Wild parakeets, escapees from pet stores and pet shipments, have set up housekeeping in cities from Los Angeles to Montreal, London to Madrid. In San Francisco, former rock guitarist Mark Bittner near a colony of red-headed parakeets, that have been living in Telegraph Hill since the 1990s. They were imported from Ecuador and Peru and either were released or escaped. Bittner has gotten to know them personally.
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If you hear birds chirping in the winter, it means they’ve built up enough fat reserves to survive the cold nights and have enough energy left to defend their territory. When food is scarce, they have to decide whether to spend their energy hunting for food or use it to sing. A bird sings at dawn if it has enough energy left over from keeping warm the night before.
John McNamara of the University of Bristol says, “Because birds can’t predict exactly how much energy they need to survive the night, they need to build up enough fat reserves by dusk to cater for the worst-case scenario. And as most nights are not that cold, they should have enough energy reserves left over at dawn to sing.”
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Maryland’s Baltimore orioles could vanish altogether in this century due to dramatic changes in migration patterns influenced by global warming.
A new study due out soon from the National Wildlife Federation and the American Bird Conservancy suggests that the effects of global warming may be robbing Maryland and other states of an important piece of their heritage by hastening the departures of their state birds. The report says the Earth?s rising temperature is changing songbird ranges, altering migration behavior and diminishing some species? ability to survive.
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The National Audubon Society?s annual Christmas Bird Count shows that birds are being spotted in places hundreds and even thousands of miles from their traditional habitats. It may be due to the changing weather, but scientists can?t really explain it. ?It?s shaping up to be very interesting,? says Geoff LeBaron, the national coordinator for the annual Christmas-time tally.
The Christmas Bird Count, now in its 102nd year, tracks changes in the continent?s bird populations over the years by using local birders who look for birds in 15-mile diameter circles between Dec. 14 and Jan. 5. So far this year, more than 50,000 participants have logged more than 1.8 million birds from the Caribbean Islands to Nome, Alaska.
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