birds Archives - Page 3 of 3 - Favorite World Press

The FWP weekly digest of wondrous wildlife happenings
and other interesting items from the natural world

Creatures to meet | Things to learn
Things to do

Lisa S. French

They’re here! Really big birds have landed on Broadway courtesy of Brooklyn-based artist Nicolas Holiber and the Audubon Sculpture Project. Perched between 64th and 157th street on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, the super-sized sculptures made from reclaimed wood found on New York City streets depict birds that either live in or migrate through Manhattan. This conservation art initiative was conceived to draw attention to the fact that nearly half of the birds in North America will be impacted by climate change, including the handsome double-crested cormorant above, currently spreading its wooden wings at 105th street. While the double-crested cormorant is a highly adaptable species found on coastal and inland waters, it is not certain that it will be able to adjust to the northward shift into the climate space of the boreal forest of Canada that is predicted to occur by 2080 at current rates of warming.

You can visit the double-crested cormorant on Broadway along with other New York native birds including the hooded merganser, snowy owl, and red-necked grebe now through January 2020. And if you’d like to see a real live cormorant clan doing their swooping, swimming, diving, fishing thing, be sure to swing by the Central Park Reservoir. For the love of all birds, you can help keep the beaked beauties of New York and North America flying by supporting the work of the National Audubon Society year round. And wherever you are in the world, you can get a bird’s-eye view of their daily happenings courtesy of the Audubon bird cams.

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Lisa S. French July 14, 2019

Precious Parrots

Standing almost two feet tall and weighing in at approximately nine pounds, the moss-green kākāpō is the world’s largest and only flightless parrot. It is also one of the most critically endangered. Known as the “owl-parrot” due to its large eyes and head, this charmingly chubby forest inhabitant was common in its native New Zealand where it evolved over 30 million years, free from the threat of natural predators. Over the past few hundred years with only the minimal protection offered by its mottled, camouflaging feathers, the defenseless, ground-dwelling kākāpō was hunted to the brink of extinction by both humans and the invasive species introduced by European settlers. Habitat loss from forest conversion to farm-land also contributed to the parrots’ plummeting numbers, and by 1977 the solitary, nocturnal kākāpō had been reduced to a tiny population of just 18 birds. Although kākāpōs rebounded slightly to 51 individuals in the 1990’s, their future looked decidedly grim.

The plight of the kākāpō is further complicated by infrequent breeding. The parrots only mate every two to four years when native coniferous rimu trees bear the vitamin D rich fruit which they feed their young. And because females are solely responsible for incubating, parenting and foraging for food, eggs and fledglings are extremely vulnerable to predators when out of necessity they are left alone in the nest. Factoring in a loss of genetic diversity which helped to ensure the survival of chicks, the kākāpō was in desperate need of some avian assistance.

Fast-forward three decades, thanks to the intensive and innovative management of the critically endangered parrots by scientists at the New Zealand Department of Conservation, as of 2017, the kākāpō count was at 154. Following the transfer of the entire population of birds to three remote predator-free islands, Whenua Hou, Anchor, and Hauturu, the kākāpō recovery programme began monitoring the birds through every stage of development pitching in with nest protection, supplementary feeding and the hand raising of chicks. As a result of around the clock intensive care, this year the kākāpōs had a record-breaking breeding season resulting in 76 hatchlings. Scientists expect that about 60 of the young birds will make it to adulthood. While the kākāpō population is on the upswing, conservationists won’t breathe easier until their numbers get closer to 500. In the meantime, preservation of these precious parrots continues with international efforts aimed at ensuring their survival, including genome sequencing, drone-supported artificial insemination and the world’s first successful bird brain surgery. In honor of Endangered Species Day on May 17, we tip our wings to the captivating kākāpō and the dedicated scientists who continue to work tirelessly to save this rare species–bird by bird.

