Indholdsfortegnelse for November/December 2022 i BirdWatching

CONSERVATION Recently in Hawai’i, a critically endangered ‘Akikiki was brought into captivity after a 10-day search mission. The species, which is threatened by avian malaria, may go extinct in the wild as soon as 2023, experts predict. CONSERVATION The Santa Marta Sabrewing, a hummingbird only found in Colombia’s Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains, was recently rediscovered. It was only the second time the species has had a documented sighting since it was first collected in 1946. Subscribe to our newsletter: birdwatchingdaily.com/newsletter Become a member of BirdWatching: birdwatchingdaily.com/memberships Enter our current contest: birdwatchingdaily.com/photo-contests Follow, like, and share! FACEBOOK: BirdWatchingMagazine INSTAGRAM: @birdwatchingmagazine TWITTER: @BirdWatchDaily FLICKR: BirdWatching group photo pool…

A new study of a European raptor species suggests that climate change may have a significant impact on birds that are thought to be stable currently. The Red Kite is a bird of prey that breeds in many European countries; its population is estimated at 60,000-70,000. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature classifies it as “least concern” on the Red List of Threatened Species. A long-term study of a Red Kite population, however, shows that when young kites are born during a drought, they remain disadvantaged throughout life. Since Red Kites can live up to 30 years, the findings suggest that extreme climate events can have a long-lasting impact on their populations, which are declining in some regions. Fabrizio Sergio of the Doñana Biological Station and colleagues investigated…

In mid-September, the National Audubon Society revealed an interactive, free digital platform that combines bird distribution and migration maps with conservation data for 458 species of migratory birds. It’s called the Bird Migration Explorer, and it was in the works for almost four years before it was launched. Audubon and nine other conservation and research organizations created the platform, which incorporates data from more than 500 studies about birds. The Bird Migration Explorer brings together three types of geospatial bird data: occurrence data from eBird Status & Trends models from Cornell Lab of Ornithology; connectivity data from the USGS Bird Banding Lab and Bird Genoscape Project; and tracking data from Birds Canada, the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, and hundreds of researchers from across the globe, who generously contributed their datasets…

MY JOURNEY AS a birdwatcher (the term “birder” had not been coined yet) began in the woods and overgrown fields behind my parents’ ranch house in Whippany, New Jersey. To save you a Google search, Whippany is located about 25 miles west of Manhattan. It sits atop the eutrophic remains of glacial Lake Passaic and precisely where, I estimate, the retreating Laurentide ice sheet dumped its biggest load of rocks. Ask any of the kids who had to clear them by hand so their dads could have the flat, green lawns suburban homeowners dream of. Adjacent to my parents’ rockpile was several hundred acres of publicly owned hardwood forest in early stages of succession, with red maple, pin oak, and white oak dominating. The “Big Woods” were bisected by a…

At first thought, it might seem that any tropical bird could appear anywhere along the U.S./Mexico border. But, in fact, distinct patterns emerge about where these birds appear. It’s worthwhile to spend time studying maps of northern Mexico to understand why certain birds show up where they do. For example, relatively few tropical land birds wander north into California. Why? Because immediately south of that state is the peninsula of Baja California. Baja has some distinctive endemics but far fewer tropical species than the adjacent mainland of Mexico. The Mexican mainland just south of the border features lowlands along both coasts (south of western Arizona and southern Texas), a high central plateau (south of New Mexico and western Texas), and mountains separating the plateau from the coastal plains. In Arizona,…

For thousands of years, southern Indiana was home to vast stretches of open-​canopy oak-hickory forests. That was great for birds like the Prairie Warbler and Red-headed Woodpecker. But starting about 100 years ago, humans began to suppress the fires that clear the way for oak trees to grow. Since then, few oak saplings have been able to reach maturity, and species such as beech and maple — historically kept in check by the same fires that benefit oaks — have proliferated instead. Beech- and maple-dominated forests are far less welcoming to many bird species due to their closed canopies, which result in denser and less-diverse forest floors. Oak canopies, in contrast, allow light to shine through, nourishing a wide variety of shrubs and grasses. The extra foliage in oak-dominated forests…

With heat waves broiling vast tracts of the Northern Hemisphere this past summer, most people have little choice but to confront Al Gore’s inconvenient truth: Human activities are on course to make the planet unlivable not only for people but also for most other species. For birders, the truth of climate change comes with an added inconvenience. Rising temperatures and their consequences imperil the animals we most love, and our own birding activities often make the global situation worse. After realizing that I put more than 6,000 miles on my minivan’s odometer while birding last year, I ran a poll on the Facebook birding page Redpolling to see how many miles other birders drove. I figured my total must be near the top, so imagine my surprise when I found…

