Shiny black feathers: structurally different

The shiny feathers on Common Ravens, for instance, display a unique structure that might prove useful to humans, according to research by scientists at The University of Akron.

Integrated bioscience Ph.D. student Rafael Maia, postdoctoral researcher Liliana D’Alba and assistant professor Matthew Shawkey found that shiny black feathers have a single thin keratin layer but loosely organized melanosomes. This differs from iridescent feathers' single, thin layer of keratin atop a linearly organized layer of melanosomes (the cell subunits containing the light-absorbing pigment melanin) as well as matte-black feathers' thick keratin layer and disorganized melanosomes.

The research, supported by the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research, might represent an evolutionarily intermediate step between matte and iridescent colors and also provides possibilities for new ways to produce glossy surfaces, according to the university. The scientists' findings, "What makes a feather shine? A nanostructural basis for glossy black colours in feathers," appeared on Proceedings of The Royal Society B today.

glossy black feather courtesy of The University of Akron

Report: Why bird flocks move in unison

Birders have long longed to understand how birds in flicks move in synchronicity and appear to make snap decisions as a group. Researchers from Budapest, Hungary, used a particle model to investigate flocks of birds landing on foraging flights.

In the report published in "New Journal of Physics," the researchers describe their use of a self-propelled particle system in whcih the particles represent birds with parameters like position and velocity. The scientists found that "the collective switching from the flying to the landing state overrides the individual landing intentions of each bird.

In the absence of a decision making leader, the collective shift to land is heavily influenced by perturbations the individual birds are subject to, such as the birds’ flying position within the flock. This can be compared to an avalanche of piled up sand, which would occur even for perfectly symmetric and cautiously placed grains, but in reality happens much sooner because of increasing, non-linear fluctuations.

The researchers said, “Our main motivation was to better understand something which is puzzling and out there in nature, especially in cases involving the stopping or starting of a collective behavioural pattern in a group of people or animals.

Possible applications include collectively flying, unmanned aerial vehicles, initiating a desired motion pattern in crowds or groups of animals and even finance, where the results could be used to interpret collective effects on selling or buying shares on the stock market.

Photo courtesy of Jodie Twose/Far And Further

Scott Weidensaul to receive award April 24

At Mill Grove -- the first American home of French artist, naturalist and author John James Audubon -- birder and Pulitzer Prize-nominated author Scott Weidensaul will receive the first John James Audubon Center Award for Art Inspiring Conservation. His work will be honored at Friends of a Feather, a gala reception at the facility in Audubon, Pa. Weidensaul's most recent book, "Of a Feather: A brief history of American birding," debuted in September 2007.

Sponsored by Audubon Center at Mill Grove, the award seeks to honor an artist who conveys the value of nature, interprets conservation challenges and inspires action to protect birds and other wildlife.

“John James Audubon used a brush to transform how Americans look at nature; Scott Weidensaul uses words to the same magical effect,” said Jean Bochnowski, director of the center.

Scott Weidensaul does more than write about birds. As a federal licensed bird-bander, he leads teams from the Ned Smith Center for Nature and Art (Millersburg, PA) to harmlessly catch, band and release hundreds of Saw-Whet Owls each fall. Much of what is now known about the migratory patterns of these tiny and elusive raptors comes from the work of Mr. Weidensaul and hundreds of other volunteer researchers.

Tickets for the gala reception begin at $65; contact the center at 610-666-5593 x105 or millgrove@audubon.org.

California birders needed for bird study

The California Department of Fish & Game seeks volunteers to complete a two-hour training course before trapping and banding Mourning Doves as part of a national study. Participants in the Mourning Dove Banding Program need to be 18 years old or with a guardian and have good organizational skills.

Volunteers will not pay a fee and can participate from the comfort of their homes between June and August. CDFG will provide all supplies after the volunteers complete the training and receive a legal bird handling permit.

The trapping and banding work usually occurs in the early morning (dawn to 10 a.m.) and the late evening (5 p.m. to dusk). Volunteers can work limited hours or only on certain days, and they can place traps almost anywhere, including their own yards. Traps must be checked within every hour it is set to avoid predation and summer heat exposure.

