Critter News

AUGUST 22, 2010

The Spoon-billed Sandpiper, one of the world's most threatened birds, is rapidly heading towards extinction because young birds are being targeted for human consumption. In 2000, around 1,000 breeding pairs were known, but by 2009, the number had plummeted to just 120-220 pairs, a decline of 88%.

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Species Myanmar Endangered Species Russia 100

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 19, 2013

The mechanism by which this is happening in at least some species of birds is very interesting. The breeding season is longer, starts earlier. ” This can also explain why advances in migration timing are not common among species migrating over long distances. Birds have been migrating earlier. ” GannetCam.

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Taiwan Iceland United States Humane 193

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 1, 2013

A week ago today, the federal government proposed a “threatened” listing for the Greater Sage Grouse in Nevada and California , as part of a larger study considering whether the species as a whole should be listed. Conservation Endangered Species Act Greater Sage Grouse sage-grouse'

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Nevada Endangered Species Montana Humane 160

10,000 Birds

MARCH 21, 2014

My Dark-eyed Juncos are trilling in preparation to retreat to quieter breeding grounds, the Black-Capped Chickadees sing their two notes, and the Song Sparrows absolutely will not shut up. Of course, in real life this cannot be so simple as good news. The Varied Thrushes came back. Then the Western Bluebirds and Meadowlarks.

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Geese Montana Breeding Pelicans 181

10,000 Birds

MARCH 14, 2022

These two islands are about halfway between the tip of South Africa and Antarctica in the Subantarctic Indian Ocean, have had relatively few human visitors, and are primarily inhabited with some of the rarest seabirds in the world and a smaller number of mammals. Marion has a fascinating history with invasive species. and seabirders.

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South Africa Mice Albatross Africa 264

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 7, 2020

The book is divided into three parts: “Introduction,” “Avifaunal Overview,” and “Species Accounts.” Not all habitat change is due to humans; there is Chestnut Blight destroying American Chestnuts in the early 1900s, and the more recent Dutch Elm disease. Most birders will go straight to the “Species Accounts.”

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New York City New York Birds Breeding 153

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 20, 2014

The scope is to give you the illusion you might be able to work out the species). My first view of this amazing species! Note bonus swift in background (no idea what species). I saw the species in one of it’s remaining strongholds, the Kinabatangan River. All you need is a boat, or a scope on a windy day.

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2013 Birds Rhinoceros Thailand 177

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 8, 2011

Paging through a fieldguide, it’s always with a sense of dismay and sadness that I come across reference to an extinct species. Madagascar, however, has had more than its fair share of extinct or lost species and Madagascar Pochard was firmly on this list. This bird was kept in captivity until it died a year later.

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Madagascar Lemurs 2006 Owls 243

10,000 Birds

JULY 6, 2016

With wild populations in the Middle East estimated in the mere hundreds, any and every threat can have devastating results to the species’ long-term survival. A breeding program in Turkey has been successful, but civil war in neighboring Syria seems to have posed a significant hazard.

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Syria Turkey Hunting Humane 100

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 24, 2016

A press release about the study likened the contrast to “the differences between humans with and without freckles.”) Genetic-based research published in The Auk indicates that the four variants of “butternuts” include at least three full species. Breeding range map by David Toews/Cornell Lab).

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Guatemala Research Morals Science 106

10,000 Birds

JUNE 7, 2012

A lovely looking and distinctive sounding bird (so they say, I sadly have not seen one…yet), the Kirtland’s Warbler can only be found during its breeding season in Jack Pine forests 5 to 20 years old in the northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan. Fish and Wildlife Service endangered species list.

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Michigan Bahamas Endangered Species Research 235

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 17, 2015

If this was America, we might not be concerned because starlings are an invasive species, at least in North America. From National Geographic News : Cassin’s auklets are tiny diving seabirds that look like puffballs. So, here we go… Fighting in Iraq has been affecting starlings.

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Science Iraq Research Birds 151

10,000 Birds

MARCH 11, 2011

Brown Pelicans , and the northernmost Brown Booby breeding colony on this side of the Pacific. Other birds with webbed feet, including ducks and geese, have only three webbed toes; the hallux (which in birds is usually the “hind toe&# and in humans, the “big toe&# ) is free.

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2011 Pelicans Papua New Guinea Birds 154

10,000 Birds

JUNE 19, 2011

Beyond natural events, bird-life that requires fresh water takes advantage of the water that we provide due to human habitation. To a birder these Poo Ponds offer the perfect place to see a large number of species in a relatively small area close to towns. Happy ducks in Broome in June!

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Feral Animals Australia Ducks Feral 175

10,000 Birds

APRIL 17, 2012

On April 20th 2010, the world received news that eleven men working on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig died in an explosion on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect. As you read the below timeline and see the below images, don’t ever forget the perils that walk hand-in-hand with human greed.

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2010 Louisiana 2012 2011 240

Animal Person

NOVEMBER 21, 2010

And managing means killing them, breeding them, and otherwise fiddling with their populations. Here's the good news: This is a very readable explanation of how animals in the Hundred Heartbeat Club (there are 100 or fewer individuals in the wild today) got to be in the club. This is all very unveganly, but I went for it nevertheless.

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Polar Bears California Condor Bald Eagle Lions 100

10,000 Birds

MARCH 9, 2011

The little stiff-tails are almost year-round at Jamaica Bay though almost all leave to breed in the summer and in the depths of winter, when the ponds are almost completely frozen, they tend to head for open water. Leucism “is a condition characterized by reduced pigmentation in animals and humans.&#

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Ducks 2011 Jamaica Deer 153

10,000 Birds

JULY 10, 2012

More than 150 bird species are known to have become extinct over the past 500 years, and many more are estimated to have been driven to extinction before they became known to science. The Gray Crowned-Crane is a new addition to the list of the world’s Endangered species, creeping up a category from Vulnerable.