For centuries, Newfoundland has been a maritime and avian crossroads. The island, home to tough people infused with humor and tenderness, is affectionately called “The Rock.” Independent to the bone, locals refer to the day that Newfoundland became a province (March 31, 1949) as “the day Canada joined us.” The violence of the sea and underlying tectonic action have left their mark. The Rock’s stunning and picturesque cliffs are evidence of millennia of shifting tides and seismic disruption. The island’s birding legacy is strong: John James Audubon collected here in 1833; Roger Tory Peterson and James Fisher devoted the first two chapters of 1953’s Wild America to their experience on the Avalon Peninsula, North America’s easternmost point. And Peterson provided many of the illustrations for 1961’s Birds of Newfoundland. The…

ONE OF THE most difficult challenges in bird identification (as in life) is to keep your mind open to all possibilities. We all have a desire for certainty. We want to know the answer, with no ambiguity, yes or no, and once we have settled on an answer, we resist any challenge. We tend to emphasize only the evidence that confirms our answer and to ignore or discount evidence that refutes it. As we learn to identify birds — building up a mental library of what birds look like in different seasons, lighting, postures, etc. — we need to be sure those birds are correctly identified. Some are not, that is a given, but we must be wary of drawing conclusions based on uncertain sightings and constantly testing, confirming, and…

Climate warming threatens birds on refuges Earth’s global surface temperature is currently about 1.1 degrees Celsius warmer than it was in the late 1800s, and scientists project it will continue to climb in coming decades. If carbon emissions remain at their current levels, we can expect to surpass 2°C in warming around 2052, according to analysts at CarbonBrief. Since the early 1900s, the United States has established more than 560 national wildlife refuges on more than 150 million acres, offering protections for birds, mammals, plants, insects, fish, and other wildlife. Refuges provide safe havens from development, but climate change poses greater challenges. A team of researchers from Audubon and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently analyzed how bird communities would change on national wildlife refuges if and when we…

JUST ABOUT ALL of us have photographed birds through a window at one time or another to verify an identification, document a rare bird, or create a keepsake of a cool sighting. Unfortunately, images through window glass can be marred by glare and reflections or obscured by window screens, dirt, or moisture between the panes. And autofocus may zero in on the window itself, rendering the bird out of focus. One of my best pictures ever, of a Pileated Woodpecker with its long tongue fully extended, was taken through triple-pane window glass. The bird flew in just minutes after the brand-new window had been installed, so the glass was immaculate. But even the best photos taken through window glass would virtually always be better with the window open. My dining…

INTERNATIONAL BOUNDAsRIES are imaginary lines drawn by humans, of course, and birds don’t recognize them. But for birders working on their lists, those lines can take on great importance. Some of the most popular birding spots in the United States are along the Mexican border, and species that stray north across that border are among the greatest attractions. Bird species everywhere shift their ranges, usually in small degrees, and local birdlife is changing all the time, at least in subtle ways. Such changes are more likely to be noticed along a boundary like that between the U.S. and Mexico. I have been birding the border areas, especially in Arizona and Texas, ever since I was a teenager in the 1970s, so I’ve had plenty of opportunity to think about these…

LAST WINTER, AT the tender age of 71, I underwent a procedure that would have a major impact on my life: a total knee replacement. My previously stiff and painful arthritic knee has improved substantially, and I’m pretty much back to my normal active lifestyle. But the healing process was slow and the physical therapy challenging, and I confess there were days when I despaired of ever again moving around easily with my photography gear. That started me thinking about ways we bird photographers might update our equipment to take advantage of new technology and innovative products, as well as adapt our techniques and our own behavior to let us pursue our passion as we grow older and less mobile. Downsize Bulky cameras and giant telephoto lenses are par for…

In August 2020, Jared Clarke was on a near-shore pelagic boat trip in Bonavista Bay, off the northeastern coast of Newfoundland, when he made this incredible photo. Dozens of whales and thousands of shearwaters were in the area. “Believe it or not,” he says, “I was initially following this shearwater with my camera when the whale decided to photobomb the bird’s moment in the spotlight!” The photo was just one highlight of an astonishing day of observing wildlife. Clarke and his shipmates tallied 29 bird species, including 20,000 Sooty Shearwaters, 7,500 Common Murres, 2,500 Great Shearwaters, 1,000 Black-legged Kittiwakes, 250 Northern Gannets, terns, puffins, Razorbills, shorebirds, and a single Great Skua that was wearing a leg band. The band numbers revealed that it had received the jewelry on Fair Isle…