This Week in Birding 65

This Week in Birding

:: The US Fish & Wildlife Service’s National Fish and Wildlife Forensics Laboratory studied three solar farms in Southern California and found a disturbing amount of bird injuries — 233 total birds, over 71 species — and says that there are no easy fixes to the problem.

:: A new list documenting the world’s most distinctive rare bird species, according to their appearance, behavior, and evolutionary history, has been compiled by researchers at Yale University and the Zoological Society of London as part of the EDGE of Existence conservation program.

:: Mountain Bluebirds and other cavity-nesting bird species in Nevada are being killed by the hollow plastic pipes driven into the ground to mark mining claims on public land; the birds go into the pipes but can’t climb back out or spread their wings to fly, so trapped at the bottom, they slowly die of dehydration.

:: The U.S. Geological Survey and researchers from the University of New Mexico and Northern Arizona University released a report last week the effects climate change on wildlife species in the Sonoran Desert and the Colorado Plateau ecosystems; the Pinyon Jay is projected to lose nearly one-third of its breeding range, while other species could lose as much as 80 percent by the end of the century

:: BBC nature show host Chris Packham is criticizing television producers and bird charities for ignoring the mass slaughter of migrant birds in Malta.

:: The US Fish & Wildlife Service has again extended, to April 25, the public comment period on a proposal to list Yellow-billed Cuckoos as a threatened species, because of last year’s government shutdown.

:: Several iconic bird spices in the Adirondacks (NY) are in trouble — including the Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, Lincoln’s Sparrow, and  Palm Warbler –  with declines driven by the size of their wetland habitats, how connected these wetlands are to one another, and how near they are to human infrastructure, according to a new Wildlife Conservation Society study.

:: According to the Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, and WildEarth Guardians, a new federal plan to list the Lesser Prairie Chicken as threatened rather than endangered would not reverse the species’ decline because it would allow ongoing destruction of the bird’s habitat, and so the three groups plan to sue the US Interior Department and US Fish & Wildlife Service under the Endangered Species Act.

:: Carole Burns of The Washington Post interviews David Sibley about the new edition of his Sibley Guide to Birds

Great posts in birding blogs this week: 

:: From Jeremy at A Victoria BirderEndemics, Undemics, and Everything in Between

:: From Josiah at Birds in Your BackyardSpring has Sprung! (Part 1)

:: From Kirby at Birding is FunPledge to Fledge — Every Day!

:: From Ethan at Bird BoyA Trip to Kimberley, BC #2

:: From Jochen at 10,000 BirdsKnow Your Audience: A Ring-necked Duck in Germany

:: From Jeff at NeoVista BirdingSunshine’s Got Me Humming for Hummers!