Flaco, the Eurasian eagle-owl whose escape from the Central Park Zoo and life on the loose captivated New York, had potentially lethal amounts of rodenticide in his system as well as a severe pigeon virus when he died last month after striking an Upper West Side building. The findings, from a necropsy conducted by Bronx […]
Read MoreTag: Birds
With an Orange-Tufted Spiderhunter, Birder Breaks Record for Sightings
On Feb. 9, Peter Kaestner stood in the shadow of majestic Tinuy-an Falls on the Philippine island of Mindanao, on the cusp of a record he’d spent seven decades chasing and worried that he’d arrived too late. For years, nobody alive had seen and identified more bird species than Mr. Kaestner. A retired American diplomat, […]
Read MoreWhat We Can Learn From Flaco, the Wild Owl in the Urban Unwild
It’s been more than a week since I read the news and I can still hardly believe it. Flaco, the Eurasian eagle-owl who escaped the Central Park Zoo and spent a year on the lam in Manhattan, is dead. My disbelief is of a piece with the grief I feel at news of an unexpected […]
Read MoreAfter Shutting Down, These Golf Courses Went Wild
There was scraggly grass in one sand trap and wooden blocks and a toy castle in another, evidence of children at play. People were walking their dogs on the fairway, which was looking rather ragged and unkempt. This was only to be expected. Nowadays, these grounds are mowed just twice a year, and haven’t been […]
Read MorePigeon Collared as a Possible Chinese Spy Is Freed After 8 Months
Suspicion of foreign espionage, cursive messages in ancient Chinese, a sensitive microchip — and a suspect that could not be stopped at the border. Ravindar Patil, the assistant Mumbai police sub-inspector assigned to the case, was scratching his head for answers. But first, he had to find a place to lock up the unusual captive. […]
Read MoreMore Than 100 Animals Seized From Long Island Home
Animal welfare authorities seized more than 100 animals from a Long Island home this week — including a South American ostrich, a giant African snail, two prairie dogs and an endangered tiger salamander — after a tip they received about exotic animals led them to their owner’s doorstep. “He was running a pop-up circus,” said […]
Read MoreBird Flu Is Still Causing Havoc. Here’s The Latest.
Over the last three years, a highly contagious, often deadly form of bird flu has taken a staggering toll on animals around the globe. The virus, known as H5N1, has infected birds in more than 80 countries. It has infiltrated big commercial poultry farms and tiny backyard henhouses, affecting 72 million farmed birds in the […]
Read MoreIn Real vs. Fake Christmas Tree Debate: Consider the Wildlife
A few years after the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests started a Christmas tree farm, Nigel Manley, who oversaw the operations, began noticing some interesting developments among the rows of fragrant balsam and Fraser firs lining the land. In the spring, areas around the younger trees drew ground nesters like bobolinks — […]
Read MoreWhat’s on the Menu When Your Cat Goes Out? Probably More Than You Think.
Everyone can agree on one thing: It’s not the cats’ fault they’re bad for wildlife. Cats are carnivores. Their talent for preying on rodents is a big reason their ancestors and ours started hanging around together in the first place. But then, people carried cats around the world, into ecosystems that weren’t equipped for such […]
Read MoreKiwi Eggs Hatch in the Wild Near New Zealand’s Capital
At the foot of a towering fern, Pete Kirkman pushed his hand through a curtain of dead branches into a burrow. His fingers settled on a lump of feathers. Gently, he withdrew a fist-sized hatchling. Baffled by the daylight, the chocolate-colored nocturnal bird shook its pencil-like beak from side to side. “You’re OK,” Mr. Kirkman, […]
Read MoreWhy Warblers Flock to Tonier Neighborhoods
At a meeting of urban wildlife researchers in Washington, D.C., in June, one diagram made it into so many PowerPoint presentations that its recurrence became a running joke. The subject, though, was serious: The diagram illustrated the links between structural racism, pernicious landscape features such as urban heat islands, and impacts to biodiversity, and it […]
Read MoreHow Tropical Parakeets Took Over Brussels
In the lively Brussels neighborhood of Flagey, you can be sure of two things: People will be lined up for fries at Frit Flagey, and pigeons will be nearby, pecking at scraps. Just a few hundred yards away, around dusk, a scene unfolds that feels distinctly less Belgian. Hundreds of electric green parakeets, more commonly […]
Read MoreBirds in the Americas Will No Longer Be Named After People
The American Ornithological Society, which is the organization responsible for standardizing English bird names across the Americas, announced on Wednesday that it would rename all species honoring people. Bird names derived from people, the society said in a statement, can be harmful, exclusive and detract from “the focus, appreciation or consideration of the birds themselves.” […]
Read MoreThis Is What Keeps My Eco-Anxiety in Check
From spring until late fall, when winter weather drives me indoors to the treadmill, I spend 20 minutes each morning after my run around the Back Cove in Portland, Maine, walking the shoreline, picking up garbage. Every day is Groundhog Day — I gather plastic cups, syringes, food containers and cigarette butts the same as […]
Read More2023 Kachemak Bay cranes head south
Despite a colder and wetter summer, the crane nesting success rate in the Homer area was better than usual this year, according to the Kachemak Crane Watch 2023 annual sandhill crane summary. According to the summary, there were 61 nests reported this year — with 54 nests successful — for an 88.5% nest success rate. […]
Read MoreCirca Central Park Is Notorious for Bird Collisions. Residents Want Change.
The dazzling views of Central Park come with a dark side. Each spring and fall, dead and injured birds litter the front sidewalk and interior courtyard of a glassy, crescent-shaped building of about 50 condominium units on the northwest corner of the park. The casualties are brightly colored travelers on migrations that would normally take […]
Read MoreScientists Use CRISPR to Make Chickens More Resistant to Bird Flu
Scientists have used the gene-editing technology known as CRISPR to create chickens that have some resistance to avian influenza, according to a new study that was published in the journal Nature Communications on Tuesday. The study suggests that genetic engineering could potentially be one tool for reducing the toll of bird flu, a group of […]
Read MoreNearly 1,000 Migrating Birds Die After Striking Chicago Building
Millions of birds fly over Chicago during the fall migration season, and a number of them die after being confused by bright lights or after trying to fly through a window, but the carpet of bird carcasses outside a convention center on Thursday morning shocked people who have been monitoring birds in the city for […]
Read MoreHow Do You Fight Bird Flu in France? Vaccinate 64 Million Ducks.
To protect its flocks and its foie gras from the ravages of bird flu, France has begun a mass vaccination of 64 million ducks. The campaign, which started this week, aims to prevent the spread of a deadly variant of avian influenza that has forced French farmers to cull more than 30 million birds in […]
Read More