tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/ornithology-729/articlesOrnithology – The Conversation2024-01-24T19:06:56Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2177922024-01-24T19:06:56Z2024-01-24T19:06:56ZPrince Albert had nothing to do with the lyrebird bearing his name. Should our birds be named after people?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568984/original/file-20240112-19-3u52z2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=46%2C0%2C5185%2C3446&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/prince-alberts-lyrebird-menura-alberti-timid-2258264815">Martin Pelanek/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Influential ornithologist John James Audubon’s historical ownership of slaves has spurred a debate about bird names in the United States. As a result, the American Ornithological Society will change not only birds’ common names referring to him, but all <a href="https://americanornithology.org/american-ornithological-society-will-change-the-english-names-of-bird-species-named-after-people/">152 eponymous bird names</a> in North America, regardless of good or bad perceptions of their namesakes. </p>
<p>The cultural conversation has arrived in Australia where <a href="https://ebird.org/printableList?regionCode=AU">dozens of species</a> are named after people. Some Australian scientists and birdwatchers (including one from the peak ornithological body Birdlife Australia) have <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01584197.2022.2096074">proposed a review</a>, particularly of names with colonial associations.</p>
<p>One Australian species has already been renamed. Birdlife Australia now <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/commentisfree/2023/sep/16/pink-cockatoo-australian-bird-of-the-year-guardian-birdlife">prefers</a> <a href="https://birdlife.org.au/bird-profiles/pink-cockatoo/">Pink Cockatoo</a> to Major Mitchell’s Cockatoo as the common name. </p>
<p>Thomas Mitchell led a massacre of Aboriginal people in western New South Wales in 1836, condemned for its senselessness even <a href="https://c21ch.newcastle.edu.au/colonialmassacres/detail.php?r=575">at the time</a>. Birdlife Australia provides a clear argument why the bird should not bear his name. The change has sparked a conversation in online birding communities.</p>
<p>The Albert’s Lyrebird, the topic of my PhD research, also bears a name with colonial overtones, though without the direct violent connotations of Mitchell. Should it, and other Australian species named after people, be renamed? I’m not sure, but I do know this reclusive rainforest bird has a fascinating and surprisingly complex etymology. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A flying Pink Cockatoo about to land on a tree stump" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568970/original/file-20240111-21-hglx30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568970/original/file-20240111-21-hglx30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568970/original/file-20240111-21-hglx30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568970/original/file-20240111-21-hglx30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568970/original/file-20240111-21-hglx30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568970/original/file-20240111-21-hglx30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568970/original/file-20240111-21-hglx30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The case for renaming Major Mitchell’s Cockatoo the Pink Cockatoo was clear, but what about other Australian birds named after people?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/major-mitchells-cockatoo-lophochroa-leadbeateri-flight-780187936">sompreaw/Shutterstock</a></span>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-dozens-of-north-american-bird-species-are-getting-new-names-every-name-tells-a-story-217886">Why dozens of North American bird species are getting new names: Every name tells a story</a>
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<h2>Why is a lyrebird named after Prince Albert?</h2>
<p>When English ornithologist John Gould <a href="http://www.aviculturalsocietynsw.org/_inMemoriam/GouldJohn1804-1881.htm">suggested the lyrebird</a> as Australia’s bird emblem, he was recommending the Superb Lyrebird (<em>Menura novaehollandiae</em>) found throughout south-east Australia. Fewer people know of the Albert’s Lyrebird (<em>Menura alberti</em>), restricted to a tiny area on the Queensland-New South Wales border. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Portrait of Prince Albert" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568979/original/file-20240111-23-sn4hrx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568979/original/file-20240111-23-sn4hrx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=757&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568979/original/file-20240111-23-sn4hrx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=757&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568979/original/file-20240111-23-sn4hrx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=757&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568979/original/file-20240111-23-sn4hrx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=951&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568979/original/file-20240111-23-sn4hrx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=951&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568979/original/file-20240111-23-sn4hrx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=951&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The Albert’s Lyrebird was named to honour the German-born prince.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:George_Baxter_-_Prince_Albert_-_B1977.14.10675_-_Yale_Center_for_British_Art.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
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<p>Fewer still know the story behind its naming. The Albert’s Lyrebird bears the moniker of Prince Albert, both in its scientific (Latin) name and current common (English) name, bestowed by Gould himself. </p>
<p>This species was still unknown to colonial scientists when Gould’s landmark <a href="https://australian.museum/learn/collections/museum-archives-library/john-gould/the-birds-of-australia/#:%7E:text=Year%20Published%3A%201848&text=John%20Gould's%20The%20Birds%20of,on%20Australian%20ornithology%20ever%20written.">Birds of Australia</a> was first published in 1848. This was in part due to its remote, humid forest habitat.</p>
<p>Under taxonomic convention – the rules for classifying species – the credit for describing the species and assigning its scientific name would normally have gone to Gould when his 1850 supplement introduced the new species. Every listing of a species provides a scientific name, the name of the person who first described it and the date they did so. So we might have expected to see the Albert’s Lyrebird listed as <em>Menura alberti</em>, Gould, 1850.</p>
<p>Instead, next to <em>Menura alberti</em> we see a different surname – Bonaparte. Not Napoleon, but his nephew Charles, a naturalist who referred to Gould’s description of the new species. However, Bonaparte’s reference predated Gould’s actual publication, a technicality that means Bonaparte is listed as the scientific describer. </p>
<p>This quirk of taxonomy has tied this bird to two names deeply associated with empires.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An Albert's Lyrebird walking through moss-covered rocks in a forest" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568982/original/file-20240112-15-4n0ryx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C202%2C2549%2C1711&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568982/original/file-20240112-15-4n0ryx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568982/original/file-20240112-15-4n0ryx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568982/original/file-20240112-15-4n0ryx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568982/original/file-20240112-15-4n0ryx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568982/original/file-20240112-15-4n0ryx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568982/original/file-20240112-15-4n0ryx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The scientific naming of Albert’s Lyrebird in 1850 links it with the British and French empires.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Albert%27s_Lyrebird_(32218869072).jpg">Mike's Birds/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/listen-to-the-alberts-lyrebird-the-best-performer-youve-never-heard-of-177627">Listen to the Albert’s lyrebird: the best performer you’ve never heard of</a>
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<h2>How do birds get their names?</h2>
<p>Scientific names change only when species are reclassified. The naming is more akin to record keeping – though honouring people can be a secondary purpose. In the lyrebird’s case, Gould cited the prince’s <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40347175">“liberal support” and “personal virtues”</a>. </p>
<p>Birdlife Australia has an English Names Committee, which deals with such changes. Prince Albert is not directly linked to historical violence in Australia, but he was Queen Victoria’s spouse during its colonisation. </p>
<p>If <em>Menura alberti</em> requires the Pink Cockatoo treatment, some other common names have been used in the past. </p>
<p>“Northern Lyrebird” is used in G. Matthews’ <a href="https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/53451682">Birds of Australia</a>. The volume is of the same name as Gould’s, by a self-funded author, who was <a href="https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/mathews-gregory-macalister-7517">controversial for his own taxonomic renaming</a>. </p>
<p>More informally, “<a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/193057179">Small Lyrebird</a>” has been used in relation to A.A. Leycester, the naturalist who shot the first specimen in 1844. </p>
<p>These are both obscure, albeit more descriptive, alternatives. “Albert’s” is much more common. Leycester himself <a href="https://aquarian.lismore.nsw.gov.au/archive/BOX%20FNC%20NATIONAL%20PARK%2070-80s/CORRESPONDENCE%201979%20-1980.pdf">added an even more royal connotation</a> with “Prince Albert’s Lyrebird”, but sometimes also “Richmond River Lyrebird”.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An Albert's Lyrebird digging through forest leaf litter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568981/original/file-20240112-21-t161sf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568981/original/file-20240112-21-t161sf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568981/original/file-20240112-21-t161sf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568981/original/file-20240112-21-t161sf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568981/original/file-20240112-21-t161sf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568981/original/file-20240112-21-t161sf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568981/original/file-20240112-21-t161sf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Albert’s Lyrebird has been known by several other names.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/alberts-lyre-bird-foraging-on-forest-1870811767">Ken Griffiths/Shutterstock</a></span>
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</figure>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/there-are-over-7-000-english-names-for-birds-heres-what-they-teach-us-about-our-changing-relationship-with-nature-162471">There are over 7,000 English names for birds – here's what they teach us about our changing relationship with nature</a>
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<hr>
<h2>The bird had earlier names</h2>
<p>As for the bird being “discovered”, naturally earlier Indigenous names survive. </p>
<p>The bird has recently been described as a bird of the Bunjalung language area. This is true but it is also a Yugambeh and Githabul bird. Its habitat on the Great Dividing Range might include Jagera Country too. </p>
<p>Archibald Meston inexplicably recorded a Kabi Kabi language name from the “<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1071/MU957025">head of the Mary River</a>” – no lyrebird is known to occur this far north.</p>
<p>The Yugambeh Museum has provided “kalbun” for national park signage in my home town, Tamborine Mountain. One <a href="https://bundjalung.dalang.com.au/language/view_word/1319">Bundjalung dictionary</a> provides “galbuny” or “galwuny” with an outlying possibility of “wonglepong”, “kalwun” or “kulwin” in the Tweed as meanings for “lyrebird” (with no clarification between the two species). Indigenous health service Kalwun uses the name in reference to the “<a href="https://www.kalwun.com.au/about">rainforest lyrebird</a>” but uses an image of a Superb Lyrebird as its logo. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An Albert's Lyrebird displaying with a raised tail in the rainforest" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571013/original/file-20240123-29-olrpe6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571013/original/file-20240123-29-olrpe6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571013/original/file-20240123-29-olrpe6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571013/original/file-20240123-29-olrpe6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571013/original/file-20240123-29-olrpe6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571013/original/file-20240123-29-olrpe6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571013/original/file-20240123-29-olrpe6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The male Albert’s Lyrebird (above) lacks the distinctive barring on the lyre-shaped feathers of the male Superb Lyrebird (below).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Felix Cehak</span></span>
</figcaption>
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<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A male Superb Lyrebird spreads its tail as it displays in a forest clearing" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568977/original/file-20240111-19-e9qlg8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568977/original/file-20240111-19-e9qlg8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568977/original/file-20240111-19-e9qlg8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568977/original/file-20240111-19-e9qlg8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568977/original/file-20240111-19-e9qlg8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568977/original/file-20240111-19-e9qlg8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568977/original/file-20240111-19-e9qlg8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/kimedoll/3762012430">KimEdoll/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
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<p>The Superb Lyrebird is also found within Bundjalung Country, such as in <a href="https://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/visit-a-park/parks/washpool-national-park/learn-more#F84A24F0AC0E401E8DABACEA4DD2254D">Washpool National Park</a>. This variance and confusion between lyrebird species and language groups is before we even consider the Githabul area to the west, a sometimes <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-Far-North-Coast-of-NSW-Source-CartoGIS-College-of-Asia-and-the-Pacific-ANU_fig1_316272086">contested distinction</a>. </p>
<p>The Yugambeh Museum allows for the variance by providing a different language resource for each location. You will find, for example, a different Indigenous name on the national park sign at Tamborine to the one at Lamington. </p>
<p>As many language groups give the bird many names (only some of which are listed here), there isn’t one obvious Indigenous option if the bird were to be renamed. Beyond these names, the cultural significance of the bird, which lives in rarely visited wet and leech-infested places, seems to have been lost. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An Albert's Lyrebird singing in the forest" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571016/original/file-20240123-25-t6k3t1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571016/original/file-20240123-25-t6k3t1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571016/original/file-20240123-25-t6k3t1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571016/original/file-20240123-25-t6k3t1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571016/original/file-20240123-25-t6k3t1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571016/original/file-20240123-25-t6k3t1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571016/original/file-20240123-25-t6k3t1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Albert’s Lyrebird can be hard to find in its dark and dense forest habitat.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Felix Cehak</span></span>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-makes-a-good-bird-name-217211">What makes a good bird name?</a>
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</p>
<hr>
<h2>If a new name is needed, who decides it?</h2>
<p>Over many hours of conversation about this species, I have found the link to Prince Albert is always known. I have rarely heard anything more about why the lyrebird bears his name. Besides his irrelevance to Australian ornithology, I cannot gauge a specific reason the Prince Albert moniker is inappropriate, unlike Thomas Mitchell. </p>
<p>If a change is required to a bird’s name, the decision must be made with the relevant communities. If they wish to counter a history of imperial naming by renaming, the new name should not spring from a similar desire for ownership. </p>
<p>It would also be wise to maintain broadness in this conversation. In the Albert’s Lyrebird case, that includes the birdwatchers, ecologists and conservationists who have contributed to our understanding of this little-known species. </p>
<p>We are about to see what happens in the United States. It would be wise to watch carefully what happens next.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217792/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Felix Cehak receives funding from UNSW in the form of a current PhD student stipend. </span></em></p>Birds have one unchanging scientific name, but often many common names that are subject to change. Choosing a new name for a bird isn’t necessarily a simple decision.Felix Cehak, PhD Candidate, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2172112024-01-03T13:19:05Z2024-01-03T13:19:05ZWhat makes a good bird name?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565789/original/file-20231214-19-rc8tcn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5321%2C2818&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/bird-watcher-silhouette-112279877">Erkki Alvenmod/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>I remember my first close encounter with birds. I must have been about three years old and had discovered a <a href="https://ewatlas.net/animalia/turdus-merula">blackbird</a> nest unusually accessible in our garden hedge. Still naked and blind, the chicks had not long hatched and I discovered that if I poked the nest, four little heads shot up – gapes open wide for feeding. </p>
<p>Discovering a natural jack-in-the-box was a delight and gave me hours of fun – so much so that I may have caused the parents’ desertion, since I found the chicks dead the next day. I take some small consolation from the likelihood that this encounter helped forge a lifetime of fascination and involvement <a href="https://theconversation.com/there-are-over-7-000-english-names-for-birds-heres-what-they-teach-us-about-our-changing-relationship-with-nature-162471">with birds</a>. It may also have contributed to my sense of responsibility to birds and other creatures.</p>
<p>Birds point us to the existence of another world which, unlike the human one, makes no demands of us but to enjoy it and see that it has a future. It is a world that existed before us, into which humans evolved and on which we all <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/biodiversity-and-health">depend</a>.</p>
<p>While not common to all cultures or languages, the distinction between the human and “natural” worlds is deeply embedded in the Anglophone psyche. The importance of birds as a bridge between these worlds is reflected in the names we give them. In the hope of opening that bridge to all, the American Ornithological Society recently announced it would <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/11/01/bird-names-racism-audubon/">replace all bird species named after people</a> in North America. </p>
<p>The decision was spurred by a widely perceived need to distance ornithology from its history of colonial oppression. Several species names, including <a href="https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/results?thrlev1=&amp;thrlev2=&amp;kw=Thick-billed+Longspur&amp;fam=0&amp;gen=0&amp;spc=&amp;cmn=&amp;reg=0&amp;cty=0">McCown’s Longspur</a>, <a href="https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/townsends-solitaire-myadestes-townsendi">Townsend’s Solitaire</a> and <a href="https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/audubons-warbler-setophaga-auduboni">Audubon’s Warbler</a>, evoke men who were involved in slavery and the oppression of the native people of North America.</p>