Update:

Following a tremendously successful 2018/2019 breeding season, and the unprecedented survival of 71 chicks to juvenile age, as of September 2019, the critically endangered kākāpō population has reached a record high of 213! You can read more about the ground-dwelling parrot progress here.

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Lisa S. French May 16, 2019

Paternal Penguins

In the southern hemisphere, the Antarctic autumn which begins in late March/early April also marks the start of emperor penguin parenting season. The only species on earth that nests in winter, emperor penguins are dependent upon the formation of sea ice which must be solid enough to support the 46 breeding colonies of thousands of 50 to 100-pound birds that return from the sea to the barren, beak-chillingly cold polar landscape to start their feathered families. Once the serially monogamous birds pair off with mates, come late May/early June, female emperors will lay one egg which they transfer to their male parenting partners for safekeeping before traveling distances of up to 70 miles back to the sea to feed on fish, krill, and squid. During the 65-75 day incubation period, the male penguin carefully wedges the single egg on its feet below a loose fold of highly vascularized featherless skin called a brood pouch which warms the egg to about 100°F. To ensure every egg in the colony stays equally toasty while exposed to average winter temperatures of -49°F, these paternal penguins huddle together in massive groups for warmth, rotating in an orderly procession from the outside to the inside of the huddle so that no bird is left out in the cold.

Male emperors fast throughout the two month incubation period surviving on fat reserves, often losing as much as half of their body weight. Once the penguin chicks emerge from their shells into the frozen world of the Antarctic, the papa penguins prop the hatchlings on their feet, tuck them up safely under the brood pouch for warmth, and feed them a milky substance produced by a gland in their esophagus. When the female penguins return to the colony in July, the hungry, weakened male transfers the chick to its mother’s brood pouch for care and feeding before embarking on his own long march to the sea to fatten up. When the male penguin rejoins his family, the dedicated parents take turns feeding and guarding the chicks ensuring the little ones are shielded from the harsh elements until they grow a thick layer of protective down and are able to stand on their own tiny webbed feet.

Learn about the importance of maintaining the Antarctic home of these fascinating, flightless birds from ecologist Michelle LaRue and on April 25th ruffle your feathers in honor of World Penguin Day.

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Lisa S. French March 27, 2019

Beaked Builders

With his glossy blue-black plumage and striking violet eyes, the male satin bowerbird really stands out in a flock. As if purple peepers weren’t enough to grab attention, the bowerbird has evolved to develop quite a flair for design and construction in order to compete for female interest. And apparently, the competition is pretty stiff. Male bowerbirds are evaluated by females based on their ability to build a complex structure or bower made from twigs and dried grass. Once the walls of the U-shaped bower are complete, objects carefully chosen for artistic impact, including flowers, berries, shells, feathers and brightly colored bits of plastic, are precisely placed around the base of the bower to increase the overall appeal.

Bowerbirds that beautify with berries get the added advantage of a local crop to harvest from for redecorating when discarded fruits grow into plants. Native to Australia and New Guinea, each of the twenty species of these masters of avian architecture works with a species-specific color palette. To showcase his design chops, the satin bowerbird prefers to accessorize in shades of blue, perhaps as a complement to his feathered finery. If you’re still honing your decorating skills don’t worry, it took millions of years for the bowerbird to get this good. You can learn more about the satin bowerbird and other clever winged creatures in The Genius of Birds by Jennifer Ackerman.

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Lisa S. French January 24, 2019

Pocket Birds

The next time you are roaming out in the American Southwest and you come across a sparrow-sized, cactus-dwelling owl and you are wondering, “Hey, what kind of tiny owl is that anyway?” you can download the Audubon bird guide app and find out everything you’ve ever wanted to know about the cutely compact elf owl and 800 other species of North American birds. Did we mention it’s free? Yep, it’s free! If you’d like to go book-deep with your elfin owl education, Owl by Paul Bannick explores the life cycle and habitats of the world’s smallest owl along with 18 other species of North American owls.

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Lisa S. French December 20, 2018