When a Mourning Dove is trapped, a volunteer will band its right leg, record the band number data and release it. The trapping season will end on Aug. 20, and all traps must be pulled by that date. CDFG will need all materials shipped immediately to the office at 1812 9th St., Sacramento 95814, for database entry.

All band recovery data is reported to the U.S. Geological Survey Bird Banding Laboratory, where it is added to the national database. Wildlife managers use this information to keep track of the species’ survival and harvest rates.

UPDATE: For more information about the program or to reserve a space at a training session, contact Heather Hlusak at hhlusak@dfg.ca.gov, 916-445-3445, or Karen Fothergill at kfotherg@dfg.ca.gov.

Conference on coastal habitat restoration

Organized by Restore America's Estuaries, the 5th National Conference on Coastal and Estuarine Habitat Restoration will focus on "Preparing for Climate Change: Science, Practice, and Policy" and is scheduled for Nov. 13-17, 2010, at the Galveston Island Convention Center in Galveston, Texas.

The Conference Program will address all aspects of coastal and estuarine habitat restoration, in all habitats, at all scales, and all regions. Habitat restoration offers great promise for reversing the trend of habitat loss and degradation, and is a crucial component of comprehensive ecosystem restoration, protection, and management.

Until March 2, RAE will accept proposals for 90-minute dedicated sessions (three to four presentations), single 20-minute presentations, and posters.

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

Birds might show how humans learn speech

From The University of Chicago:

Researchers at the University of Chicago are studying communication in animals to improve their understanding of how language develops in humans and how they use it.

“We find compelling evidence that language is a phenomenon of evolutionary biology and within the reach of biological investigation,” write biologist Daniel Margoliash and psychologist Howard Nusbaum in “Language: The Perspective from Organismal Biology,” an opinion piece in the current issue of the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

The two researchers challenge the position held by other scholars, including language theorist Noam Chomsky, that the way people develop language is uniquely human and unrelated to communication systems in other animals. In that theory, the ability to speak is contained in a “black box” in the brain and can be opened by informal contact as a baby begins recognizing sounds or a toddler begins speaking.

Recent research, including studies at the University on songbirds, questions that position and argues for inclusion of evolutionary biology as a means of learning more about how language develops. Songbirds also show a human-like capacity to learn complex vocal patterns, the researchers have found.

Margoliash and Nusbaum's research worked with European Starlings. Perhaps that decreases some of the EUST hatred that so many birders hold?

Photo courtesy of South Dakota Birds and Birding

BBC Wildlife Finder

Even though North American birders can't watch the videos on BBC's Wildlife Finder, they can enjoy the photos and soundfiles culled from 30 years of natural history content. For instance, take a peek at European Robin (Erithacus rubecula). You'll find a nice action photo, a 2:30-minute recording of its spring song, a breakdown of its scientific classification, a range map with the species' preferred habitats, a visual depiction of its conservation status, links to other resources, and a bit of text from a Wikipedia entry.

Aside from animals, Wildlife Finder offers comprehensive info about habitats in which animals live and splits them into terrestrial, freshwater and marine. Within the terrestrial habitats, the broadleaf forest page includes two sound recordings, lots of videos that we Yanks can't watch, a habitat map and then links galore to amphibians, birds, insects, mammals and reptiles that live in the habitat.

The site also showcases adaptations and groups them into behavioural patterns (There's an extra u in that word!), communication and senses, development, ecosystem role, feeding habits, locomotion, morphology, predation, reproduction and social behaviour. While North Americans miss out on the videos, we still can enjoy the Wikipedia text and the links to species that share a particular adaptation.

One more section, Ecozones, divides the Earth into Oceania, Nearctic, Neotropical, Afrotropics, Palearctic, Indo-Malay, Australasia and Antarctica.

What an incredible treasure trove! If only the video player didn't say "Not available in your area."