<p>So, how should these birds be renamed? The history of bird naming in the British Isles offers some solutions.</p>
<h2>It takes a village to name a bird</h2>
<p>Few common names of British birds are eponymous. Only two breeding species, <a href="https://www.bto.org/understanding-birds/birdfacts/montagus-harrier">Montague’s Harrier</a> and <a href="https://www.bto.org/understanding-birds/birdfacts/cettis-warbler">Cetti’s Warbler</a>, are named for notable people – the first is rare and the latter a recent colonist to the British Isles. </p>
<p>This indicates that the process of naming was a more organic, “bottom-up” and even democratic process than elsewhere in the British empire. We know of more than 7,000 folk names in English for about 150 species of British bird. Mostly recorded during the 19th century, these names indicate a widespread local naming of birds, such that names might not only be regional but specific to particular villages. For example, the <a href="https://www.bto.org/understanding-birds/birdfacts/grey-heron">grey heron</a> has 180 recorded English folk names, and the <a href="https://www.bto.org/understanding-birds/birdfacts/wren">wren</a> 164. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A grey heron stood next to a stream." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565786/original/file-20231214-19-qfz743.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565786/original/file-20231214-19-qfz743.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565786/original/file-20231214-19-qfz743.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565786/original/file-20231214-19-qfz743.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565786/original/file-20231214-19-qfz743.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565786/original/file-20231214-19-qfz743.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565786/original/file-20231214-19-qfz743.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The grey heron, a common sight at streams and ponds, has gone by many different names.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/grey-heron-ardea-cinerea-longlegged-predatory-2188499307">Monika Surzin/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Nevertheless, a strong national connection to a species, such as might be created by a reference in Shakespeare, could override local perceptions. Hence, the <a href="https://ewatlas.net/digital-heritage/oxfordshires-lost-voices">nightingale</a> – a common presence in <a href="https://www.birdsofshakespeare.com/birds/common-nightingale">Shakespearean plays and poems</a> – has only two recorded names including nightingale itself, which derives from its Saxon roots meaning “night singer” (from the German <em>nachtigall</em>). </p>
<p>Bird names evoke strong emotional connections – potentially linking us not only with specific encounters with birds, but with the context and people who experienced them. These links can <a href="https://ewatlas.net/digital-heritage/ornithological-masterclass-25-ethno-ornithology">last a lifetime</a>, and English folk names reveal the depth of knowledge of those who coined them. </p>
<p>For example, the name “English mockingbird” for the <a href="https://www.bto.org/understanding-birds/birdfacts/marsh-warbler">marsh warbler</a> refers to the fact that its song consists almost entirely of the <a href="https://ewatlas.net/digital-heritage/oxfordshires-lost-voices">mimicry of other species</a>. It indicates that whoever coined this name recognised that the bird was singing the songs of other, more familiar species – and the namer knew these songs.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/63p7YGnEPfM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The marsh warbler’s tendency to sing at night – referenced in another name, “fisherman’s nightingale” – may have focused the listener on its song in the stillness of a summer’s evening long ago.</p>
<h2>Passed down with care</h2>
<p>Many of the folk names given to other species were probably coined by or for children. A strong tendency to include a first name in such names as “<a href="https://ewatlas.net/desfayes/406.php#search:Wren">Katie wren</a>”, “<a href="https://ewatlas.net/desfayes/347.php#search:Redstart">Fanny redtail</a>” and “<a href="https://ewatlas.net/desfayes/313.php#search:Motacilla">Bessy-brantail</a>”, suggests an effort to teach a child the common birds around them. </p>
<p>Names like “<a href="https://ewatlas.net/desfayes/438.php#search:Emberiza">scribble-lark</a>” and “<a href="https://ewatlas.net/desfayes/445.php#search:Miliaria">scribbling schoolmaster</a>” for bunting species, whose eggs appear to have been written on, suggests (as do many more such names) a fascination with nests and eggs. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565780/original/file-20231214-15-rdouhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Five white eggs with black ink-like markings." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565780/original/file-20231214-15-rdouhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565780/original/file-20231214-15-rdouhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565780/original/file-20231214-15-rdouhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565780/original/file-20231214-15-rdouhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565780/original/file-20231214-15-rdouhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565780/original/file-20231214-15-rdouhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565780/original/file-20231214-15-rdouhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Inky markings on the ‘scribble-lark’s’ eggs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowhammer#/media/File:Emberiza_citrinella_MHNT.ZOO.2010.11.216_Le_Monetier05.jpg">Didier Descouens/Wikipedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The preoccupation with collecting eggs (birdnesting) among country children led to a minor rural economy that stocked the mahogany cabinets of Victorian drawing rooms. We know, however, that despite the plethora of local names, they were handed down from generation to generation with great precision. </p>
<p>As ornithologist G.G. Little noted in an 1878 article entitled Provincial Names of British Birds in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Zoologist">The Zoologist</a> magazine: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Has it struck any philologist that names of animals, particularly of birds, whose names are under the protection of the… birdnesting generation, are more likely to be handed down correctly than perhaps any other words…? </p>
</blockquote>
<p>These names were largely collected by ornithologists like Little, who wanted to know what birds were present throughout the British Isles. But the superfluity of names posed a problem. Their solution was to select from among the diverse regional names those which they would agree to hold in common for ornithological discourse.</p>
<p>These became the “common” names, now regarded as the standard names. But they were agreed through consent with no intention, as evidenced through numerous bird books of the time, of these superseding or replacing the local names. </p>
<p>That they generally have done reflects not the imposition of names by committee, but the success of ornithology as a democratised volunteer activity in the UK – a process in keeping with the spirit of recent developments in North America.</p>
<p>However subtly, naming has always reflected a cultural context – and renaming can make a positive contribution. It can only be hoped that renaming birds after their own qualities will help to open the wonder and love of birds to all people.</p>
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<img alt="Imagine weekly climate newsletter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Gosler has received funding from the UK's Arts and Humanities Research Council.</span></em></p>North American ornithologists are seeking to replace all bird species named after people - but what should they be called instead?Andrew Gosler, Professor of Ethno-ornithology, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2192672023-12-18T16:17:09Z2023-12-18T16:17:09ZHow a Victorian trip to Palestine spurred modern ornithology – and left it with imperial baggage<p>Palestine’s natural splendour offered a landscape ripe for scientific “discovery”, description and expropriation by European imperial powers in the 19th century. And in the 1860s an English vicar named <a href="https://www.sacristy.co.uk/books/history/henry-baker-tristram-ornithology#">Henry Baker Tristram</a> claimed its birds. </p>
<p>Tristram was a co-founder of <a href="https://bou.org.uk/about-the-bou/">Ibis</a>, the ornithology journal published since 1859 by the British Ornithologists’ Union. His articles on Palestinian ornithology began with the first issue, when he contributed a list of birds he’d collected during a brief visit there the previous year. The list included a species previously unknown to western science, which was named in his honour as Tristram’s grackle (now more commonly known as Tristram’s <a href="https://ebird.org/species/trista1?siteLanguage=en_GB">starling</a>). </p>
<p>Tristram made a major contribution to the study of birds. At that time ornithology reflected imperial priorities and was concerned with collecting, describing and mapping. His observations of Palestine’s birds, in particular, laid the groundwork for the modern ornithology of the area. </p>
<p>However, his exploits in Palestine, still honoured in the name “Tristram’s starling”, also show why honorific bird names like this have come under increasing <a href="https://americanornithology.org/about/english-bird-names-project/">scrutiny</a>. </p>
<p>Tristram returned to Palestine for a fuller investigation in 1864. He travelled south from Beirut with a group of fellow naturalists and a large baggage train. The account of his ten-month-long journey was published in 1865 as <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Land_of_Israel.html?id=Qd8TAAAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y">The Land of Israel</a>. </p>
<p>This book, and the several <a href="https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=Tristram%2C%20H.%20B.%20%28Henry%20Baker%29%2C%201822-1906">others</a> he wrote about Palestine, formed part of a growing wave of popular tourist accounts of the Holy Land. They fed the interest and shaped the perceptions of British readers fascinated by the area’s historical and Biblical remnants, its living inhabitants, and the missionary efforts to achieve conversions to Christianity. </p>
<p>Unusually, Tristram and his companions travelled far off the well-beaten tourist and Christian pilgrimage routes throughout Palestine. The Land of Israel includes detailed descriptions of Palestine’s diverse ethnic groups, their domestic, religious, military and economic traditions and practices, and their relationships with one another. </p>
<h2>Imperialism</h2>
<p>Tristram’s descriptions of Palestine’s people in many ways reflected typical British imperial views of “natives”, not least in his use of the terms “childlike” and “savage”, and his comparison of Bedouins to “red Indians”. His racialising and religious views were also shaped by his inclinations as a natural historian – he categorised those he observed according to type, and deviation from type. </p>
<p>At best, his characterisations are paternalistic; at worst, deeply offensive. The terms “debased” and “degraded” repeat often. Of one group near Jericho he writes: “I never saw such vacant, sensual, and debased features in any group of human beings of the type and form of whites”. </p>
<p>Of some Bedouin further south, he observes that “they were all decidedly of the Semitic type, and, excepting the colour and the smell, had nothing of the negro about them. They must, however, be far inferior to the races they have supplanted.”</p>
<p>Occasionally, he acknowledges Ottoman oppression and neglect as the cause of poverty, but in most cases links it to “Moslem fanaticism” and “Oriental indolence”. Although there are exceptions, Muslim settlements and their inhabitants are almost invariably “filthy”, “squalid” and “miserable”. </p>
<p>Of religious sites, he notes many instances of churches which have been “perverted” into mosques. One of his most offensive observations is of a Bedouin sheikh, Abu Dahuk: “like all his followers, he is very dark – not so black as the commonalty, but of a deep olive brown. This may partly arise from the habit of these people, who never wash. They occasionally take off their clothes, search them, slaughter their thousands, and air themselves, but never apply water to their persons”. The odour, he remarks, “is unendurable”.</p>
<p>Conversion to Christianity appeared to redeem this degradation. In the Galilee he notes: “Christianity had here, as elsewhere, stamped the place and its substantial houses with a neatness and cleanliness to which the best of Moslem villages are strangers”. </p>
<p>Conversion also seemed to him to transform racial attributes. Of two Protestant converts he observes that “so much had religion and education elevated them, that they seemed of a different race from those around them”. Among Bethlehem’s Christians, he particularly admires “the handsome faces of the men and women, and the wondrous beauty of the children, so fair and European-like”. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="An old brown book cover with the words The Land of Israel." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566291/original/file-20231218-24-apod48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566291/original/file-20231218-24-apod48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566291/original/file-20231218-24-apod48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566291/original/file-20231218-24-apod48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566291/original/file-20231218-24-apod48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1063&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566291/original/file-20231218-24-apod48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1063&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566291/original/file-20231218-24-apod48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1063&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The cover of Land of Israel 1872 edition.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jasmine Donahaye</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Tristram describes Jewish ethnicity in typical missionary terms. The Jews were a “decayed and scattered people”, with “musty and crumbling learning”. At a Protestant missionary tent in Tiberias he notes that “the Polish Jews, very numerous here, were willing to listen … but the native Jews, with whom were mingled a few Moslems, were occasionally very violent in their expressions”. The Jews, he concludes, “are a stiff-necked race”. </p>
<p>During his months in Palestine in 1864, Tristram shot hundreds of birds for his collection, and shot many more during subsequent visits. His surviving collection in the Liverpool World Museum includes, among others, the original 1858 <a href="https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/stories/whats-type-guide-type-specimens">type specimens</a> of Tristram’s grackle, and 17 Palestine sunbird skins.</p>
<p>Tristram depended on many people – servants, dragomen, muleteers, cooks, collectors and guards – for their expertise, labour and protection, and sometimes even for <a href="https://newwelshreview.com/book/birdsplaining-a-natural-history-by-jasmine-donahaye">saving his life</a>. He also depended on them for help with obtaining specimens. But for that help with collecting he only names one person: “Gemil, with a little training,” he writes, “would soon have made a first-rate collector.”</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-dozens-of-north-american-bird-species-are-getting-new-names-every-name-tells-a-story-217886">Why dozens of North American bird species are getting new names: Every name tells a story</a>
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<p>Those British imperial values that coloured Tristram’s view of Palestine’s people enabled him to name and claim its natural resources for western science, and for personal glory. They also gave him licence to propose that the land itself should be claimed: “Either an European protectorate or union with Egypt seems requisite to save Palestine from gradual dissolution,” he remarked, “unless, which seems hopeless, the Arabs can be induced to cultivate the sod.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219267/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jasmine Donahaye does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>H.B. Tristram was a Victorian clergyman and ornithologist who categorised a list of birds he’d found in Palestine.Jasmine Donahaye, Professor in English Literature and Creative Writing, Swansea UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2178862023-12-07T13:28:32Z2023-12-07T13:28:32ZWhy dozens of North American bird species are getting new names: Every name tells a story<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563741/original/file-20231205-19-huatts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C0%2C2193%2C1462&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Birders participate in the Christmas Bird Count on Theodore Roosevelt Island in Washington, D.C., Dec. 16, 2017. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/diana-handy-looks-at-a-bird-during-the-christmas-bird-count-news-photo/893985384">Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>This winter, tens of thousands of birders will survey winter bird populations for the National Audubon Society’s <a href="https://www.audubon.org/conservation/science/christmas-bird-count">Christmas Bird Count</a>, part of an international bird census, powered by volunteers, that has taken place every year since 1900.</p>
<p>For many birders, participating in the count is a much-anticipated annual tradition. Tallying birds and compiling results with others connects birders to local, regional and even national birding communities. Comparing this year’s results with previous tallies links birders to past generations. And scientists <a href="https://www.audubon.org/conservation/science/christmas-bird-count/christmas-bird-count-bibliography">use the data</a> to assess whether bird populations are thriving or declining.</p>
<p>But a change is coming. On Nov. 1, 2023, the American Ornithological Society <a href="https://americanornithology.org/american-ornithological-society-will-change-the-english-names-of-bird-species-named-after-people/">announced</a> that it will rename 152 bird species that have names honoring historical figures. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563952/original/file-20231206-15-8ztay4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A gray-blue bird with black markings perches on a branch, eating a berry." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563952/original/file-20231206-15-8ztay4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563952/original/file-20231206-15-8ztay4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563952/original/file-20231206-15-8ztay4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563952/original/file-20231206-15-8ztay4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563952/original/file-20231206-15-8ztay4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563952/original/file-20231206-15-8ztay4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563952/original/file-20231206-15-8ztay4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A Townsend’s Solitaire, one of the species to be renamed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jared Del Rosso</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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<p>Soon, Christmas bird counters will no longer find Cooper’s hawks hunting songbirds. They won’t scan marshes for Wilson’s snipes. And here in Colorado’s Front Range, where I’ll participate in a local count, we’ll no longer encounter one of my favorite winter visitors, Townsend’s solitaires. </p>
<p>New names will take the place of these eponymous ones. With those new names will come new ways of understanding these birds and their histories.</p>
<h2>Names matter</h2>
<p>In my time birding over the past decade, learning birds’ names helped me recognize the species I encounter every day, as well as the ones that migrate past me. So I understand that it may not be easy to persuade people to accept new names for so many familiar North American species. </p>
