birds (Page 9)

Chicago is being invaded by birds and scientists are trying to figure out what’s going on. Residents of that city have become familiar with their raucous squawking of monk parakeets (those little green birds you see in pet stores), since whole colonies of them, descended from a few pets that escaped or were freed by their owners are not only nesting in Hyde Park, they have spread to over 500 other locations.

Despite the fact that their native habitat is South America, they seem to be thriving in that cold and windy city. Because information about Chicago’s monk parakeets comes from residents’ descriptions, a trio of researchers decided to enlist the public’s help in their “Chicago Parakeet Project.”
read more

Is this something WE can catch? – Pelicans that seem to be suffering from a mysterious disease are crashing down onto moored boats and wandering dazed along highways. Hundreds of dead bird bodies have been found. This sort of thing has happened before, in Texas. Is this something humans can catch? It?s too bad we can’t ask them about it.

In the Orange County Register, Pat Brennan quotes Jay Holcomb, of Wildrescue, as saying, “These birds are on the freeway, getting run over. A bunch we’ve seen have been hit. They’ve been landing on yards five miles inland. When some of the people have captured them in parking lots, they just sit in the corner. They just go pick them up.”
read more

Some birds speak our language, but what most of us hear is bird song. Can we figure out what they’re saying (singing) to each other?

To many people, bird song can herald the coming of spring, reveal what kind of bird is perched nearby or be merely an unwelcome early morning intrusion. But to researcher Sandra Vehrencamp, bird song is a code which can tell us what birds are thinking.

Birds use song systems to communicate about mating and reproduction, territorial boundaries, age and even overall health. Vehrencamp studies birds from Costa Rica, Colombia and Bonaire to decode which elements convey such essential information.
read more

Researchers aren’t sure how migrating birds choose where to go to lay eggs and raise their young. However, they think that the environmental conditions birds face in their first year may help determine where they breed for the rest of their lives. But since global warming is CHANGING these conditions, birds may begin to migrate to different areas. And researchers have not only discovered WHY birds like to sing at dawn, but have learned that pollution actually makes them sing better.
read more