Hummingbirds: Magic in the Air

Mark Jan. 10 on your 2010 calendar for a new PBS Nature program all about those flashy little Napoleons, hummingbirds. Even nonbirders enjoy seeing these diminutive birds, so consider sharing the news with friends and relatives who don't own bird field guides.


For now, feast your eyes on this incredible video! The dramatic slow-motion sequences reveal some of these birds' awesomeness.

From PBS:

Because hummingbirds live their lives in fast forward, much of their fascinating world is typically lost to human perception. But using cameras able to capture over 500 images a second, the hummingbirds’ magical world can finally be seen and appreciated. Amazing footage shows these little powerhouses are far more than delicate nectar gatherers — they are also deadly predators. And watch as the birds display their elaborate mating rituals, showing off with nose dives that subject them to over ten G’s of force — enough to cause an experienced fighter pilot to black out!

Anyone else tempted to host a viewing party with sugar water on the menu?

Breeding Bird Surveys + satellite images

At an American Geophysical Union meeting today, a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison said comparing satellite images with results from an annual survey of breeding birds might provide "a quick, easy way to identify areas with high biodiversity."

Patrick Culbert, a Ph.D. student in the university's department of forestry and wildlife ecology, used Landsat images of parts of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Missouri. The images covered more than 580 Bird Breeding Survey routes, where citizen scientists cover approximately 25 miles and record singing or visible birds during breeding season (usually June).

From the university's press release:

Culbert compared the number of bird species along the routes with measures of "habitat complexity," which is how wildlife ecologists describe the range of niches within a particular location. A forest with many levels of vegetation or an area with a mixture of wetlands and forest are two examples of complex habitat that, in repeated studies, tend to support higher biodiversity.

To explore the same relationship on a larger scale, Culbert says he focused on variation among the pixels in satellite images. "Some areas have a richer texture in the pattern of pixels than others. In an agricultural field, all the pixels are very similar, but in an old growth forest, we see lots of gaps, with a much more varied texture."

Associate professor Volker Radeloff, who is Culbert's adviser, said the goal is a "plug-and-play" system that uses remote sensing for a more realistic approach to land-use decisions. He said, "The traditional data-gathering approach of wildlife ecology is too slow to advise local governments about land use.

"If somebody says, 'We want to develop this land,' and you ask for five years to do a survey to get the answers, you will no longer be asked. For land managers, this could be a huge step forward."

College students to study effects on climate change on birds

NASA provided more than $445,000 to University of Georgia so undergraduate students can attend classroom instruction and field classes that look into the effects of climate change on birds and their migration, the university announced this week. The grant subsidizes a year of classes that will begin with the fall 2010 semester and will cover global climate change models, research methods and ways to design field experiments. Students will conduct their experiments during the summer period.

Jeffrey Hepinstall-Cymerman, assistant professor of landscape ecology in the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, said students will use NASA data, models, spatial analysis, statistics and field methods. Hepinstall-Cymerman will work with two professors in the Warnell School -- Robert Cooper and Michael Conroy -- as well as Marshall Shepherd, professor in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.

The effect of climate change on birds is sometimes overlooked when the controversial subject is debated, but Conroy notes that if springs continue to get warmer, then it affects when the primary food source for birds—insects—emerge. If birds don’t adjust to that change, he said, newly-hatched birds won’t have enough food. ...

Although the NASA grant primarily funds instruction activities, the summer undergraduate research will offer undergraduate students the type of field research experience generally found only at the graduate level and will tie in with work Cooper is doing on breeding bird productivity along an elevational gradient at Coweeta.

“The mountainside is a surrogate for climate change,” said Cooper, “and leafout and insect emergence will be later at higher elevations. Migrating birds that arrive in the spring to breed may be right on time to hit peak insect numbers at higher elevations, but not at lower sites, a phenomenon that is likely to be even more extreme with increasing global temperatures.”

New bird species ranks among Time's Top 10 of 2009

Time.com released today its "The Top 10 of Everything in 2009." Among the topics: Top 10 New Species. The last item on that list, Himalayan Hoard, featured a photo of an Asian Babbler (courtesy of Ramana Athreya/WWF Nepal).