<p>But as a <a href="https://jdelrosso.com/">scholar of politics, culture and denial</a>, I also know that language shapes our understanding of history and violence. This includes bird names, as I’ve learned through my ongoing research into <a href="https://lonesomewhippoorwill.com/the-book/">one iconic species’ place in American culture</a>: the Eastern whip-poor-will. </p>
<p>Eastern whip-poor-wills are nocturnal birds who nest in forests of the eastern U.S. and Canada. English colonialists named the species for their <a href="https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Eastern_Whip-poor-will/sounds">distinct, repetitive call</a>, which sounds like a malicious command to inflict punishment: “Whip poor Will, whip poor Will, whip poor Will.” </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jIxfVSS_65o?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">An Eastern Whip-poor-will’s distinctive call.</span></figcaption>
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<p>This naming had consequences. Generations of <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Whip_Poor_Will_A_Series_of_Engraving/bByLdRHWi3UC?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PP11&printsec=frontcover">poets</a> and naturalists, like <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Writings_of_John_Muir_The_story_of_m/VMtPacVUW6IC">John Muir</a> and <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Tommy_Anne_and_the_Three_Hearts/NzVAAAAAYAAJ">Mabel Osgood Wright</a>, associated the species with whippings. Their writings often tell us as much about 19th and early-20th century Americans’ views of morality and punishment than about this remarkable bird.</p>
<h2>What’s wrong with eponymous names</h2>
<p>The whip-poor-will’s name translates the species’ song, leaving room for interpretation. Eponymous names based on a specific person, like Audubon’s oriole or Townsend’s solitaire, are less descriptive. Even so, these names <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/ibi.12984">shape how people relate</a> to birds and the history of ornithology.</p>
<p>Many of these names honor people, usually white men, who engaged in racist acts. For example, <a href="https://www.audubon.org/news/the-myth-john-james-audubon">John James Audubon owned slaves</a>, and <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5403/oregonhistq.115.3.0324">John Kirk Townsend robbed skulls from Native American graves</a>. Changing these names helps separate birds from this harmful, exclusionary history. </p>
<p>But for multiple reasons, the American Ornithological Society is <a href="https://americanornithology.org/about/english-bird-names-project/english-bird-names-committee-recommendations/#recommendation-1">changing all eponymous names</a>, not just those linked to problematic historical figures. First, the organization decided that it did not want to make judgments about which historical figures were honor-worthy. Second, it recognized that all eponymous names imply human ownership over birds. Third, it acknowledged that eponymous names do not describe the birds they name.</p>
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<h2>Change as a constant</h2>
<p>While birders certainly will have learning to do once these changes become official, change is a constant in how people relate to birds. </p>
<p>Consider the technologies birders use. In the early 20th century, binoculars became more affordable and readily available. As <a href="https://liberalarts.tamu.edu/history/profile/thomas-r-dunlap/">Texas A&M historian Thomas Dunlap</a> <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/in-the-field-among-the-feathered-9780199734597">has shown</a>, this helps explains why birders now “collect” birds by spotting them, rather than by shooting them, as Audubon and others of his time did.</p>
<p>Field guides, too, have come a long way. Early guides often relied on dense written descriptions. Today, birders carry compact, smartly illustrated guides, or we use smartphones to check digital guides, share sightings and <a href="https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/merlin-sound-id-project-overview/">identify birds from audio recordings</a>. </p>
<p>Names, too, have long been open to revision. When the American Ornithological Union, the predecessor of today’s American Ornithological Society, created an <a href="https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/16484#page/6/mode/1up">official list of bird names in 1886</a>, it erased untold numbers of Indigenous names, as well as local folk names.</p>
<p>Since then, some names have come into use and others have fallen out of fashion, especially as ornithologists lump and split species. Consider the ongoing adventure of just one species: <a href="https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Wilsons_Snipe/overview">Wilson’s snipe</a>, a round marsh bird whose name will be among those changed. </p>
<p>In the American Ornithological Union’s original checklist of North American birds, Wilson’s snipes were a distinct species from the Common snipes of Europe and Asia. Then, in the mid-1940s, the Union decided the two were one, and Wilson’s snipes became Common snipes. In 2000, the Common snipe was split back into two species, and Wilson’s snipes again became Wilson’s snipes. </p>
<p>Either way, many early accounts of the North American species simply call these birds “Snipes.” This is the name Alexander Wilson, for whom the bird is named, himself used in <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/American_Ornithology_Or_The_Natural_Hist/V1BHAAAAYAAJ">his account of them</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562836/original/file-20231130-25-ujzawe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Watercolor of three brown and white snipes, a type of shorebird, in a marsh." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562836/original/file-20231130-25-ujzawe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562836/original/file-20231130-25-ujzawe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562836/original/file-20231130-25-ujzawe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562836/original/file-20231130-25-ujzawe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562836/original/file-20231130-25-ujzawe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562836/original/file-20231130-25-ujzawe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562836/original/file-20231130-25-ujzawe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">John James Audubon’s illustration of American snipes, from ‘Birds of America.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.audubon.org/birds-of-america/american-snipe">Courtesy of the John James Audubon Center at Mill Grove, Montgomery County Audubon Collection, and Zebra Publishing</a></span>
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<h2>Names reflect new knowledge and values</h2>
<p>Science has greatly expanded human understanding of birds in recent decades. We now recognize that birds are <a href="https://theconversation.com/are-crows-really-that-clever-212914">intelligent</a>, with rich <a href="https://theconversation.com/laughs-cries-and-deception-birds-emotional-lives-are-just-as-complicated-as-ours-69471">emotional lives</a>. Radar, lightweight transmitters and satellite telemetry have helped scientists map the <a href="https://theconversation.com/birds-migrate-along-ancient-routes-here-are-the-latest-high-tech-tools-scientists-are-using-to-study-their-amazing-journeys-187967">transcontinental migrations</a> that many bird species make each year.</p>
<p>Trading eponymous names, which treat birds as passive objects, for richer descriptive names reflects this sea change in our understanding of avian lives. </p>
<p>Our thinking about race and racism has evolved dramatically as well. For instance, we no longer use folk names for birds based on <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/453677">racial and ethnic slurs</a>, as Americans of the 19th and early 20th centuries did. The decision to change eponymous bird names reflects this shift. </p>
<p>It also reflects broader efforts to reckon with the legacies of racism and colonialism in our relationships with the natural world. There is increasing recognition that legacies of racism shape our natural landscapes. Just as public monuments can have “<a href="https://theconversation.com/monuments-expire-but-offensive-monuments-can-become-powerful-history-lessons-143318">expiration dates</a>,” so can names for species, <a href="https://theconversation.com/us-landmarks-bearing-racist-and-colonial-references-are-renamed-to-reflect-indigenous-values-157850">geographic features</a> and places that no longer reflect contemporary values.</p>
<p>Birders no longer live in Audubon’s world. We rarely consult his heavy, multi-volume folios. We celebrate that we list birds that we have seen in the wild and left unharmed, rather than collecting their bodies as specimens.</p>
<p>Soon, we’ll also stop using some of the names that this world gave to birds.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217886/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jared Del Rosso does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>What’s in a name? A lot, if you’re an Audubon’s Oriole or a Townsend’s Solitaire.Jared Del Rosso, Associate Professor of Sociology and Criminology, University of DenverLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2166452023-11-29T02:35:13Z2023-11-29T02:35:13ZWe analysed citizen science to find Australia’s top 10 most elusive birds<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562126/original/file-20231128-19-uea8xs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=72%2C36%2C5934%2C3908&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/woman-sun-hat-looks-view-through-2316061461">Jjay69, Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australia is one of the greatest places to see birds. We are fortunate to have more than 800 different bird species across the nation. At least 370 species are found nowhere else on Earth. They range from the iconic <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-smarter-the-magpie-the-better-they-can-handle-our-noisy-cities-214387">Australian magpie</a> to the migratory <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-are-dead-and-dying-seabirds-washing-up-on-our-beaches-in-their-hundreds-217349">short-tailed shearwater</a>, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/100-years-ago-this-man-discovered-an-exquisite-parrot-thought-to-be-extinct-what-came-next-is-a-tragedy-we-must-not-repeat-171939">golden-shouldered parrot</a> and the delightful <a href="https://theconversation.com/fairy-wrens-are-more-likely-to-help-their-closest-friends-but-not-strangers-just-like-us-humans-198231">superb fairy-wren</a>. </p>
<p>Every day, thousands of birdwatchers are out spotting birds. Yet despite this enthusiasm, there’s a lot still to learn. <a href="https://theconversation.com/more-than-200-australian-birds-are-now-threatened-with-extinction-and-climate-change-is-the-biggest-danger-172751">More than 200 species are already listed as threatened with extinction</a> but others may also be struggling and we just don’t know it yet. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01584197.2023.2283443">our new research</a>, we used citizen science data to rank Australia’s birds in terms of how well they are known. We looked at how often birdwatchers spot each species and where they find birds, compared with how often they look, to determine rates of survey success. This quantifies how “well known” each species is.</p>
<p>We found a quarter of all Australian bird species can be considered well surveyed and adequately represented in our sightings databases. Many of these species have ranges that overlap with the densely populated regions of Australia. And some, like the southern cassowary and eastern rosella, are well known to most Australians. At the other end of the spectrum, some birds are very hard to find. Here’s Australia’s top 10 most elusive birds. </p>
<p><iframe id="tc-infographic-998" class="tc-infographic" height="400px" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/998/7601ad3ea3922b23e926988a3918ffea7ec96b8b/site/index.html" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-has-more-native-bird-species-than-almost-anywhere-else-what-led-to-this-explosion-of-diversity-215809">Australia has more native bird species than almost anywhere else. What led to this explosion of diversity?</a>
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<h2>Taking advantage of citizen science</h2>
<p>Before smartphones took off, birders would take notes in their private notebooks. They might share details of interesting sightings on internet forums or birdwatching clubs, but otherwise most knowledge was locked away from scientists and conservationists.</p>
<p>Now birders are increasingly taking advantage of easy-to-use birding apps such as <a href="https://ebird.org/home">eBird</a> run by Cornell Lab of Ornithology in the United States, and <a href="https://birdata.birdlife.org.au">Birdata</a> from Birdlife Australia. </p>
<p>Collectively, these two platforms contain more than 40 million bird occurrence records spanning the entire country. That represents 3.8 million volunteer hours, or more than 430 years of effort.</p>
<p>Using these apps, birdwatchers and scientists alike can quickly collate bird records at a specific location. </p>
<p>As conservation scientists and ornithologists, we wanted to work out how to identify species we know very little about because poorly known species may be disappearing without us realising. While some researchers have already highlighted serious declines in poorly known species like the <a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-red-goshawk-is-disappearing-how-can-we-save-our-rarest-bird-of-prey-from-extinction-200339%5d">red goshawk</a>, <a href="https://www.difficultbirds.com/swift-parrot#:%7E:text=Swift%20Parrots%20are%20a%20critically,in%20south%2Deastern%20mainland%20Australia.">swift parrot</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-the-buff-breasted-button-quail-still-alive-after-years-of-searching-this-century-old-bird-mystery-has-yet-to-be-solved-175647">buff-breasted buttonquail</a>, we recognised citizen science databases as a vast untapped source of knowledge for all of our native birds. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560600/original/file-20231121-27-zkey1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Australia's red goshawk, flying with outstretched wings in a cloudless a blue sky" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560600/original/file-20231121-27-zkey1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560600/original/file-20231121-27-zkey1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560600/original/file-20231121-27-zkey1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560600/original/file-20231121-27-zkey1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560600/original/file-20231121-27-zkey1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560600/original/file-20231121-27-zkey1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560600/original/file-20231121-27-zkey1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Despite being highly sought after by birdwatchers, Australia’s red goshawk is one of the least reported bird species.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">James Watson</span></span>
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<h2>Australia’s most elusive birds</h2>
<p>In <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01584197.2023.2283443">our new study</a>, published in the journal Emu (Austral Ornithology), we looked at millions of citizen science bird records. We focused on 581 terrestrial, native species. </p>
<p>We found a group of 56 “hide and seek” champions of Australia. These are the species which are seen least often by birdwatchers. Many of these species exhibit cryptic behaviour or are primarily nocturnal, which explains why they are not regularly seen by citizen scientists. However, we have serious concerns for a handful of these species. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicspecies.pl?taxon_id=59714">Coxen’s fig parrot</a> emerges as a species of major concern. Birders recorded more than 300,000 surveys within this species’ range in the rainforests of south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales. Yet only four sightings of this tiny green parrot are documented in our combined citizen science database. None of these sightings were accompanied by photo or video evidence. In fact there has never been a photo of a live bird of this species. Our research suggests this species is well and truly “lost to science” and may already be extinct.</p>
<p>Another species of increasing concern is the buff-breasted buttonquail of far north Queensland. Only seven sightings of this bird are recorded in our combined dataset. <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01584197.2022.2090962">Recent research</a> suggests many <a href="https://www.worldsciencefestival.com.au/news/the-birding-mystery-of-the-buff-breasted-button-quail">reported sightings of this species may be mistaken</a>. As with the Coxen’s fig parrot, no photo of a living buff-breasted buttonquail has ever been taken. Nevertheless, there is some hope for this elusive species, as its range has been less comprehensively surveyed by birdwatchers. There is now a <a href="https://conservationpartners.org.au/cape-york-button-quail-3/">concerted effort to find them</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/more-than-200-australian-birds-are-now-threatened-with-extinction-and-climate-change-is-the-biggest-danger-172751">More than 200 Australian birds are now threatened with extinction – and climate change is the biggest danger</a>
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<h2>We can all play a role</h2>
<p>Our analysis shows much of Australia is not frequented by birdwatchers, so birds in our least populated areas are still poorly known to contemporary science. Some of the most sparsely surveyed regions include Australia’s many deserts, and remote areas such as the Nullarbor Plain, Arnhem Land and western Cape York Peninsula. </p>
<p>Australians can help these elusive birds by heading outdoors with a smartphone and a pair of binoculars. Records of scarce birds will become increasingly important as species continue to decline. Even records of more common birds in backyards have value too. The more information we have, the more chance we can slow the rate of extinction and conserve our amazing birdlife.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/our-mysterious-night-parrot-has-terrible-vision-but-we-discovered-it-might-be-able-to-hear-like-an-owl-200058">Our mysterious night parrot has terrible vision – but we discovered it might be able to hear like an owl</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216645/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Watson has received funding from the Australian Research Council, National Environmental Science Program, South Australia's Department of Environment and Water as well as from Bush Heritage Australia, Queensland Conservation Council and Birdlife Australia. He serves on scientific committees for Bush Heritage Australia, climate start up Subak Australia, BirdLife Australia and has a long-term scientific relationship with the Wildlife Conservation Society. He serves on the Queensland Government's Land Restoration Fund's Investment Panel as the Deputy Chair. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Louis Backstrom does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Researchers used ‘citizen science’ birdwatching data to rank Australian species. Among the most elusive birds were ‘hide and seek’ champions and a few possibly headed for extinction.Louis Backstrom, PhD Student, University of St AndrewsJames Watson, Professor, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1993942023-03-23T12:40:17Z2023-03-23T12:40:17ZScientists are using machine learning to forecast bird migration and identify birds in flight by their calls<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516482/original/file-20230320-447-474etl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C0%2C2998%2C1994&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sandhill cranes flying above the Platte River in Nebraska.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/e6HkFZ">shannonpatrick17/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>With chatbots like ChatGPT <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-chatgpt-chatbot-is-blowing-people-away-with-its-writing-skills-an-expert-explains-why-its-so-impressive-195908">making a splash</a>, machine learning is playing an increasingly prominent role in our lives. For many of us, it’s been a mixed bag. We rejoice when our Spotify For You playlist finds us a new jam, but groan as we scroll through a slew of targeted ads on our Instagram feeds.</p>
