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Shearwater Success: Seabirds Return to Rat-Free Islands

10,000 Birds

After invasive rats had effectively extirpated Manx Shearwaters from two of the Isles of Scilly—British islands off the southwestern coast of Cornwall—Prince Charles and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) sprang into action. Score one for the good guys. None had been seen in St. Agnes or Gugh for generations.

Rats 154
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Location, Location

10,000 Birds

Generally the more exposed the egg are, the more hidden or camouflaged the nest should be. Giant Hummingbirds build cup-shaped nests where eggs are exposed, but rather than hiding or camouflaging the nest, the biggest of all hummers generally places its nest in cacti. Nest predation is the driving force of nest site selection by bird.

Mammals 172
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Humboldt Penguins in Chile Face Extinction

Critter News

Invading rats with bodies up to 8 inches (20 centimeters) long have begun eating eggs and chicks, and some experts fear that unless the rats are eradicated, they could tip the Humboldt penguin toward extinction. From the Huffington Post.

Penguins 100
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Angry Birds, What’s Black and White and Hungry All Over, and a Little Something for the Ladies: This Week in Bird News

10,000 Birds

Scientists ponder the feasibility of genetically engineering chickens to lay the eggs of endangered bird species. The law of unintended consequences has tragic effects at a zoo in England, as rat poison ends up killing the Rainbow Lorikeets it was intended to protect. So crazy it just might work?

Penguins 100
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Red-tails in Lust

10,000 Birds

Christo, like a sensible Darwinian creature, has been trying it out with a number of other candidates to put eggs in his nest. But would the bloggers, readers, and local residents who’ve been drawn into this saga sit still if Dora was threatened by rat poison, as befell so many of Pale Male’s mates? Cue scandal!

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Inaccessible Island Rail Atlantisia rogersi

10,000 Birds

Occasionally the Tristan Thrush Nesocichla eremita will prey upon chicks from the two-egg nest of the Inaccessible Island Rail but this not enough in any way to threaten the species. Its eggs are not known, it does not migrate, and it feeds, I understand, on insects and worms.

Science 206
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Rare Birds: The Extraordinary Tale of the Bermuda Petrel and the Man Who Brought It Back from Extinction–A Review

10,000 Birds

In addition to longtails and rats, Wingate battles developers (of course), a rare Snowy Owl that kills 5% of the cahow population (Wingate shoots the owl, to the dismay of many), and the U.S. A particularly good type of fertilizer, for example, drastically increased the population of crabs, spoiling Bermuda’s golf courses.

Birds 168