According to WWF, formerly known as World Wildlife Fund: The species, Liocichla bugunorum, lives in open-canopied hill forests with dense shrubs and small trees, and so far is known to be restricted to 2 sq km at an altitude of between 2,000m and 2,350m.

Hummingbirds receive spotlight at fluid dynamics meeting

Three scientists recently revealed their findings on hummingbird tongue research at the annual meeting of American Physical Society's Division of Fluid Dynamics in Minneapolis. John W.M. Bush and Francois Peaudecerf of Massachusetts Institute of Technology worked with David Quere of the City of Paris Industrial Physics and Chemistry Higher Educational Institution.

The abstract for their 13-minute talk says:

We present the results of a combined experimental and theoretical investigation of the drinking technique of the hummingbird. Its long, thin tongue is dipped into nectar approximately 20 times per second. With each insertion, fluid rises along the length of the tongue through capillary action.

While the tongue is open in cross-section, resembling a sliced straw, experiments demonstrate that surface tension serves to close it, with the tongue's zipping front corresponding to the rising meniscus. Supporting theoretical and analogue experimental models of this novel, natural example of capillary origami are developed and explored.

The New York Times explains further:

For the latest research, Dr. Bush and his co-workers found that when a hummingbird stuck its tongue into a flower, the tongue, about three-quarters of an inch long, curled up into a cylinder just one twenty-fifth of an inch in diameter because of surface tension.

“The hummingbird’s tongue looks like a straw with a slot cut in it,” Dr. Bush said.

Also because of the surface tension, the slot in the cylindrical tongue zips closed, beginning from the tip. The nectar is drawn upward, and the cylinder fills.

Illustration courtesy of New York Times/Chris Gash

Female birds prefer males with higher-pitched calls?

When some bird species search for a mate, they don't use their eyes but their ears. A study of Ocellated Antbirds in Central America suggests that female antbirds prefer males that hit the highest notes -- and for good reason.

From Purdue University:

Andrew DeWoody, a Purdue University professor of genetics, found that the higher the pitch of a male bird's song, the more genetic diversity that bird has, making him a better mate for breeding. His study was published Wednesday (Dec. 2) in the early online edition of PLoS One. ...

The antbirds have several calls, some to let fellow antbirds know where the army ants are heading, others to attract mates and still others that are defensive or aggressive to protect turf. DeWoody's research involved recording those calls and matching them to DNA samples of the birds. The results suggest that genetic diversity in antbirds affects their physical abilities to produce certain sounds.

DeWoody said females might choose the males with higher-pitched calls because of potentially greater genetic diversity in their offspring. You can listen to Ocellated Antbird calls and see photos at Xeno-canto.org

CMBO Morning Flight takes off

Down at the southernmost tip of New Jersey, a birding tradition began its seventh year on Sunday, just after sunrise. At Higbee Beach Wildlife Management Area, bird counters stood on the dredge spoil and counted the songbirds traveling north and following a cold front.

From atop the dredge soil, looking south and at the observation platform

With support from Zeiss, Cape May Bird Observatory's Morning Flight Project employs counters and provides Zeiss spotting scopes and binocular to identify the fall warblers and other species. On some mornings -- such as Oct. 16, 1990, and Oct. 18, 1995 -- more than 100,000 birds fly above Higbee.

The project will continue until Oct. 31. Free programs that describe the count will occur at 8 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday morning through the end of October.

Corvids: whip-smart birdbrains

More great news about New Caledonian Crows (Corvus moneduloides) from ScienceDaily.com: "Crows Can Use 'Up To Three Tools' In Correct Sequence Without Training"

New experiments by Oxford University scientists reveal that New Caledonian crows can spontaneously use up to three tools in the correct sequence to achieve a goal, something never before observed in non-human animals without explicit training.

Sequential tool use has often been interpreted as evidence for advanced cognitive abilities, such as planning and analogical reasoning, but this has never been explicitly examined.