<p>Machine learning is also changing many fields that may seem surprising. One example is <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Miguel-Jimenez-18">my discipline, ornithology – the study of birds</a>. It isn’t just solving some of the biggest challenges associated with studying bird migration; more broadly, machine learning is expanding the ways in which people engage with birds. As spring migration picks up, here’s a look at how machine learning is influencing ways to research birds and, ultimately, to protect them.</p>
<h2>The challenge of conserving migratory birds</h2>
<p>Most birds in the Western Hemisphere <a href="https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/the-basics-how-why-and-where-of-bird-migration/#">migrate twice a year</a>, flying over entire continents between their breeding and nonbreeding grounds. While these journeys are awe-inspiring, they expose birds to many hazards en route, including <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/migratory-birds.html">extreme weather</a>, <a href="https://www.audubon.org/news/deadly-algal-bloom-could-cause-food-shortage-bay-area-migrating-waterbirds">food shortages</a> and <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/05/1118262">light pollution</a> that can attract birds and cause them to collide with buildings. </p>
<p>Our ability to protect migratory birds is only as good as the science that tells us where they go. And that science <a href="https://theconversation.com/birds-migrate-along-ancient-routes-here-are-the-latest-high-tech-tools-scientists-are-using-to-study-their-amazing-journeys-187967">has come a long way</a>. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3_CqIJbZx4I?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">People in Alaska, Washington state and Mexico explain what migratory birds mean to them.</span></figcaption>
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<p>In 1920, the U.S. Geological Survey launched the <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/labs/bird-banding-laboratory">Bird Banding Laboratory</a>, spearheading an effort to put bands with unique markers on birds, then recapture the birds in new places to figure out where they traveled. Today researchers can deploy a variety of lightweight tracking tags on birds to discover their migration routes. These tools have uncovered the spatial patterns of <a href="https://explorer.audubon.org/home?legend=collapse&layersPanel=expand">where and when birds of many species migrate</a>.</p>
<p>However, tracking birds has limitations. For one thing, over <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-018-0666-4">4 billion birds migrate</a> across the continent every year. Even with increasingly affordable equipment, the number of birds that we track is a drop in the bucket. And even within a species, migratory behavior may vary across sexes or populations. </p>
<p>Further, tracking data tells us where birds have been, but it doesn’t necessarily tell us where they’re going. Migration is dynamic, and the climates and landscapes that birds fly through are constantly changing. That means it’s crucial to be able to predict their movements. </p>
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<h2>Using machine learning to forecast migration</h2>
<p>This is where machine learning comes in. Machine learning is a subfield of artificial intelligence that gives computers the ability to learn tasks or associations without explicitly being programmed. We use it to train algorithms that tackle various tasks, from <a href="https://theconversation.com/ai-and-machine-learning-are-improving-weather-forecasts-but-they-wont-replace-human-experts-182498">forecasting weather</a> to <a href="https://theconversation.com/this-march-madness-were-using-machine-learning-to-predict-upsets-91618">predicting March Madness upsets</a>.</p>
<p>But applying machine learning requires data – and the more data the better. Luckily, scientists have inadvertently compiled decades of data on migrating birds through the <a href="https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/radar/next-generation-weather-radar">Next Generation Weather Radar system</a>. This network, known as NEXRAD, is used to measure weather dynamics and help predict future weather events, but it also picks up signals from birds as they fly through the atmosphere. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516489/original/file-20230320-20-ozjvkn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A tall metal tower with a spherical radar receiver on top." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516489/original/file-20230320-20-ozjvkn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516489/original/file-20230320-20-ozjvkn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516489/original/file-20230320-20-ozjvkn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516489/original/file-20230320-20-ozjvkn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516489/original/file-20230320-20-ozjvkn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516489/original/file-20230320-20-ozjvkn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516489/original/file-20230320-20-ozjvkn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A NEXRAD radar at an operation center in Norman, Okla.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEXRAD#/media/File:LabNexrad.jpg">Andrew J. Oldaker/Wikipedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p><a href="https://birdcast.info/about/">BirdCast</a> is a collaborative project of Colorado State University, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the University of Massachusetts that seeks to leverage that data to quantify bird migration. Machine learning is central to its operations. Researchers have known since the 1940s that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/156446a0">birds show up on weather radar</a>, but to make that data useful, we need to remove nonavian clutter and identify which scans contain bird movement. </p>
<p>This process would be painstaking by hand – but by training algorithms to identify bird activity, we have automated this process and unlocked decades of migration data. And machine learning allows the BirdCast team to take things further: By training an algorithm to learn what atmospheric conditions are associated with migration, we can use predicted conditions to produce <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aat7526">forecasts of migration across the continental U.S.</a> </p>
<p>BirdCast began broadcasting these forecasts in 2018 and has become <a href="https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/heres-how-to-use-the-new-migration-forecast-tools-from-birdcast/">a popular tool in the birding community</a>. Many users may recognize that radar data helps produce these forecasts, but fewer realize that it’s a product of machine learning.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">BirdCast provides summaries of radar-based measurements of nocturnal bird migration for the continental U.S., including estimates of numbers of birds migrating and their directions, speeds and altitudes.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Currently these forecasts can’t tell us what species are in the air, but that could be changing. Last year, researchers at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology published an automated system that uses machine learning to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.14342">detect and identify nocturnal flight calls</a>. These are species-specific calls that birds make while migrating. Integrating this approach with BirdCast could give us a more complete picture of migration.</p>
<p>These advancements exemplify how effective machine learning can be when guided by expertise in the field where it is being applied. As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=G8OvEN4AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">doctoral student</a>, I joined <a href="https://aeroecolab.com/">Colorado State University’s Aeroecology Lab</a> with a strong ornithology background but no machine learning experience. Conversely, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=WBov7GQAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Ali Khalighifar</a>, a postdoctoral researcher in our lab, has a background in machine learning but has never taken an ornithology class. </p>
<p>Together, we are working to enhance the models that make BirdCast run, often leaning on each other’s insights to move the project forward. Our collaboration typifies the convergence that allows us to use machine learning effectively.</p>
<h2>A tool for public engagement</h2>
<p>Machine learning is also helping scientists engage the public in conservation. For example, forecasts produced by the BirdCast team are often used to inform <a href="https://www.audubon.org/lights-out-program">Lights Out</a> campaigns. </p>
<p>These initiatives seek to reduce artificial light from cities, which attracts migrating birds and increases their chances of <a href="https://theconversation.com/cities-can-help-migrating-birds-on-their-way-by-planting-more-trees-and-turning-lights-off-at-night-152573">colliding with human-built structures</a>, such as buildings and communication towers. Lights Out campaigns can mobilize people to help protect birds at the flip of a switch. </p>
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<p>As another example, <a href="https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/">the Merlin bird identification app</a> seeks to create technology that makes birding easier for everyone. In 2021, the Merlin staff released a feature that automates song and call identification, allowing users to identify what they’re hearing in real time, like an <a href="https://www.shazam.com/home">ornithological version of Shazam</a>.</p>
<p>This feature has opened the door for millions of people to engage with their natural spaces in a new way. Machine learning is a big part of what made it possible. </p>
<p>“Sound ID is our biggest success in terms of replicating the magical experience of going birding with a skilled naturalist,” Grant Van Horn, a staff researcher at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology who helped develop the algorithm behind this feature, told me. </p>
<h2>Taking flight</h2>
<p>Opportunities for applying machine learning in ornithology will only increase. As billions of birds migrate over North America to their breeding grounds this spring, people will engage with these flights in new ways, thanks to projects like BirdCast and Merlin. But that engagement is reciprocal: The data that birders collect will open new opportunities for applying machine learning. </p>
<p>Computers can’t do this work themselves. “Any successful machine learning project has a huge human component to it. That is the reason these projects are succeeding,” Van Horn said to me.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199394/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Miguel Jimenez receives funding from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. </span></em></p>Machine learning may not seem to have much connection with wildlife, but it’s starting to play a central role in bird conservation.Miguel Jimenez, Ph.D. student in Ecology, Colorado State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2000582023-03-21T00:43:49Z2023-03-21T00:43:49ZOur mysterious night parrot has terrible vision – but we discovered it might be able to hear like an owl<p>One bird bucks the stereotype of Australia’s raucous parrots – the mysterious and critically endangered night parrot (<em>Pezoporus occidentalis</em>). Rather than flying around in noisy flocks or eating fruit in trees, the night parrot roosts all day in a clump of sharp spinifex grass. When darkness falls, it <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cn5QXs7WHi8">scurries about</a> on the ground to forage, almost like a little rodent. </p>
<p>For eight decades, we thought it might be extinct. But then, in 2013, it was photographed. Now we know this vanishingly rare nocturnal bird still lives in parts of the remote outback.</p>
<p>Because it’s so rare, it’s very hard to study. In our work in palaeontology, we recently identified some fossil leg bones as probably belonging to the night parrot. Because there were no modern skeletons to compare them with, we had to CT-scan a museum specimen. </p>
<p>What we intended to do was compare the leg anatomy to our fossil leg bones. But then we found something bizarre. The night parrot’s skull was wonky and the ears were asymmetrical. Predatory owls have this too, as a way to boost their hearing and hunt better. But why would a seed-eating parrot need superb hearing? </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516533/original/file-20230321-240-zw9gr2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="night parrot illustration" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516533/original/file-20230321-240-zw9gr2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516533/original/file-20230321-240-zw9gr2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516533/original/file-20230321-240-zw9gr2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516533/original/file-20230321-240-zw9gr2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516533/original/file-20230321-240-zw9gr2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516533/original/file-20230321-240-zw9gr2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516533/original/file-20230321-240-zw9gr2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The night parrot is one of only two nocturnal parrots, alongside New Zealand’s kakapo. This 1890 illustration is by Elizabeth Gould, illustrator and wife of ornithologist John Gould.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_parrot#/media/File:Pezoporus_occidentalis_Bird_illustration_by_Elizabeth_Gould_for_Birds_of_Australia,_digitally_enhanced_from_rawpixel's_own_facsimile_book666.jpg">Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Of wonky skulls and offset ears</h2>
<p>In our new research, we offer <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01584197.2023.2181185">the first</a> anatomical description of the night parrot’s skull. In this, we were fortunate to be allowed to scan the precious type specimen held by the Natural History Museum in London. This is the original skin used by <a href="https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/gould-john-2113">John Gould</a>, the preeminent 19th century English ornithologist, to formally describe and name the night parrot in 1861. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/still-here-night-parrot-rediscovery-in-wa-raises-questions-for-mining-75384">Still here: Night Parrot rediscovery in WA raises questions for mining</a>
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<p>We used high-resolution CT scans to <a href="https://youtu.be/P0d_rGni5ZI">look inside</a> this museum “skin”, a dried specimen with internal organs removed, feathers on the outside and a partial skeleton on the inside.</p>
<p>The scans showed the left side of the skull did not mirror the right. <a href="https://youtu.be/wpXobSqxKrI">Skull asymmetry</a> isn’t unheard of in nocturnal birds. Many species of owl have offset ears and dramatically distorted skulls, which allows them to pinpoint any sound made by intended prey. But we certainly weren’t expecting it in a parrot. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512383/original/file-20230227-28-atkjkh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=29%2C9%2C3205%2C2423&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The type specimen of the night parrot" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512383/original/file-20230227-28-atkjkh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=29%2C9%2C3205%2C2423&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512383/original/file-20230227-28-atkjkh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512383/original/file-20230227-28-atkjkh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512383/original/file-20230227-28-atkjkh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512383/original/file-20230227-28-atkjkh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512383/original/file-20230227-28-atkjkh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512383/original/file-20230227-28-atkjkh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">We CT-scanned the night parrot’s type specimen – and found something unexpected about its skull.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mark Adams, copyright Natural History Museum, UK</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Wired for sound?</h2>
<p>When we looked closely at the night parrot’s skull, we spotted telltale clues of a bird specialising in hearing. Asymmetry is part of it: the left ear opening is flat while the right one arches out to the side.</p>
<p>In uneven-eared owls, one ear is typically placed higher than the other. In flight, sound waves travelling from ground level hit each ear at slightly different times. This tiny difference in timing allows the owl’s brain to calculate precisely the sound’s origin on a vertical plane. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512387/original/file-20230227-194-atkjkh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512387/original/file-20230227-194-atkjkh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512387/original/file-20230227-194-atkjkh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512387/original/file-20230227-194-atkjkh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512387/original/file-20230227-194-atkjkh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512387/original/file-20230227-194-atkjkh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512387/original/file-20230227-194-atkjkh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512387/original/file-20230227-194-atkjkh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">You can see the ears of the night parrot in this digital model created from a CT scan of the night parrot skull.</span>
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</figure>
<p>But night parrots don’t hunt fast-moving prey. They mostly eat seeds, so they probably don’t use asymmetrical ears to locate food. </p>
<p>While owl ears are positioned at different heights on the skull, this isn’t the case for the night parrot. The major difference between the parrot’s ears is how far they stick out sideways. This might help them locate the direction a sound comes from horizontally, which would make sense for a bird living almost entirely at ground level. </p>
<p>This could be useful to listen for predators, keep contact with their mates and young, find new potential mates, or to scan their habitat for competitors. </p>
<p>Adding to the evidence for excellent hearing is the size of this parrot’s ear chambers. Compared to other parrots, an unusually large volume of the night parrot’s skull is devoted to the external ear chamber – fully one third of the length of its head. These enlarged ear chambers may act like amplifiers, increasing the volume of sound transferred to the inner ears. This suggests it would be wise to keep the noise down in their habitat until we know more about their hearing. </p>
<h2>Bigger ears, smaller eyes</h2>
<p>A <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-65156-0">previous study</a> found the night parrot has small optic nerves and reduced optic lobes in the brain for processing vision. From this, the researchers inferred the nocturnal parrot probably sees poorly in the dark. Despite this, it expertly navigates its dark world, flying up to a 30 kilometre round trip in a night to find food and water, before returning home to the same spinifex hummock where it roosts before sunrise. </p>
<p>Now that we’ve examined the skull, we can see the same clues. Vision appears to have been traded for hearing. Inside an animal skull, real estate is precious. Heads are heavy and cumbersome, and there’s only so much you can evolve to fit inside one. Enlarged ear chambers appear to constrain the maximum size of a night parrot’s eyes.</p>
<p>Even so, this bird has crammed in as much as it can. It has an outsized head compared to its body. Gould described the parrot’s “thick bluffy head” as one of the features defining the species. </p>
<p>When we measured the scleral ring – the circular bone supporting the eyeball – and compared it to other birds, we found telling differences. A night parrot’s cornea is about as small as it can possibly be while still allowing visually guided nocturnal flight. A millimetre or two smaller and they wouldn’t get enough light into their eyes to see in the dark. </p>
