Bird videos galore at National Geographic

Ready to spend some quality time with your computer and birds from around the world? Settle in for a wonderful session with the Birds section of National Geographic's animal videos. You'll find different groups and multiple videos within each group. For instance, the Birds of Prey menu offers 20 videos including California Condors in Arizona and Bat Falcons in Guatemala (be prepared to see a bat consumed).

Want to chuckle? Watch the "Flying Devils" video of Striated Caracaras destroying the NatGeo videographers' campsite -- and then two adult STCAs show dominance over some juveniles. Whoa.


The selection includes Ground Birds (three), Parrots and Hummingbirds (five), Penguins (five), Perching Birds (nine), Seabirds (12), Waders and Waterfowl (17) and Woodpeckers (three).

Striated Caracara courtesy of Wikipedia/Mila Zinkova

Murmur: bird flocks captured in photos

Richard Barnes isn't the typical bird photographer by any means. He doesn't focus solely on the birds. One of his collections, Refuge, features bird nests made with human trash. His online bio says:

Recent exhibitions include Phylum and Refuge, which looked at the hybrid architecture of a collection of bird nests constructed of materials we humans throw away. In this borrowing process the detritus of our lives: Christmas tinsel, hair, dental floss, etc., become the building materials for birds. The nests hover ambiguously, between the natural and the artificial.

Eleven images appear here.

An exhibition titled Murmur followed those images. In 11 images here, Barnes shows the beauty of aerial flocks.

Jonathan Rosen, author of "The Life of the Skies: Birding at end of nature" (2008), wrote about Barnes' work and birds' flight patterns here.

In Europe, where the birds are native — Mozart had a pet starling that could sing a few bars of his piano concerto in G major — they still have the power to turn heads. Each fall and winter, vast flocks gather in Rome. They spend the day foraging in the surrounding countryside but return each evening to roost. (Rachel Carson, author of “Silent Spring,” called the birds reverse commuters.) They put on breathtaking aerial displays above the city, banking in nervous unison, responding like a school of fish to each tremor inside the group.

Bill Bailey, the comedic birder from Britian

Maybe you haven't heard of Bill Bailey. We need to remedy that pronto.

Listen to the 4:30 audio clip at this Guardian article, and learn about Bailey's history as a birder/twitcher as well as his new TV show, "Bill Bailey's Big Birdwatching Bonanza." You'll find a very amusing, quick video at the second link, as behooves a fellow known for his comedic talents.

Do birds depend on birdfeeders?

An article, "Feed your fine-feathered friends," in today's Chicago Sun-Times says:

"Once you start to feeding in winter, you need to keep it up," said John O'Neill, a naturalist at the Little Red Schoolhouse Nature Center in Willow Springs. "The birds start to depend on the food and it could be detrimental if you suddenly stop."

The birds depend on birdfeeders, and we could hurt them if we stop filling the feeders? I've heard otherwise.

This article at Kingston Field Naturalists appears to indicate otherwise.

Brittingham, in a study on the winter feeding habits of the Black-capped Chickadee in Wisconsin, showed that birds obtained 20 to 25 percent of their daily energy requirements from feeders, and an additional 75 to 80 percent from natural (wild) food sources. Her study also showed that in normal winters chickadees that used feeders as a supplemental food source survived at the same rate when feeding station food was removed as did chickadees that had never been exposed to feeder food.

That article refers to a 1983-1985 study by Margaret C. Brittingham and Stanley Temple.

Have you read other research that focuses on how much wild birds use birdfeeders?

Black-capped Chickadee courtesy of GatorFarm.com

5 tips for bird photography

Interested in taking bird photos during winter? Cornell Lab of Ornithology created a 4-minute video with photographer Marie (MAR-ee) Read.

Read offers many details, and the main tips include:
1. Plan ahead.
2. Go for the action shot.
3. Use a high shutter speed.
4. Set the exposure manually.
5. Know your subjects.

At the video's end, Read says "patience" isn't the right word for bird photography. She describes her photographic efforts as tenacious and stubborn. Do you feel the same way about bird photography?

Corpus Christi nature center extends hours

On Jan. 1, 2010, birders -- as well as photographers and other nature enthusiasts -- can enjoy more of South Texas Botanical Gardens & Nature Center in Corpus Christi. The grounds will open at 7:30 a.m. and remain accessible until 5:30 p.m. The new hours allow 90 more minutes for birding, photography and appreciation.

"Birders long have been telling us early mornings bring out the best in birds and birders,” said Executive Director Dr. Michael Womack. “And of course, we want to attract more birders to 'America’s Birdiest City’,” he added. Many professional as well as excellent amateur photographers also requested the earlier and later hours, both for best lighting and lighter winds.

The 180-acre center includes 11 major floral exhibits as well as trails, birding overlooks and boardwalk through protected natural wetland and native habitat. It also is a Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail site.

Drawing the Motmot exhibit in Okla. museum

Until Jan. 18, birders can visit Sam Noble Museum in Norman, Okla., and see "Drawing the Motmot: An Artist's View of Tropical Nature." The exhibit features the art and commentary of nature artist Debby Kaspari, and it focuses on tropical forests in Central and South America.

