Birding

[Chilidog]

In Chicago Piping Plover news...

Imani and Sea Rocket have hooked up and have a nest with at least one egg in it.

The Chicago Ornithological Society, which is monitoring the site has scaled back posting pictures and have asked birder to give the first time nesters space and privacy.

[Chilidog]

From today.

The elusive Sora Rail.

It's actually a fairly common bird.

It's just damned near impossible to get a good photo of one. The like to hide deep in the cattails.

IMG_2155.jpeg (40.75 KiB) Viewed 888 times

[RTH10260]

Ontario, Canada

[RTH10260]

Millions of mosquitoes released in Hawaii to save rare birds from extinction
Conservationists hope insects carrying ‘birth control’ bacteria can save honeycreeper being wiped out by malaria

Phoebe Weston
Fri 21 Jun 2024 09.00 CEST

Millions of mosquitoes are being released from helicopters in Hawaii in a last-ditch attempt to save rare birds slipping into extinction.

The archipelago’s endemic, brightly coloured honeycreeper birds are dying of malaria carried by mosquitoes first introduced by European and American ships in the 1800s. Having evolved with no immunity to the disease, the birds can die after just a single bite.

Thirty-three species of honeycreeper have become extinct and many of the 17 that remain are highly endangered, with concerns some could be extinct within a year if no action is taken. Now conservationists are urgently trying to save them with an unusual strategy: releasing more mosquitoes.

Every week a helicopter drops 250,000 male mosquitoes with a naturally occurring bacterium that acts as birth control on to the islands of the remote archipelago. Already, 10 million have been released.

“The only thing that’s more tragic is if [the birds] went extinct and we didn’t try. You can’t not try,” said Chris Warren, the forest bird programme coordinator for Haleakalā national park on the island of Maui.

The population of one honeycreeper, the Kauaʻi creeper, or ʻakikiki, has dropped from 450 in 2018 to five in 2023, with just one single bird known to be left in the wild on Kauaʻi island, according to the national park service.

Honeycreepers have a canary-like song and incredible diversity: each species has evolved with special beak shapes, adapted to eating different foods, from snails to fruit to nectar. They are an important part of the ecosystem, helping to pollinate plants and eating insects.



https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... a-bacteria

[northland10]

Yesterday was cranky chickadee day (and Canada Day, Oh Canada). I have never seen chickadees fight before, but they do.

I assume it was fighting (in mid-air), but I suppose it could have been something else. Possibly fighting over the feeders, which have plenty of room.

[Chilidog]

A third Piping Plover chick at Montrose has died.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/j8wYuP ... tid=WC7FNe

[northland10]

The red-tailed hawk decided to moon me.

HawkMoon.JPG (99.32 KiB) Viewed 603 times

Actually, I was taking the photo, and it decided to fly off right then. At 450 feet away, you get what you can. Two were flying around today.

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

The Hawk Moon. An annual event many have missed.

[RTH10260]

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

That was heartwarming, RTH!

[RTH10260]

New Zealand

[AndyinPA]

Interesting. Thanks. I was surprised the parent took it so calmly, although the ranger was slow and deliberative

[pipistrelle]

Interesting. Thanks. I was surprised the parent took it so calmly, although the ranger was slow and deliberative

They’re used to it, I think. They’ve been studied for a while, plus more remote birds with less exposure to hoo-mans are a little less skittish.

[AndyinPA]

Interesting. Thanks. I was surprised the parent took it so calmly, although the ranger was slow and deliberative

They’re used to it, I think. They’ve been studied for a while, plus more remote birds with less exposure to hoo-mans are a little less skittish.

Makes sense.