<p>This remarkable parrot is one of 22 threatened birds prioritised by the federal government for recovery. We hope ecologists can make the most of this to find out what we need to do to bring night parrots back from the brink. We’re only beginning to learn how unusual they are. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/found-worlds-most-mysterious-bird-but-why-all-the-secrecy-18000">Found: world's most mysterious bird, but why all the secrecy?</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200058/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elen Shute previously received a PhD scholarship from Flinders University and a fee-waiver scholarship via the Federal Government. She is employed by Flinders University and the Nature Conservation Society of South Australia.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alice Clement receives funding from the Australian Research Council and is employed by Flinders University.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gavin Prideaux receives funding from the Australian Research Council and is employed by Flinders University.</span></em></p>A wonky skull. Enlarged ear chambers. Asymetrical ears. It looks like the elusive night parrot has traded off vision for excellent hearingElen Shute, Researcher, Flinders UniversityAlice Clement, Research Associate in the College of Science and Engineering, Flinders UniversityGavin Prideaux, Associate professor, Flinders UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1879672022-09-02T12:21:48Z2022-09-02T12:21:48ZBirds migrate along ancient routes – here are the latest high-tech tools scientists are using to study their amazing journeys<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482351/original/file-20220901-15-dnl1i1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=46%2C0%2C5184%2C3437&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Migrating waterbirds over South Dakota's Huron Wetland Management District on North America's Central Flyway.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/2n6ioDf">Sandra Uecker, USFWS/Flickr</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Although it still feels like beach weather across much of North America, <a href="https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2018/09/more-4-billion-birds-stream-overhead-during-fall-migration">billions of birds have started taking wing</a> for one of nature’s great spectacles: fall migration. Birds fly south from the northern U.S. and Canada to wintering grounds in the southern U.S., Caribbean and Latin America, sometimes covering thousands of miles. Other birds leave temperate Eurasia for Africa, tropical Asia or Australia. </p>
<p>Using observation records and data collected through <a href="https://nationalzoo.si.edu/migratory-birds/what-bird-banding">bird banding</a>, 20th-century ornithologists roughly mapped general migration routes and timing for most migratory species. Later, using radar at airports and weather stations, they discovered how weather and other factors affect when birds migrate and how high they fly. </p>
<p>Today, technological advances are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1890/080179">providing new insights into bird migration</a> and showing that it is more complex and wonderful than scientists ever imagined. These new and constantly improving technologies are key aids for protecting migratory birds in the face of <a href="https://www.fws.gov/library/collections/threats-birds">habitat loss and other threats</a>.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WhwBDjfWr_M?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Migratory flyways are paths that birds have traveled for centuries. Scientists are working to better understand how birds use these routes.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Birding across borders</h2>
<p>The power of the internet has greatly aided migratory bird research. Using the popular <a href="https://ebird.org/home">eBird network</a>, birders all over the world can <a href="https://science.ebird.org/en/status-and-trends/abundance-animations">upload sightings to a central database</a>, creating a real-time record of the ebb and flow of migration. Ornithologists have also learned to use <a href="https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/weather/nexrad/">NEXRAD</a>, a national network of Doppler weather radars, to visualize <a href="https://birdcast.info/">birds migrating down the North American continent</a>.</p>
<p>Now, scientists are setting up a global network of receiver stations called the Motus Network, which currently has <a href="https://motus.org/">1,500 receivers in 31 countries.</a> Each receiver constantly records the presence of any birds or other animals within a nine-mile (15-kilometer) radius that scientists have fitted with small, lightweight radio transmitters, and shares the data online. The network will become increasingly useful for understanding bird migration as more receiver stations become active along migration tracks. </p>
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<h2>Tracking individual birds via satellite</h2>
<p>Three new technologies are rapidly expanding what we know about bird migration. The first is satellite telemetry of bird movement. Researchers fit birds with small solar-powered transmitters, which send data on the birds’ locations to a satellite and then on to a scientist’s office computer. The scientist can learn where a bird is, the route it took to get there and how fast it travels. </p>
<p>For example, the <a href="https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/bar-tailed-godwit">bar-tailed godwit</a>, a pigeon-sized shorebird, breeds in Alaska and then migrates to New Zealand. Satellite transmitters show that godwits often fly nonstop from Alaska to New Zealand. Recently, a godwit set the record for the longest nonstop flight by a land bird: 8,100 miles (13,000 kilometers) in 10 days, <a href="https://www.audubon.org/news/these-mighty-shorebirds-keep-breaking-flight-records-and-you-can-follow-along">from Alaska to Australia</a>. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ljr79wpG3L8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Bar-tailed godwits have the ability to correct course if they are blown off track on their epic migratory journey.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Satellite telemetry studies show how much individual birds, even those from the same breeding location, vary in their migratory behavior. Individual differences in migratory behavior are probably due to differences in physical condition, learning, experience and personal preferences. </p>
<p>Another shorebird, the <a href="https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Whimbrel/overview">whimbrel</a>, also makes a phenomenally long journey over the ocean. Satellite telemetry has shown that some whimbrels travel from northwest Canada, across the North American continent to Canada’s east coast, then set off over the Atlantic Ocean on a 3,400-mile (5,400-kilometer), six-day nonstop flight to the coast of Brazil. In total, they may travel <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-92429-z">6,800 miles (11,000 kilometers)</a>. </p>
<p>Sadly, hunters kill some of these birds when they land to rest on <a href="https://www.wm.edu/news/stories/2011/machi-the-whimbrel-survives-hurricanes-to-die-of-gunfire-123.php">islands in the Lesser Antilles</a>. The unfortunate fate of two satellite-tracked whimbrels has catalyzed a campaign to tighten regulations on <a href="https://www.wm.edu/news/stories/2013/machi-and-goshens-legacy-increased-shorebird-hunting-regulations123.php">shorebird hunting in the Caribbean</a>.</p>
<h2>Geotagging small birds</h2>
<p>Many birds are too small to carry a satellite transmitter. Given the energetic effort required for migration, a device must weigh less than 5% of a bird’s body weight, and many migratory songbirds weigh under 0.7 ounces (20 grams). </p>
<p>An ingenious solution for small birds is a <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1166664">geolocator tag, or geologger</a> – a tiny device that simply records <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/jofo.12011">time, location and presence or absence of sunlight</a>. Scientists know the timing of sunrise and sunset on a given date, so they can calculate a bird’s location on that date to within about 125 miles (200 kilometers). </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482340/original/file-20220901-6551-9rbk6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Colorful songbird with a small geolocation tag attached to its back." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482340/original/file-20220901-6551-9rbk6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482340/original/file-20220901-6551-9rbk6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482340/original/file-20220901-6551-9rbk6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482340/original/file-20220901-6551-9rbk6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482340/original/file-20220901-6551-9rbk6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482340/original/file-20220901-6551-9rbk6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/482340/original/file-20220901-6551-9rbk6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A painted bunting equipped with a 0.024-ounce (0.7-gram) solar geolocation datalogger.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/bio.2011.61.9.7">Jeffrey F. Kelly</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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<p>Birds carrying geologgers must be recaptured to download the data. That means the bird must survive a migration round trip and return to the same place where it was first captured and tagged. Amazingly, many geologger-tagged small birds do.</p>
<p>Geologgers have shown that <a href="https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Blackpoll_Warbler/overview">Blackpoll warblers</a> – small songbirds that breed in the boreal forests of North America – fly long distances over the Atlantic in fall, heading to the Amazon basin. Birds breeding in eastern North America head out over the Atlantic in maritime Canada or the northeastern U.S. and make a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2014.1045">60-hour, nonstop, 1,500-mile (2,500-kilometer) flight</a> to the Greater Antilles. There they rest and recuperate, then continue across the Caribbean to South America. </p>
<p>Blackpolls breeding in Alaska fly across the North American continent before leaving shore on the Atlantic coast and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.2651">flying to South America</a>. In total, they journey 6,600 miles (10,700 kilometers) over 60 days.</p>
<p>Even more amazing, geologgers show that another small songbird, <a href="https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/northern-wheatear">the northern wheatear</a>, migrates from North America to sub-Saharan Africa. Wheatears that breed in Alaska fly 9,100 miles (14,600 kilometers) across Asia to East Africa, taking three months to do so. Those breeding in eastern Canada journey 4,600 miles (7,400 kilometers) across the Atlantic to Europe and then on to West Africa – including <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2011.1223">a 2,100-mile (3,400-kilometer), four-day nonstop overwater flight.</a></p>
<h2>Recording birds’ night migration calls</h2>
<p>Two hours after sunset in fall, I like to sit outside and listen to birds migrating overhead. Most birds migrate at night, and many give a species-specific “chit,” “zeep” or other call-note while in flight. The calls may serve to keep migrating flocks together, including <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/evo.14167">different species heading to the same destination</a>. </p>
<p>Ornithologists are using <a href="https://doi.org/10.5751/ACE-00974-120114">automated passive acoustic recording</a> to study these nocturnal calls and identify the species or group of related species that make each sound. The technology is a microphone directed at the sky, connected to a computer that continuously records the sound stream and is aided by sound recognition software. Sometimes it reveals migrants overhead that are rarely seen on the ground. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Scientists use infrared cameras and birds’ nocturnal migration calls to assess the risks birds face from colliding with buildings.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Nick Kachala, an honors student in my lab, set up recording units on three university properties in the fall of 2021. One of the most common migrants recorded was the <a href="https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Gray-cheeked_Thrush/overview">gray-cheeked thrush</a>, a shy bird of the northern boreal forest that is rarely seen in the northeast U.S. during fall migration. He also detected the <a href="https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Dickcissel/overview">dickcissel</a>, a grassland bird that I have never seen in our area. </p>
<p>Many birdwatchers are now building <a href="https://www.audubon.org/news/how-birders-are-boosting-their-yard-lists-while-they-sleep">do-it-yourself backyard recording units</a> to identify the birds flying over their homes during migration.</p>
<h2>Conserving migratory birds</h2>
<p>Radar monitoring indicates that the number of North American migratory birds <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aaw1313">declined by 14% between 2007 and 2017</a>. There probably are multiple causes, but habitat loss is likely the principal culprit. </p>
<p>Satellite telemetry and geologgers show that there are special stopover sites along migration routes where migrants rest and refuel, such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13618">the Texas Gulf Coast, the Florida Panhandle</a> and Mexico’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959270917000296">Yucatan Peninsula</a>. Conservation experts widely agree that to protect migratory birds, it is critical to <a href="https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/bottlenecks-refueling-stations-and-fire-escapes-3-types-of-stopover-sites-migrants-really-need/">conserve these sites</a>. </p>
<p>Effective conservation measures require knowing where and how birds migrate, and what dangers they face during migration. Ornithologists, using these new technologies, are learning things that will help to stop and reverse <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aac9180">the global decline in migratory birds</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187967/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tom Langen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Satellite telemetry, tiny geolocation tags and passive acoustic recording are providing new insights into bird migration and vital data for conservation.Tom Langen, Professor of Biology, Clarkson UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1891162022-08-28T08:06:58Z2022-08-28T08:06:58ZWe’ve been tracking birds in a small Nigerian forest for 18 years. What we found and why it matters<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480788/original/file-20220824-24-i7cmxb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Little bee-eater (Merops pusillus)</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Frans Sellies/ Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>If you live in Europe, you can find almost any statistic you like about the birds in the environment. How many there are of a species, where you find them, whether their population is increasing or decreasing. In some countries like the UK there are comprehensive surveys going back 60 years and they have mapped and counted every single bird species three times already. </p>
<p>These detailed statistics allow effective monitoring of the environment. This is because birds are an <a href="https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.1076.9283&rep=rep1&type=pdf">indicator species</a> of how well the ecosystem is functioning to provide food, clean water, good soil and quality of life for people.</p>
<p>In West Africa, there’s virtually no systematic monitoring of bird population trends. But this is changing. Initiatives and research led by the <a href="https://www.aplori.org/">AP Leventis Ornithological Research Institute</a> at the University of Jos, north central Nigeria, have started the process of long term monitoring of birds – and thus the environment generally – in Nigeria.</p>
<p>Recently scientists at the institute have compiled some of the monitoring data collected from the Amurum nature reserve over 18 years. Amurum is a small (about 300 hectare) piece of wooded savannah surrounded by farmland where the institute was built. </p>
<p>The team’s findings on bird populations and related environmental conditions have been <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2989/00306525.2022.2068691">published</a> in Ostrich, Africa’s premier bird journal. They show that the populations of most bird species in the reserve have been stable or have increased over this period. This is encouraging because it shows that simple protection of a <a href="https://theconversation.com/increasing-land-use-could-turn-mount-kilimanjaro-into-an-ecological-island-153473">small habitat fragment</a> can yield generally positive population benefits. </p>
<p>The study is also encouraging in the sense that it has trained people who can do similar work on a bigger scale.</p>
<h2>Bird ringing, vegetation and rainfall</h2>
<p>Aurum Forest Reserve is a newly protected area on the outskirts of Jos, north central Nigeria. Our team of students and graduates used mist netting to monitor bird population trends in the reserve from 2002 to 2019. We modelled the 18-year changes in trends of migrant and local bird species and related this to any changes in annual environmental site quality using data about vegetation and rainfall. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480380/original/file-20220822-27416-hp8e5f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="View of landscape" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480380/original/file-20220822-27416-hp8e5f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480380/original/file-20220822-27416-hp8e5f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480380/original/file-20220822-27416-hp8e5f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480380/original/file-20220822-27416-hp8e5f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480380/original/file-20220822-27416-hp8e5f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480380/original/file-20220822-27416-hp8e5f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480380/original/file-20220822-27416-hp8e5f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Amurum reserve, Nigeria.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">A.P. Leventis Ornithological Research Institute. Photo by Ishong Joy Akpanta.</span></span>
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<p>In our study there were 10 migrant species that breed in Europe but spend most of their non-breeding time in Africa, and 41 common resident bird species.</p>
<p>Bird ringing is an effective way of monitoring bird populations. It involves putting up lots of mist nets which, because they are more or less invisible, intercept flying birds which then fall into pockets of netting that they cannot get out of. A trained person can safely extract the birds from the net and mark them by putting a metal ring with a unique number on their leg. They are released and return to the environment unharmed. Then when the nets are put up a month or two later, as well as new birds, some of these previously ringed birds are recaptured if they are still alive and still in the area. </p>
<p>With a few of these ringing sessions through a year carefully using the same amount of effort and location each time, a few recaptures, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/statistical-ecology-can-unlock-the-power-of-biodiversity-data-in-africa-171513">some maths</a>, you can then work out abundance and survival of bird populations. You can even monitor how well a species is doing in terms of breeding by comparing the ratio of juveniles to adults caught. </p>
<p>We also collected data from satellite remote sensing that measured the greenness of vegetation – which shows where it is and how much of it there is. Rainfall data was collected too. Vegetation and rainfall records were compared with the changes in bird numbers. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/eyes-in-the-sky-and-on-the-ground-are-helping-forest-conservation-in-cameroon-73695">Eyes in the sky and on the ground are helping forest conservation in Cameroon</a>
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<p>Most bird species’ populations were found to be stable; 30% of migrants and 7% of residents increased, while 10% of migrants and 29% of residents declined moderately. Vegetation cover increased and the rainfall pattern was stable. This suggests that environmental conditions at the site improved slightly during the period. However, only a few species showed significant correlations of population trends with vegetation productivity and rainfall. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480884/original/file-20220824-7032-lu32nq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Hand holding grey bird with big yellow eyes" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480884/original/file-20220824-7032-lu32nq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480884/original/file-20220824-7032-lu32nq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480884/original/file-20220824-7032-lu32nq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480884/original/file-20220824-7032-lu32nq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480884/original/file-20220824-7032-lu32nq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480884/original/file-20220824-7032-lu32nq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480884/original/file-20220824-7032-lu32nq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">African scops owl.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Ishong Joy Akpanta</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Overall, the results suggest that population changes locally for both migrant and resident bird species were similar, being reasonably stable or increasing. This may reflect the fact that the monitoring was done within a newly protected area which is the best habitat in the wider locality. </p>