Kaspari first began drawing and painting the rainforest in Trinidad in the late 1980s. She fell in love with the lush exotic landscape and made many subsequent trips to the tropics, including sites in Panama and Costa Rica. Last winter, a grant from the Don and Virginia Eckelberry Endowment allowed her to make a trip up the Amazon River to work at a research station deep in the rainforest of Peru. There she was able to draw the flora and fauna of the rainforest canopy thanks to an elevated walkway linking 14 trees through a system of platforms and rope bridges.

For the past four years, Kaspari has been working with the museum to develop an exhibit that would give visitors the same sense of peace, beauty and wonder she herself experienced in the field.

“I wanted this to be more than just an art exhibit,” Kaspari explained. “I wanted to share the environment as I see and feel it. I wanted to bring a visitor into the rainforest and give them the chance to connect with it the way I do, through artwork and media.”

Kaspari maintains a blog, a Facebook profile and a Twitter account, so opportunities to enjoy the artist and her work abound. Although the exhibit will leave the museum in six weeks, you can continue to enjoy Kaspari's talent via the links above.

new! Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Forum

Rainforest Alliance recently announced the bilingual Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Forum, created "to provide migratory bird conservation organizations, government agencies and researchers with a bilingual platform to facilitate collaboration and cooperation across geographic and language barriers."

“All of the countries in the Western Hemisphere share a common heritage — our migratory species,” said Melissa Normann, Neotropics communications manager at Rainforest Alliance. “Because the ranges of these species span national borders, well-coordinated international cooperation is necessary to ensure their conservation.”

The forum's eight categories include news/event information, bird-friendly agriculture, climate change, ecosystem restoration, environmental education, monitoring/inventories, shorebird/waterbird conservation and Southern Wings.

Bird photo wins Nature Conservancy contest

A female Northern Cardinal recently landed in first place in The Nature Conservancy's 2008 Nature Photo Contest. The bird, captured in flight by Howard Cheek of Kempner, Texas, won the most votes amid more than 14,000 submissions.


Posted on the conservancy's website, "Waterhole Landing" garnered the most attention from 19,000 voters. Cheek created the image after "birdscaping" his 6-acre property in the Hill Country. Flower beds, fruit trees, forage grasses and a small pond bring resident and migratory animals to his camera.

Congratulations to Cheek! Very nice to see a bird photo win a nature photography contest.

Want to see more awesome bird photos? Peruse the 2008 winners of WildBird's annual photo contest.

WildBird's contest is going on now! The 16 prizes include a Canon EOS 50D, and participants can submit two entries for each of the five categories. The rules, entry form and prizes appear in the March/April and May/June issues (not online). The entry deadline is May 15.

British scientists use feathers for bird-flu clues

At Durham University, researchers measured strontium isotope levels to pinpoint birds' previous migratory stops. The metal accumulates in feathers and provides more precise data about location than radio or satellite tags. The scientists studied sedge warblers, and their research appeared in the Royal Society of Chemistry's Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry.

Dr. Laura Font said:

"By determining migration pathways, the arrival of potential vectors of diseases from infected areas can be anticipated.

"Knowledge of migratory routes also helps evaluate the likelihood that individual avian influenza outbreaks could be related to migratory bird movements rather than anthropogenic activities, such as poultry movements, which are believed to be the main vector of avian influenza in most outbreaks."

Sedge Warbler courtesy of BBC

10 endangered birds under review

The Pacific region of U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service will review the status of 10 birds -- among other species -- protected by the Endangered Species Act. Public comments are welcome until May 7 about the 71 species, which occur in Oregon, Hawaii, Northern Mariana Islands and Guam.

Periodic status reviews of all listed species are required by the ESA at least once every 5 years to determine whether a species’ classification as threatened or endangered is still appropriate. If the best scientific and commercial data produced since the time of listing are not consistent with the current classification of any species, the Service will recommend a change in the species’ federal classification. A species could be recommended for reclassification from endangered to threatened (downlisting), from threatened to endangered (uplisting), or for removal from the federal list of threatened and endangered species (delisting).

Information that is considered in a status review includes:
· Species biology, including but not limited to, population trends, distribution, abundance, demographics and genetics;
· Habitat conditions including, but not limited to, amount, distribution and suitability;
· Conservation measures that have been implemented that benefit the species;
· Threat status and trends; and
· Other new information, data or corrections including, but not limited to, taxonomic or nomenclatural changes, identification of erroneous information contained in the list, and improved analytical methods.

The avian species include:
· Bridled White-eye (Zosterops conspicillatus conspicillatus) in Guam
· Guam Rail (Rallus owstoni)
· Hawaiian Crow (Corvus hawaiiensis)
· Hawaiian Duck (Anas wyvilliana)
· Hawaiian Hawk (Buteo solitarius)
· Mariana Common Moorhen (Gallinula chloropus guami)
· Nightingale Reed Warbler (Old World warbler) (Acrocephalus luscinia)
· Oahu Elepaio (Chasiempis sandwichensis ibidis)
· Palila (honeycreeper) (Loxioides bailleui)
· Small Kauai Thrush (Myadestes palmeri)

Bridled White-eye courtesy of U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service