Tag: Birds

Flaco, Central Park Owl, Died With High Levels of Rat Poison in System

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 […]

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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, […]

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After 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 […]

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Pigeon 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. […]

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More 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 […]

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Bird 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 […]

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In 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 — […]

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What’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 […]

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Why 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 […]

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Birds 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.” […]

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This 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 […]

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2023 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. […]

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Circa 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 […]

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Scientists 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 […]

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How 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 […]

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