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The Secret Perfume of Birds: Uncovering the Science of Avian Scent–A Book Review

10,000 Birds

Whittaker’s adventures in olfactory research take unexpected turns into genetics, chemistry, and the halls of academia. One of Whittaker’s first experiments was to place other birds’ preen oil on the nests and eggs of Dark-eyed Juncos. Whittaker’s research road is more serpentine than most academics.

Science 219
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Life Along The Delaware Bay: A Book Review

10,000 Birds

As a Northeast birder I am familiar with the alarming decrease in the number of Red Knots along Atlantic shores and have signed petitions and written e-mails calling for legislation and rules that will limit the overharvesting of the horseshoe crab, whose eggs Red Knots depend on. million in the late 1990’s. Should the gulls be controlled?

Delaware 179
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The Falcon Thief: A Book Review

10,000 Birds

It didn’t occur to me till I started reading The Falcon Thief: A True Tale of Adventure, Treachery, and the Hunt for the Perfect Bird that there was also a possible threat to the eagle herself: poachers, who steal raptor eggs and chicks. McWilliam realizes he’s dealing someone special, a career falcon egg-thief.

Falcons 208
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Birding Nonggang, Guangxi, China – part 2

10,000 Birds

of Army Medical Department 1815-1851. The breeding ecology of the Yellow-bellied Warbler was actually studied exactly here at Nonggang in 2019 by 3 Chinese researchers. The poor bird’s Latin species name is macgrigoriae , apparently (HBW) named after Jane Grant McGrigor, the daughter of Maj.-Gen.

China 226
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Birding Longcanggou, Sichuan again (but maybe for the last time)

10,000 Birds

It even seems that the pliant researchers indirectly support the fighting (even though it has led to the species being one of the most hunted ones in that province) by developing a quick method to identify the sex of the bird (the males turn out to be somewhat bigger and thus presumably the more coveted fighters). Shame on the researchers.

Eggs 167
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The Wryneck: Biology, Behaviour, Conservation and Symbolism of Jynx torquilla: A Book Review

10,000 Birds

The Eurasian Wryneck is the woodpecker that doesn’t look like a woodpecker, the bird with the portmanteau name that is also a medical condition (and which may remind some people of a Nora Ephron essay). and the rural Austrian folk name natterzunge or ‘adder tongue.’ Yet, The Wryneck does not read like a literature review.

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From Today's New York Times

Animal Ethics

Well-planned vegan diets are healthful for pregnant mothers and their infants, as well as for older children, according to a large body of scientific research. The medical journal Lancet recently published findings showing that children who are not adequately nourished in the first five years of life sometimes never catch up to their peers.