<p>Those species that declined were mostly associated with open, grassland areas that will have decreased as human influences were reduced at the study site.</p>
<h2>Training in conservation</h2>
<p>But these specific results are not the only story here. Changes at Amurum Forest, although positive and encouraging, don’t matter much on an African scale. But its example does. What’s important is that the process of monitoring has started and people are being trained to do it elsewhere on a wider scale.</p>
<p>Bird ringing is a powerful method, but it takes long term commitment and properly trained people.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Hand holding grey and yellow bird" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480886/original/file-20220824-2207-gf0fzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480886/original/file-20220824-2207-gf0fzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480886/original/file-20220824-2207-gf0fzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480886/original/file-20220824-2207-gf0fzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480886/original/file-20220824-2207-gf0fzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480886/original/file-20220824-2207-gf0fzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480886/original/file-20220824-2207-gf0fzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Bruce’s Green Pigeon.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Ishong Joy Akpanta</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>The AP Leventis Ornithological Research Institute was founded in 2001 as the first (and still only) one of its kind in West Africa. Its mission is to increase the capacity in Nigeria for environmental research and conservation by training master’s students in conservation biology. Part of this training involves direct experience of survey and monitoring of animals and plants and particularly birds. It has been running a bird ringing scheme since 2002.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-a-proper-record-of-birds-in-africa-is-so-important-for-europe-85111">Why a proper record of birds in Africa is so important -- for Europe</a>
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<p>The institute has now produced about 150 trained personnel spread throughout West African universities, conservation NGOs and government institutes or ministries. They know the importance of <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-google-images-helped-us-pin-down-the-diet-of-africas-largest-eagle-115314">environmental monitoring</a>. They know how to do it. They have the passion to influence <a href="https://theconversation.com/people-powered-science-in-africa-a-boost-for-democracy-and-knowledge-63068">others</a> to do it. </p>
<p>It might just be relatively few experts counting birds, but it can lead to proper stewardship of the environment for everyone.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189116/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Monitoring bird population trends in Nigeria is a valuable activity – but it requires trained people and commitment over the long term.William Cresswell, Chair professor, University of St AndrewsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1831502022-05-18T14:30:35Z2022-05-18T14:30:35ZCanaries in the coal mine: why birds can tell us so much about the health of Earth<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463917/original/file-20220518-11-oiplcp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5472%2C3645&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Eurasian jay (_Garrulus glandarius_) sighting suggests a productive oak tree is nearby.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/eurasian-jay-perched-on-log-1751672576">Andy Jenner/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Following a deadly explosion in a Welsh coal mine in 1896, an engineer called John Haldane invented a type of bird cage that allowed canaries to accompany miners into the depths. The small songbirds are much more sensitive than humans to the deadly carbon monoxide gas found underground. </p>
<p>A sudden halt to their singing would warn workers to evacuate the pit – and rescue the canary by closing its cage door and opening a valve to pump oxygen inside. Remarkably, it was only in 1986 that canaries were <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/30/newsid_2547000/2547587.stm">relieved</a> of their duties detecting noxious gases in UK coal mines.</p>
<p>As rising temperatures and habitat loss degrade the natural world, bird species everywhere play the role of mine canaries for the whole planet. Trends in the size of their populations inform us of the extent and patterns of environmental change, providing a kind of early warning system.</p>
<p>There are a number of reasons why birds are excellent indicators of the status of other wildlife groups and the health of the wider ecosystem. For one, birds are found all over the world, in all countries and in nearly all habitats. From ivory gulls and emperor penguins on the polar ice caps to birds of paradise in tropical rainforests, and from albatrosses cruising the remote open ocean to desert larks in the Sahara. </p>
<p>Birds are found on the highest mountains and some fly to extraordinary heights: a Rüppell’s vulture <a href="https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/wilson/v086n04/p0461-p0462.pdf">collided with an aircraft</a> at an altitude of 11,300 metres. Certain seabirds feed at remarkable depths: one emperor penguin was recorded <a href="http://www.avesmarinhas.com.br/1%20-%20Mergulho%20em%20penguins%20imperador.pdf">diving to 564 metres</a> where it is almost completely dark and the pressure is 50 times stronger than at the ocean’s surface. </p>
<p>There are enough bird species that the patterns in their distribution and numbers closely reflect variation in the environment, with over 11,000 species in total, and over 400 species on average in each country. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A vulture about to take off." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463919/original/file-20220518-21-sj69yl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463919/original/file-20220518-21-sj69yl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463919/original/file-20220518-21-sj69yl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463919/original/file-20220518-21-sj69yl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463919/original/file-20220518-21-sj69yl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=612&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463919/original/file-20220518-21-sj69yl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=612&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463919/original/file-20220518-21-sj69yl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=612&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Higher flyers: a Rüppell’s vulture (<em>Gyps rueppelli</em>) in Nairobi National Park, Kenya.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%BCppell%27s_vulture#/media/File:Gyps_rueppellii_-Nairobi_National_Park,_Kenya-8-4c.jpg">Snowmanradio/Wikipedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>Birds make good indicators because of their biology. Typically feeding towards the top of food webs, bird populations are an eye-catching gauge of changes further down the food chain, such as declines in the abundance of the things they eat. Fewer bug-eating birds like flycatchers may be a tell-tale sign of shrinking insect populations, something more difficult to measure but itself indicative of deteriorating natural habitats. </p>
<p>Birds also tend to move in response to environmental changes, with their local abundance reflecting changes in the climate or how land is used. Bird population trends often mirror those of other species. </p>
<p>For example, other groups of organisms such as butterflies, dung beetles and reptiles (which may be more difficult to study than birds) have mirrored the <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/abs/10.1098/rstb.2004.1602">declines</a> in abundance of farmland birds in the UK since the 1970s. This has been driven largely by the intensification of food production such as the increased use of pesticides. </p>
<p>Similarly, distribution patterns for birds broadly reflect those of many other wildlife groups, meaning that conservation efforts targeted at birds can typically be trusted to benefit a wider array of species.</p>
<h2>One million records a month</h2>
<p>There are also not so many species as to make identifying birds too difficult. The taxonomy, distribution, ecology and life history of birds are well understood. Over 16,000 scientific papers on bird biology are <a href="http://datazone.birdlife.org/sowb/casestudy/birds-are-very-useful-indicators-for-other-kinds-of-biodiversity">published each year</a>. </p>
<p>Being relatively large, conspicuous, and generally easy to identify, birds are popular and engage the public. It has been estimated that 20% of people <a href="https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1163&context=usfwspubs">in the US</a> and 30% <a href="https://fatbirder.com/world-birding/europe/united-kingdom/">in the UK</a> watch or feed birds regularly. </p>
<p>An army of birdwatchers worldwide collects data on birds, whether on an ad hoc basis, or as part of more formal surveys and monitoring schemes. <a href="https://ebird.org/home">The eBird platform</a>, where people can log their bird records, now holds more than one billion observations from over 200 countries, with over one million checklists submitted each month. </p>
<p>And some datasets on bird trends go back many decades, rendering them valuable for tracking environmental trends over time. Birds act as ambassadors for nature, capable of symbolising complex ecological communities while managing to resonate with most people.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman in a grey coat watches a bare tree with binoculars in winter." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463921/original/file-20220518-14-jsfpht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463921/original/file-20220518-14-jsfpht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463921/original/file-20220518-14-jsfpht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463921/original/file-20220518-14-jsfpht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463921/original/file-20220518-14-jsfpht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463921/original/file-20220518-14-jsfpht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463921/original/file-20220518-14-jsfpht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Citizen scientists keep us abreast of changing ecosystems with their bird observations.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/woman-binoculars-birdwatching-looking-tree-172124180">DJTaylor/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Of course, birds tend to be less specialised within very specific types of habitats, such as coastal dunes or lake margins than insects or plants. They are less representative of freshwater and marine habitats than land-based ones, and are scarce or totally absent from some environments, such as the deep ocean or cave systems.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, it is still hard to beat birds as living indicators of environmental change. We must listen to the message they are sending us about the state of nature, and the pressures upon it. Like canaries in the coal mine, they tell us that it is time to act. Our lives may depend upon it.</p>
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<img alt="Imagine weekly climate newsletter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><strong><em>Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?</em></strong>
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<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183150/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stuart Butchart is Chief Scientist at BirdLife International. He receives funding from the Aage V. Jensen Charity Foundation for work on BirdLife's State of the World's Birds assessments.</span></em></p>Want to understand your local environment better? Look to the birds.Stuart Butchart, Chief Scientist, BirdLife International & Honorary Research Fellow, Department of Zoology, University of CambridgeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1803562022-04-14T13:53:34Z2022-04-14T13:53:34ZWhy birds migrate vast distances – and how you can help during their breeding season<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458128/original/file-20220414-15-d3i8yu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ospreys spend summer in the UK</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/osprey-flying-sky-2063210810">Vlad G/shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Now that spring is in the air, the UK is starting to see its summer visitors arriving. Ospreys are already back <a href="https://www.lrwt.org.uk/rutlandospreys">in their nests</a>, chiffchaffs are singing their song to <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4535548?seq=1">re-establish their territories</a>, and puffins have arrived at their <a href="https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/where_to_see_puffins">breeding sites</a> around the British Isles.</p>
<p>Several centuries ago, people believed that swallows spent the winter asleep at the bottom of ponds and lakes, or <a href="https://www.historytoday.com/archive/natural-histories/great-migration-mystery">even on the Moon</a> - but of course, that was complete nonsense.</p>
<p>We now know that animals migrate to increase their survival – and that of their offspring. It also helps in their quest to find food, a mate or to avoid predators.</p>
<p>Although we tend to think of migration as birds flying from one country to another, there are actually <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.org/article/natures-most-impressive-animal-migrations/">many animals who migrate</a>. Wildebeest, for example, undertake a <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/597229">circular migration</a>, roaming the African plains in huge numbers during the dry season in search of fresh grass. And <a href="http://repositorio.furg.br/handle/1/3452">humpback whales</a> migrate to warmer waters to raise their offspring.</p>
<p>However, it is birds who are the record breakers when it comes to travel. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/86385-longest-non-stop-migration-by-a-bird">bar-tailed godwit</a> has the longest recorded non-stop migration, with one individual spending almost ten days travelling from Alaska to New Zealand without a break – that’s a huge journey of around 12,200km (7,580 miles).</p>
<p>But the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bte7MCSBZvo">Arctic tern</a> is the true champion, making a round trip of 35,000km (22,000 miles) from the Arctic to the Antarctic and back again each year. This huge migration means that it lives in a constant summer – experiencing more daylight than any other animal – as it stops off in countries including Mauritania, Ghana and South Africa, during its <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/339530181_Seasonally_specific_responses_to_wind_patterns_and_ocean_productivity_facilitate_the_longest_animal_migration_on_Earth/figures?lo=1">global trek</a>. </p>
<h2>How birds find their way</h2>
<p>Migration is a costly business – birds need to carry enough fat reserves to power their flight and sustain themselves over the duration of their journey. Getting lost could have disastrous consequences, so birds have developed incredible navigation skills to help them fly the shortest and safest routes.</p>
<p>Some species have an innate, inherited ability to migrate, which allows them to move to areas independently to enhance their survival. </p>
<p>The cuckoo, for example, is not raised by its parents as cuckoo mothers lay their eggs in nests belonging to birds of a completely different species. Yet, a young cuckoo is able to travel alone, from Europe to Africa, and back again, by using an inherited <a href="https://news.ku.dk/all_news/2020/06/cuckoo-chicks-have-an-innate-gps/#:%7E:text=By%20moving%20young%20cuckoos%201800,broader%20understanding%20of%20bird%20migration.">“internal GPS”</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Cuckoo sitting on a green bush" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458137/original/file-20220414-13-l8etad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458137/original/file-20220414-13-l8etad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458137/original/file-20220414-13-l8etad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458137/original/file-20220414-13-l8etad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458137/original/file-20220414-13-l8etad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458137/original/file-20220414-13-l8etad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458137/original/file-20220414-13-l8etad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Cuckoos are part of a tracking programme using mini data loggers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/beautiful-cockoo-sitting-on-green-bush-1457541527">Urcan Uk/shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>But some species, like the Caspian tern – which undertakes a long-distance migration from its breeding home in northern Europe to its wintering location in Africa – have very little inherited basis to their migratory habits. In most cases, they are taught by their parents, also known as “cultural inheritance” or social learning.</p>
<p>A recent study, for example, found that young Caspians seem to <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-29300-w">learn their migratory route</a> from their father, who carries the main responsibility for migrating with their young birds. Along the journey, he also shows them suitable stopover sites for refuelling with fish and crustaceans.</p>
<p>But, whether inherited genetically or socially, birds <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.org/media/how-do-birds-navigate/">use a variety</a> of natural cues, such as the shape of coastlines or the position of the Sun or stars –- or olfactory cues like the smell of their nest – to help them navigate their way around the globe.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/birds-use-massive-magnetic-maps-to-migrate-and-some-could-cover-the-whole-world-154992">Birds use massive magnetic maps to migrate – and some could cover the whole world</a>
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<p>Some birds, such as homing pigeons, even <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/news041122-7">use a magnetic map</a> to align themselves with the Earth’s magnetic field as they travel.</p>
<h2>UK’s summer visitors</h2>
<p>Our knowledge of bird migration has increased dramatically since the development of biologgers, tiny data-logging devices that are attached to the birds. These allow us to track an individual’s location, speed, stopover sites and the timing of their migration. </p>
<p>One such study is the <a href="https://www.bto.org/our-science/projects/cuckoo-tracking-project">cuckoo tracking project</a>. This has revealed that several cuckoos left central Africa around the start of 2022, each travelling separately for hundreds of kilometres before stopping for a couple of weeks in countries including the Ivory Coast and Morocco. They then continued with the next leg of their journey, and the most northerly bird had reached France around the 10 April. These migrating cuckoos are expected back to their breeding grounds in the UK very soon.</p>