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Endangered Species Species South Africa Morocco 196

Critter News

DECEMBER 12, 2009

The Calgary Zoo is again under scrutiny as details emerged Friday about how a capybara, a species of giant South American rodent, died after becoming caught in a hydraulic door last weekend as it was being moved from one area to another. They were a part of the zoo’s breeding program for the rare birds.

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Zoos Animal Welfare Welfare Elephants 100

Animal Ethics

MARCH 29, 2008

To the Editor: Re “ Thinning Yellowstone’s Bison Herd ” (news article, March 23): Yellowstone National Park bison, executed when they migrate outside the boundaries of the park, have plenty of company. Around the world, animal migrations are disappearing because of conflicts with development, agriculture and other human activities.

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New York Times New York United States illegal 40

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 11, 2014

The story of the White-winged Guan , in some ways resembles the re-discovery of some species thought to be extinct. Nineteenth and early twentieth century naturalists collected birds on long and arduous exploratory expeditions in the New World. The decades of storage in a museum came after it was regarded as an extinct species.

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Collecting Peru Neglecting Hunting 270

10,000 Birds

APRIL 6, 2021

Many of these stories will be known to avid readers of environmental news items and social media. 192) from the timing of seasons to the ferocity of weather to the shape of breeding, wintering, and stopover habitat to even the size of birds themselves. This is big, global-level stuff with amazing findings but worrisome data.

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Cyprus Slaughter Slaughtered Research 257

10,000 Birds

MAY 15, 2023

I visited Tengchong in late 2020 and wrote about it – but I also went there earlier, in 2017, and this post shows some photos I took during that trip, along with the usual comments that seem to be much more about ridiculing my fellow humans (especially ornithologists and the like) than providing useful information on birds.

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China 2017 Birds Indonesia 188

10,000 Birds

JULY 25, 2022

Gisela Kaplan has written a book about the species, and how they seem unperturbed by humans: “It’s one of their most successful defense strategies. When these birds breed, this can lead to highly cringeworthy announcements, for example from Adelaide Zoo : “We have egg-citing news! ” ( source ).

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Birds Australia Ducks Mountain Goats 236

10,000 Birds

JUNE 18, 2013

There are three things that will go wrong: 1) The inland zones that would become the new wetlands are already, in many cases, occupied by human-built things that will severely interfere with this process. Also, these human-occupied area are probably full of toxins and other impediments to normal use by wildlife.

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Maryland Birds Penguins Wildlife 228

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 6, 2019

If they can spare a glance upward, the busy grape-pickers might also be treated to another portent of the changing seasons in the Iberian skies overhead: the sight of flocks of White Storks ( Ciconia ciconia ) heading south from their summer breeding grounds in Europe to Africa, where they spend the winter on the warm savannas.

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2017 Spain California Condor California 114

10,000 Birds

JUNE 6, 2017

The guide covers 520 species of birds regularly found in the eastern United States and southeastern Canada, including, interestingly, a number of exotic species. There is also a traditional index to bird species, by common and scientific name. Species Accounts are arranged taxonomically, grouped by family.

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North America America Birds New York 175

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 9, 2014

It is the 100th Anniversary of the extinction of the species known as the Passenger Pigeon and writers are paying attention. And, when you think about it, it is pretty remarkable that anything new can still be said about the bird. .” It’s an effective introduction. They are from a series called Aviary.

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2014 Killing Michigan Kentucky 160

10,000 Birds

MARCH 12, 2011

As part of the Wildlife Conservation Society Birds of Brazil giveaway we asked readers of 10,000 Birds to name the bird in Brazil that they would like to see more than any other species. What follows are the responses that readers offered, a veritable aviary of sought after species. It is a really neat bird that I have not seen before.

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Brazil 2011 Birds Wildlife 211

10,000 Birds

MARCH 14, 2011

March 14, 2011 Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Jon Gassett, Commissioner One Sportsman’s Lane Frankfort, Kentucky 40601 Dear Mr. Gassett, I am a writer, naturalist and artist with a special interest in human/bird interactions. This slow reproduction rate is unlike any other avian game species currently hunted.

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2011 Kentucky Tennessee Hunting 251

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 30, 2018

So, while waiting for evolution to produce new birds for our life lists is inadvisable, we sometimes catch a break and every few years get a new species or two when some genetic research or study of breeding distribution presents enough evidence to split what was once considered a single species into a few new ones.

Ohio 113

Ohio India Hawaii United States 113

10,000 Birds

MARCH 20, 2011

Another 170 are in captivity, many of them breeding stock for reintroduction efforts. It may be as sick as deliberately targeting an endangered species for death. Birders know that the light’s not always perfect or even particularly good when you’re trying to tell one species from another. The big white one. It flies on.

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2011 Hunting Kentucky Hunters 243

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 28, 2023

The adults presumably have already learned that humans are not usually good news even if not named Donald Trump. The White-shouldered Starling is not very common in Shanghai or even in China in general, despite its species name sinensis. Soldiers could probably learn a lot about camouflage from this species.

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Birds Tigers Humane Ecuador 130

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 1, 2019

Whooping Crane is not listed as a “sensitive species” for Florida, and there are reports for other locations in the area. May 11th, less than two weeks before my very much anticipated trip to Michigan with New Jersey Audubon, the NYC listservs and text systems lit up with the news that a Kirtland’s Warbler had been spotted in Central Park.

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2018 New Jersey Michigan North Dakota 162