The researchers set out to investigate what the crows really understood about the tasks and their own actions with tools. A report of their research appears in the journal PLoS One.

In the wild, New Caledonian crows use a range of tool types for extracting invertebrate prey from holes and crevices, and in captivity, they have been shown to make, or select, tools to retrieve food rewards. In previous experiments, the Oxford team reported that a crow (named ‘Betty’) was capable of spontaneously inventing new tool designs according to what was required by the tasks. In all these cases, however, objects were used to act on pieces of food.

Betty (above) earned her spotlight in August 2002, and she lived in captivity until 2008. RIP, Betty.

Much more information about the New Caledonian Crows at Oxford University appears here. You even can watch movies of Betty choosing tools.

Birds' vocal cords are fastest known muscles

From National Geographic News:

Experts have long wondered whether bird song is caused by passive interactions as air moves between the vocal muscles or direct neuromuscular control.

"I had been looking at the muscles in a pigeon species and was amazed by how fast they were moving," said lead study author Coen Elemans at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.

"[Pigeons] have really boring, slow songs, and it made me wonder what the muscles in songbirds were like, so I decided to find out."

What Elemans and colleagues discovered is that zebra finches and European starlings can change their tunes at frequencies as high as 250 hertz via direct muscle control.

This means that they are moving their muscles a hundred times faster than a blink of the human eye.

The research appeared on PLoS One on July 9, "Superfast Vocal Muscles Control Song Production in Songbirds," and the abstract begins:

Birdsong is a widely used model for vocal learning and human speech, which exhibits high temporal and acoustic diversity. Rapid acoustic modulations are thought to arise from the vocal organ, the syrinx, by passive interactions between the two independent sound generators or intrinsic nonlinear dynamics of sound generating structures. Additionally, direct neuromuscular control could produce such rapid and precisely timed acoustic features if syringeal muscles exhibit rare superfast muscle contractile kinetics. However, no direct evidence exists that avian vocal muscles can produce modulations at such high rates. Here, we show...

Click on the PLoS link for the interesting details.

NatGeo's "Animal Minds" article

In case you haven't read it already, here's the cover story of the March 2008 issue of "National Geographic." Virginia Morell's article discusses birds, such as Alex the renowned African Gray Parrot, New Caledonian Crows and Western Scrub-Jays.

The really interesting piece also revealed that Betty, the New Caledonian Crow whom I cite when trying to convince Mom that crows are not bad noisy creatures, died recently from an infection. That news put a slight damper on my morning.

Don't miss the related photo gallery -- which includes Uek, a New Caledonian Crow; Alex; and a Western Scrub-Jay named Psychobird -- and multiple videos. One video focuses on birds and bats.

Want to own a life-size Emperor Penguin sculpture?

If you win the fund-raising auction that runs through Dec. 23, you could live with Wilson, a kinetic sculptor created by Chris Cole of Bend, Ore. Proceeds from the auction go to penguin and seabird research, conducted by Oceanites Inc. , a nonprofit science and education foundation.




Wilson stands 4 feet tall, weighs 110 pounds and possesses motorized wings. He's named for Edward A. Wilson, one of the first scientists to observe and study Emperor Penguins in their native habitat.

Anyone know of a birder, young or old, who'd like to give Wilson a home?

Birds sleep like humans

In today's New York Times, an article by Carl Zimmer discusses the similarities in sleep patterns between birds and humans. For instance, birds experience slow-wave sleep, which scientists in Germany studied.

Niels Rattenborg of the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Germany tested this hypothesis by depriving pigeons of some slow-wave sleep. “We kept pigeons from taking their daytime naps,” he said. “All we did was tap their cage or move the cage floor or give them things to play with for eight hours before we turned the lights off.”

After the lights went dark, the pigeons had slow waves 27 percent stronger than on undisturbed nights. “What we found was that they actually showed response very much like that observed in mammals,” Dr. Rattenborg said. “There’s something in common in being a bird and being a mammal that results in sleeping this way.”

Dr. Rattenborg also learned that birds can keep one side of their brains awake while the other side sleeps. Amazing!