<p>And they are not alone. Many birds undertake long distance migrations to the UK for the summer breeding season. For example, the <a href="https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/natures-home-magazine/birds-and-wildlife-articles/migration/migratory-bird-stories/wheatear-migration/">wheatear</a> also winters in Central Africa, but is back in the UK much earlier, from late February to mid August, whereas the <a href="https://hawkandowltrust.org/about-birds-of-prey/hobby">hobby</a> - a predator of dragonflies - winters in South Africa and is in the UK from late April to October. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Housemartin sitting on her nest" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458131/original/file-20220414-15-6tqkac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458131/original/file-20220414-15-6tqkac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458131/original/file-20220414-15-6tqkac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458131/original/file-20220414-15-6tqkac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458131/original/file-20220414-15-6tqkac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458131/original/file-20220414-15-6tqkac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458131/original/file-20220414-15-6tqkac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">There are numerous ways to help birds, such as these housemartins, when they are living on your shores.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/house-martin-delichon-urbica-single-adult-144672881">Erni/shutterstock</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>This enables them to take advantage of the longer hours of daylight and abundance of food, such as insects, during the UK’s summer months. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/garden-bird-feeders-are-boosting-blue-tit-numbers-but-leaving-other-species-hungry-161568">Garden bird feeders are boosting blue tit numbers – but leaving other species hungry</a>
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<p>If you’d like to help birds over their breeding season – and at the same time help other, more permanent avian residents, such as tits and sparrows – here are a few ideas.</p>
<p>Feeding birds nuts, seeds and household scraps such as pastry, fruit or cheese, will help to <a href="https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/advice/how-you-can-help-birds/feeding-birds/">provide some easily accessible food</a>. </p>
<p>But some species, such as house martins and swallows, rely on insects. So, enhancing the biodiversity in your garden by <a href="https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/how-to-grow-a-mini-wildflower-meadow">creating a wildflower meadow</a>, or taking part in <a href="https://www.plantlife.org.uk/uk/discover-wild-plants-nature/no-mow-may">no mow May</a> – an initiative from British conservation charity, Plantlife, asking everyone to “lock up their lawnmowers” and let vegetation grow during the month of May – will also be hugely beneficial. </p>
<p>Don’t forget that birds also need water, for drinking and bathing in, so a small bird bath or <a href="https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/actions/how-create-mini-pond">wildlife pond</a> is ideal. You can also <a href="https://www.bto.org/how-you-can-help/providing-birds/putting-nest-boxes-birds">put up nestboxes</a> to provide even more resources for our returning birds - an excellent substitute for the lack of natural nest sites for raising young, especially in urban areas. </p>
<p>Waking up to birdsong, courtesy of our summer visitors, including willow warblers and nightingales, brings joy to so many of us. Let’s not forget the epic journey they’ve taken to reach our shores - and do what we can to ensure a successful breeding season.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/180356/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Louise Gentle works for Nottingham Trent University</span></em></p>Birds are master navigators, negotiating journeys of thousands miles each year.Louise Gentle, Principal Lecturer in Wildlife Conservation, Nottingham Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1803572022-04-06T10:57:55Z2022-04-06T10:57:55ZHere’s how we proved that tropical birds are more colourful – and why colour helps them survive<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456350/original/file-20220405-6157-c2dbrq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Green headed tanager in Ubatuba, Brazil </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Green-headed_Tanager_Ubatuba.jpg">Lars Falkdalen Lindahl, CC BY-SA 3.0.</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For many of us, the tropics conjure up thoughts of lush vegetation teaming with vibrant and strikingly colourful birds, insects and other creatures.</p>
<p>It’s been a widespread belief that the tropical regions of the world are home to the most colourful species – an idea that probably dates back to the 19th century when famous naturalists, including <a href="https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/charles-darwin-most-famous-biologist.html">Charles Darwin</a>, remarked on the “rich variety of colours” found in the tropics compared to their high-latitude homelands. </p>
<p>And yet, until now, conclusive evidence for this geographical pattern in species colourfulness has been elusive. </p>
<p>One earlier study found that the tropical birds of South America were <a href="http://www.avisoc.co.uk/table-of-contents/why-are-neotropical-birds-more-colourful-than-north-american-birds/">more colourful</a> than those in North America, with European birds the least colourful. But other studies, such as one looking at birds along the east coast of Australia, found it was the species <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.12522">living in the arid regions</a> – and not nearest the equator – who had the the most intense plumage colour. </p>
<p>So, the issue has remained unresolved. </p>
<p>In our <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-022-01714-1">new research</a>, published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, we’ve finally discovered that the trend does seem to be true – tropical species of songbirds are indeed more colourful than their non-tropical counterparts, just as Darwin suggested. </p>
<p>And we think that it might be partly because of a need to stand out in the crowd, due to the higher concentration of different species living together in tropical communities.</p>
<h2>Studying 4,500 songbird species</h2>
<p>Using the global bird specimen collection at the UK’s <a href="https://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit/tring.html">Natural History Museum </a> we digitally photographed adult male and female specimens of more than 4,500 species of songbird from all over the world – ranging from the tropical Paradise Tanager (<em>Tangara chilensis</em>) to the higher latitude Brown Dipper (<em>Cinclus pallasii</em>).</p>
<p>We chose the songbirds (also known as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passerine">the passerines</a>) as they represent around 60% of all bird species and are therefore well represented in museum collections. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4U2pmQO5e3k?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>A cutting-edge computer technology called “<a href="https://uk.mathworks.com/discovery/deep-learning.html">Deep Learning</a>” – which is able to learn to how to process and classify large amounts of complex data from images – helped us to extract information from the thousands of pixels in each photograph.</p>
<p>We were then able to measure the shade and intensity of plumage colours in each photo in terms of red, green and blue light, as well as ultraviolet – this was important as birds have a broader range of vision than humans and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0065345408601059?via%3Dihub">can perceive colours</a> in the ultraviolet light spectrum.</p>
<p>Using this information we generated an accurate estimate of colourfulness of each species, based on the number of distinct colours (or “colour loci”) in the plumage of each individual bird.</p>
<p>When we mapped variation in species’ colourfulness scores across the globe, we found strong evidence that bird colourfulness is generally highest at the Equator and decreases with increasing latitude towards the poles – specifically, their plumages displayed around 20%-30% more colours than birds living at higher latitudes outside of the tropics, whether north or south. </p>
<p>Interestingly, this was true for both male and female birds, even though they can sometimes look very different from one another.</p>
<p>So, we’d proved Darwin’s observations correct – the next step was to investigate which factors might cause this colour gradient.</p>
<h2>The advantage of colour</h2>
<p>There were a number of possible theories.</p>
<p>Perhaps the more favourable climate near the Equator – in terms of temperature and rainfall, for example – allowed tropical species to invest more energy in developing elaborate plumage colouration. Or maybe the influence of ecological factors, such as the <a href="https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.2307/2937121">amount of light</a> in their habitat, could influence the birds’ appearance.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-performed-magic-tricks-on-birds-to-see-how-they-perceive-the-world-161772">We performed magic tricks on birds to see how they perceive the world</a>
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<p>To test these hypotheses, we collected information on the environmental and ecological characteristics of the species in our study, and used data analysis to find out with variables could help explain the variation in colourfulness across species.</p>
<p>We found that colour diversity was highest in birds from dense, closed forest habitats such as rainforests, and also in those who eat fruits and floral nectar.</p>
<p>Both of those traits are more common at tropical latitudes – so this suggests that two possible reasons for the evolution of colour diversity might be the need for brightly coloured visual communication (such as gestures and body postures) in dark tropical forests, and the ability to acquire colour-forming compounds (like carotenoids) from <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2435.2007.01363.x">fruit in their diet</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Dense Brazilian rainforest" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456373/original/file-20220405-22-j9aq8p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456373/original/file-20220405-22-j9aq8p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456373/original/file-20220405-22-j9aq8p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456373/original/file-20220405-22-j9aq8p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456373/original/file-20220405-22-j9aq8p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456373/original/file-20220405-22-j9aq8p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456373/original/file-20220405-22-j9aq8p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In dense tropical rainforest, bright colours help birds communicate and stand out from other species.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/brazilian-rainforest-127521311">Earlytwenties/shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And there was also a positive association between colourfulness and the diversity of the bird communities. </p>
<p>The average number of songbird species living together in the same location increases dramatically towards the Equator, so this enhanced colourfulness may help them to distinguish themselves from all the other birds in their rich tropical communities – a necessary skill to avoid potentially costly interactions with other species, which could even include mating.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/seagulls-songbirds-and-parrots-what-new-research-tells-us-about-their-cognitive-ability-173954">Seagulls, songbirds and parrots: what new research tells us about their cognitive ability</a>
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<hr>
<p>Going forward, pinpointing the location of global colourfulness “hotspots”, in different regions and among different species, will help us to plan effective species and habitat conservation strategies which preserve colour diversity.</p>
<p>As Alfred Russel Wallace, a 19th century <a href="http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=346&itemID=A238&viewtype=side">British naturalist</a>, once said: “There is probably no one quality of natural objects from which we derive so much pure and intellectual enjoyment as from their colours”. We owe it to future generations to ensure the spectacular colourfulness of the natural world remains undiminished.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/180357/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Cooney receives funding from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gavin Thomas received funding from the Royal Society, European Research Council (ERC), and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). </span></em></p>We compared 4,500 species of songbird to finally confirm what Darwin suspected.Chris Cooney, NERC Independent Research Fellow, University of SheffieldGavin Thomas, Senior Lecturer, University of SheffieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1777922022-03-07T13:19:48Z2022-03-07T13:19:48ZDeer have antlers, walruses have tusks – here’s why so few birds have weapons of their own<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449869/original/file-20220303-19-1qu7tlv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=10%2C0%2C3551%2C2499&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There's plenty of aggression in the bird world, but little armed violence.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/MXPaqo">Velvet Shearer, USFWS/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Mating season in the animal kingdom can be dramatic, and sometimes violent. As an example, take <a href="https://youtu.be/dg4VeesS6_I">deer clashing their antlers</a> during the rut – nostrils flaring, hooves hammering the ground, grass flying everywhere, and that eerie silence before the thunderous collision. The winning buck gets access to the harem, while the loser must find other females to fight for. </p>
<p>Many other animals also have formidable weapons. They range from <a href="https://youtu.be/kOg2TGoVYoE">rhinoceros beetles’ pointy horns</a> to <a href="https://youtu.be/bMlogVug_vs">fiddler crabs’ proportionally gigantic claws</a> and the long tusks of <a href="https://youtu.be/sxMc-INN-GA">walruses</a> and narwhals.</p>
<p>Birds also need to compete for their mates, which often involves fiercely defending a territory. But most birds don’t sport impressive weapons; we know them better for their colors, dances and songs. As evolutionary biologists primarily interested in <a href="https://jocateme.webnode.com">birds</a> and <a href="http://www.alexandrevpalaoro.eco.br">weapons</a>, respectively, we couldn’t help but wonder: Why do most birds lack their own version of antlers? The answer, which we present in a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13964">recent study</a>, likely lies in a trade-off between flying and fighting.</p>
<h2>It’s all about weight</h2>
<p>For anything that flies, whether it’s a bird or an airplane (or even Superman), flight demands more energy – in the form of burned fat or fuel – than <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/42.5.1060">moving on the ground or in the water</a>. And the amount of energy required <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cbpa.2019.06.003">increases with weight</a>.</p>
<p>How stark is this trade-off? Several years ago, United Airlines started <a href="https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-travel-briefcase-united-inflight-magazine-20180120-story.html">printing its inflight magazine on lighter paper</a> to reduce the weight of a typical flight by about 11 pounds, or <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_737">0.01% of an airplane’s empty weight</a>. Through this tiny decrease, the company cut its annual fuel use by 170,000 gallons, saving US$290,000 yearly. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449871/original/file-20220303-27-6ys4qa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Black-capped seabird perches on a fence post near the ocean" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449871/original/file-20220303-27-6ys4qa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449871/original/file-20220303-27-6ys4qa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449871/original/file-20220303-27-6ys4qa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449871/original/file-20220303-27-6ys4qa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449871/original/file-20220303-27-6ys4qa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449871/original/file-20220303-27-6ys4qa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449871/original/file-20220303-27-6ys4qa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Arctic terns fly more than 40,000 miles each year, the longest migration in the animal kingdom. Their long, pointed wings – in scientific terms, a high hand-wing index – and forked tails make them fast, maneuverable flyers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_tern">Jamumiwa/Wikipedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>If you fly a lot, like an airline that operates 4,500 daily flights or a swift that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2016.09.014">flies 10 months out of every year</a>, every reduced ounce counts. And consequences are harsher for the swift. Animals can’t buy energy in the form of fuel – they have to find food and consume it, which itself requires energy.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if you are a rooster that only barely flies, you might be able to afford a bit of extra weight in the form of a weapon. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449893/original/file-20220303-15-110566j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Legs of a walking turkey with pointed spurs protruding backward" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449893/original/file-20220303-15-110566j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449893/original/file-20220303-15-110566j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449893/original/file-20220303-15-110566j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449893/original/file-20220303-15-110566j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449893/original/file-20220303-15-110566j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=670&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449893/original/file-20220303-15-110566j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=670&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449893/original/file-20220303-15-110566j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=670&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Leg spurs on a male wild turkey.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/ruH73u">Paul VanDerWerf/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>In other words, given the cost of flying, it makes sense that birds should be able to afford weapons only if they don’t depend too much on flight. This trade-off is supported by <a href="https://www.elsevier.com/books/modelling-the-flying-bird/pennycuick/978-0-12-374299-5">mathematical flight models</a> and measurements of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cbpa.2019.06.003">the cost of flight in real birds</a>, which show that carrying avian weapons such as leg or wing spurs in flight costs more “fuel” the more a bird flies and the lighter the rest of its body is.</p>
<h2>Avian spurs</h2>
<p>To be sure, some birds do have weapons specialized for fighting – just not very many species. And the weapons that birds do carry aren’t as big, heavy or flashy as in other animals. <a href="https://flic.kr/p/q5r9T5">Rooster spurs</a>, a classic example, are about as antlerlike as bird weapons get. </p>
<p>About 170 species – less than 2% of all existing avian species – possess spurs on their legs or wings. Spurred legs are only found on <a href="https://eol.org/pages/7589">landfowl</a> – birds that mostly feed on the ground – including <a href="https://flic.kr/p/6hZkVD">turkeys</a>, <a href="https://flic.kr/p/253kEaW">pheasants</a>, <a href="https://flic.kr/p/c7pJyw">peacocks</a> and many of their <a href="https://flic.kr/p/o9R2pa">relatives</a>. </p>
<figure>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Two roosters fight for territory in Kauai, Hawaii, using their leg spurs to strike each other.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Wing spurs are less common and more dispersed across bird species. Examples include <a href="https://flic.kr/p/diN41a">lapwings</a>, <a href="https://flic.kr/p/qCyHz5">jacanas</a>, <a href="https://flic.kr/p/23vmNCt">sheathbills</a> and some ducks, <a href="https://flic.kr/p/NYw2SJ">geese</a> and doves. Wing spurs are typically located on the bird’s wrists and vary in form from <a href="https://flic.kr/p/hd4qtg">blunt knobs</a> to <a href="https://flic.kr/p/bGoUix">sharp spikes</a>.</p>
