sign that Aotearoa’s threatened, iconic kiwi has returned to patches of forests that had fallen silent.
Continue reading...Parents ‘tortured’ by death of baby after magpie swooped in Brisbane park
Five-month-old Mia suffered critical injuries after her mother fell while trying to avoid the bird
The devastated aunts of a baby who died after her mother tried to protect her from a swooping magpie have described the feelings of torture the parents have been left with.
Mia was in her mother’s arms when a magpie swooped at them at a Brisbane park on Sunday.
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