<p>For the purpose of testing the fight-or-flight idea, it’s good news that some species carry weapons. This allows us to analyze our expectation that spurs should be found more often in species that depend less on flight than on those that fly frequently. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450111/original/file-20220304-23-9yaro9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two grey and white tropical birds with yellow wing spurs." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450111/original/file-20220304-23-9yaro9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450111/original/file-20220304-23-9yaro9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450111/original/file-20220304-23-9yaro9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450111/original/file-20220304-23-9yaro9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450111/original/file-20220304-23-9yaro9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=645&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450111/original/file-20220304-23-9yaro9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=645&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450111/original/file-20220304-23-9yaro9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=645&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Masked lapwings have yellow spurs on the carpal joints of their wings.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/e4Azz7">Heather Paul/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Luckily, we were able to draw on a global data set of the hand-wing index – a metric of wing shape that scientists use to quantify how well various bird species are adapted for flight and hence, presumably, how much they depend on it. This information was recently made available for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-16313-6">every living bird species</a>.</p>
<p>Our findings showed clear connections across bird species between the presence of spurs and flight behavior. On average, species that depend more on flight have fewer or no spurs. Among species that do have spurs, longer spurs tend to appear in larger-sized species. </p>
<p>Using <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.1994.0006">evolutionary models</a>, we also looked back at the historical process that led to this current fight-or-flight situation. We found that species that depended more on flight were more likely to lose spurs over time than species that flew only occasionally. In other words, the absence of spurs on most birds today is likely the result of species that were frequent flyers losing spurs, not occasional flyers gaining them.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nPhVOZiPokA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Many bird species rely on some combination of plumage, songs and dances to attract mates rather than fighting.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>To fight or not to fight</h2>
<p>Our findings show that flight is a very good explanation for why birds don’t impress much in the weaponry department. But that doesn’t necessarily translate to peace and love. For example, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUV81ukrsHc">hawks use their talons as weapons in violent fights</a>, and <a href="http://revbrasilornitol.com.br/BJO/article/view/270301">toucans do the same with their bills</a>. </p>
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<p>We shouldn’t expect these cases to be the rule, though. That’s because claws and bills are essential for other tasks like foraging, feeding, thermoregulating, preening and anchoring. In contrast, spurs’ and antlers’ only function is to fight. Using claws and bills in combat can mean compromising other essential functions. For example, in 2017, Chinese engineers designed a titanium alloy bill for a captive crane that broke its bill during a fight and consequently <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2016.11.092">lost the ability to feed without human help</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449878/original/file-20220303-19-gt4qcm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A songbird waves its wings and cries at another bird to drive it away from a bird feeder." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449878/original/file-20220303-19-gt4qcm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449878/original/file-20220303-19-gt4qcm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449878/original/file-20220303-19-gt4qcm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449878/original/file-20220303-19-gt4qcm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449878/original/file-20220303-19-gt4qcm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449878/original/file-20220303-19-gt4qcm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449878/original/file-20220303-19-gt4qcm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Competition for space at feeders doesn’t usually involve actual combat.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/9uTVbY">Holly Occhipinti/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If most birds can neither bear spurs because they compromise flight nor risk features such as their bills because they are essential for other tasks, the solution may be to avoid physical combat as much as possible. Indeed, many birds defend territories primarily by singing or showing off ornaments. Flight preventing the evolution of weapons may thus help explain the striking colors, dances and songs that we find across birds.</p>
<p>The next time you’re outdoors and hear two birds <a href="https://youtu.be/dvK-DujvpSY">screaming their lungs out</a> at each other instead of fighting, remember that peace might be the only option evolution gave them.</p>
<p><em>This article has been updated to clarify that deer have antlers, not horns.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/177792/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexandre V. Palaoro receives funding from NSF, grant number IOS-2042937.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>João C. T. Menezes receives funding from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. </span></em></p>Birds will shriek and dive at each other over food, territory or mates, but only a small number of species sport actual weapons. The reason: Flying matters more for their survival than fighting.Alexandre V. Palaoro, Post-doctoral Fellow in Materials Sciences & Engineering, Clemson UniversityJoão C. T. Menezes, PhD Student in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, UMass AmherstLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1761152022-02-25T13:45:16Z2022-02-25T13:45:16ZDigital sound archives can bring extinct birds (briefly) back to life<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/448380/original/file-20220224-34050-1rqaghq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C9%2C3067%2C2028&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Colorized version of a 1935 photo of a male ivory-billed woodpecker, now believed to be extinct. Photographed by Arthur A. Allen.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/Ivory-billed_Woodpecker_by_Jerry_A._Payne.jpg">Forestry Images/Wikipedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When people think of extinct animals, they may picture taxidermy, skeletons, 19th-century illustrations or perhaps grainy black-and-white photographs. Until very recently, these were our only ways to encounter lost beings. </p>
<p>However, technological advances are making it possible to encounter extinct species in new ways. With a few clicks, we can listen to their voices. </p>
<p>In September 2021, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service recommended <a href="https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/us-fish-and-wildlife-service-proposes-delisting-23-species-endangered-species-act-due">removing 23 apparently extinct species from the endangered species list</a>. This group included 11 species of birds, as well as various aquatic creatures, a fruit bat and a Hawaiian plant. </p>
<p>Of the birds listed as likely extinct, six were recorded while they were still present: the Bachman’s warbler, ivory-billed woodpecker and four native Hawaiian and Pacific Island species: the bridled white-eye, Kauaʻi ʻōʻō, large Kauaʻi thrush (kāmaʻo), and poʻouli. Technology capable of recording bird sounds was developed only about a century ago, so these are some of the first now-extinct species whose songs have been preserved. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447955/original/file-20220223-19-14bmjtu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Drawing of two songbirds with yellow breasts and dark backs and wings." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447955/original/file-20220223-19-14bmjtu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447955/original/file-20220223-19-14bmjtu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447955/original/file-20220223-19-14bmjtu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447955/original/file-20220223-19-14bmjtu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447955/original/file-20220223-19-14bmjtu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447955/original/file-20220223-19-14bmjtu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447955/original/file-20220223-19-14bmjtu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 1907 drawing of a male (left) and female (right) Bachman’s warbler by Harvard University zoologist Louis Agassiz.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bachman%27s_Warbler.jpg">Wikipedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A not-so-silent spring</h2>
<p>These recordings are available on the <a href="https://www.macaulaylibrary.org/">Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology’s Macaulay Library website</a>, a giant multimedia wildlife archive that holds more than <a href="https://www.macaulaylibrary.org/2021/04/27/one-million-audio-recordings-powering-science-conservation-and-birding-tools/">1 million audio recordings</a>. It includes the sounds of <a href="https://www.macaulaylibrary.org/2020/06/11/sound-recording-surges-in-the-macaulay-library/">89% of all bird species on Earth as of 2020</a>, along with photos and videos. The site includes modern sound recordings uploaded by hobbyists, professional sound recorders and scientists, as well as <a href="https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/16737?_gl=1*1qnwl6k*_ga*NDgyNzM3MTUzLjE2MjA5MTk1ODM.*_ga_QR4NVXZ8BM*MTY0NDc5MDc3NC4zNy4xLjE2NDQ3OTQwNTguMzQ.#_ga=2.150967230.985677677.1644790760-482737153.1620919583">digitized historical recordings captured as long ago as 1929</a>. </p>
<p>Scientists use these recordings to study questions such as how bird song evolved and how animals behave. The recordings are also accessible to the public. Macaulay Library director <a href="http://pages.nbb.cornell.edu/websterlab/people.html">Mike Webster</a> told me that he thinks of the recordings as time capsules: They let us hear what the world used to sound like and preserve our current sounds for the future. </p>
<p>In his view, all of the library’s recordings are precious. But sounds made by lost species are akin to priceless artworks, like a Rembrandt or a Van Gogh – the very definition of irreplaceable. </p>
<iframe width="100%" height="360" src="https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/10716/embed/640" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" style="width:640px;"></iframe>
<figure><figcaption><span class="caption">A 1954 recording of the now-extinct Bachman’s warbler captured by Arthur A. Allen and Peter P. Kellogg, two of the earliest proponents of animal sound recording and co-founders of the institution that became the Macaulay Library.</span></figcaption></figure>
<p>Sadly, this new genre of extinct animal sounds is expected to grow. Birds have been hard hit by the current ecological crisis: In Canada and the U.S. alone, threats including habitat loss, toxic pesticides and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms2380">free-ranging domestic cats</a> have reduced bird populations by <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aaw1313">nearly 3 billion since 1970</a>.</p>
<p>Rachel Carson’s 1962 book “<a href="http://www.rachelcarson.org/SilentSpring.aspx">Silent Spring</a>” inspired a generation of American environmentalists by asserting that if humans continued the destructive behaviors Carson described, such as widespread use of pesticides, the nation could face a spring without birdsong. Sound recordings of extinct birds add a twist to this prediction by letting us hear what’s been lost. </p>
<p>To see the value of these recordings, let’s listen to two species: the ivory-billed woodpecker and the Kauaʻi ʻōʻō. </p>
<h2>The Lord God Bird</h2>
<p>The ivory-billed woodpecker, or ivorybill for short, is an iconic woodpecker species known as the “Lord God Bird” or “Holy Grail Bird” because of its striking appearance and extreme rarity. It was present in the southeastern U.S., with a subspecies in Cuba, but has dipped in and out of presumed extinction since the 1800s. The main causes of its decline are thought to be <a href="https://www.fws.gov/ivorybill/pdf/ibwrecoveryplan2010.pdf">rapid large-scale deforestation after the Civil War and widespread culling by museum collectors</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/448383/original/file-20220224-27-d82psa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Man on bridge, wearing headphones, holding large dish-shaped microphone." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/448383/original/file-20220224-27-d82psa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/448383/original/file-20220224-27-d82psa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448383/original/file-20220224-27-d82psa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448383/original/file-20220224-27-d82psa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448383/original/file-20220224-27-d82psa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1134&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448383/original/file-20220224-27-d82psa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1134&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448383/original/file-20220224-27-d82psa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1134&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A birder using a parabolic sound microphone to capture bird songs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/birder-uses-a-parabolic-sound-microphone-to-capture-bird-news-photo/480787372">George Rose/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This species is the most controversial on the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service list. Some people believe that ivorybills still exist in southeast U.S. forests. The last universally accepted sighting was in 1944, but many others have since been reported, including some by <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1114103">scientists from the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology in the 2000s</a>. </p>
<p>Sound recordings of ivorybills were collected in Louisiana in 1935 by Cornell ornithologists, who set out on a cross-country sound recording expedition to <a href="https://www.naturalhistorymag.com/htmlsite/master.html?https://www.naturalhistorymag.com/htmlsite/editors_pick/1936_02_pick.html">capture sounds and images of “vanishing birds” before they were gone</a>. There have been several other claimed sound recordings of ivorybills over the years, including <a href="https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/104395">one in 1968</a> and <a href="https://web2.uwindsor.ca/courses/biology/dmennill/IBWO/IBWOsounds.php">some in 2006</a>, but only the 1935 recording series is universally accepted by ornithologists and birders. </p>
<iframe width="100%" height="360" src="https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/6784/embed/640" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" style="width:640px;"></iframe>
<p>For those still searching for the ivorybill, the 1935 recording is an important tool, especially since it’s freely available online. People train their ears on the recording before their searches, and some even use it for “playback” – a technique where the recording is played in potential habitats in the hope that surviving ivorybills will respond. Scientists have also <a href="https://www.ace-eco.org/vol1/iss3/art2/">compared contemporary sound recordings they think might be ivorybills with the 1935 recording</a> to suggest that the species is not extinct yet.</p>
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<h2>A haunting, one-sided duet</h2>
<p>The Kauaʻi ʻōʻō (pronounced ‘kuh-wai-ee oh-oh’) is a small, dark-colored bird endemic to the Hawaiian island of Kauaʻi and known for its intricate, flutelike “oh-oh” song. It is one of 11 Hawaiian and Pacific Island species on the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service list.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/448143/original/file-20220223-15-1hxk892.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Painting of two dark gray birds on tropical tree branch" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/448143/original/file-20220223-15-1hxk892.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/448143/original/file-20220223-15-1hxk892.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=839&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448143/original/file-20220223-15-1hxk892.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=839&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448143/original/file-20220223-15-1hxk892.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=839&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448143/original/file-20220223-15-1hxk892.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1055&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448143/original/file-20220223-15-1hxk892.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1055&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448143/original/file-20220223-15-1hxk892.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1055&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An 1893 painting of the Kauaʻi ʻōʻō by Dutch illustrator J.G. Keulemans, from ‘The Avifauna of Laysan.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.sil.si.edu/DigitalCollections/nhrarebooks/rothschild/plates/plates_large/SIL6-3-153a.jpg">Smithsonian Institution</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Hawaii has been particularly devastated by environmental loss because of European and American colonizers who <a href="https://www.audubon.org/news/wave-hawaiian-bird-extinctions-stresses-islands-conservation-crisis">tore up delicate island habitats</a> to plant sugar cane and other cash crops. Introduced predators, malaria-carrying mosquitoes and <a href="https://www.weather.gov/media/publications/assessments/iniki1.pdf">Hurricane Iniki</a> in 1992 also contributed to the birds’ demise. </p>
<p>Ornithologist Jim Jacobi made a famous recording in 1986 of an individual male Kauaʻi ʻōʻō <a href="https://www.engadget.com/2018-05-25-kauai-oo-honeyeater-youtube-memorial-ghost-media.html">singing one-half of a duet – with no response</a>. We have no way of knowing if this was the very last bird, but it’s hard not to listen as if it were. </p>
<iframe width="100%" height="360" src="https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/228099/embed/640" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" style="width:640px;"></iframe>
<p>A remix of a Kauaʻi ʻōʻō song was <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDRY0CmcYNU">uploaded to YouTube by Robert Davis in 2009</a>, with an added echo and what he described as “the shrill sounds of commercial exploitation.” This remix, which juxtaposes the bird’s haunting calls with the cause of their decline, has been viewed over 1.5 million times.</p>
<p>In my Ph.D. research about historical bird sound recordings, people frequently bring up their emotional connection to this species’ song. One scientist told me he finds it difficult to listen to the recording without crying. Another plays it in lectures to bring home the emotional dimensions of bird loss to students.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447959/original/file-20220223-23-15ihpij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Yellow and olive-green honeycreeper on a forest branch." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447959/original/file-20220223-23-15ihpij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447959/original/file-20220223-23-15ihpij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447959/original/file-20220223-23-15ihpij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447959/original/file-20220223-23-15ihpij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447959/original/file-20220223-23-15ihpij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447959/original/file-20220223-23-15ihpij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447959/original/file-20220223-23-15ihpij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many Hawaiian native birds are at risk, including the critically endangered kiwikiu (Maui parrotbill), which lives only in small patches of undisturbed wet forests on the island of Maui.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maui_parrotbill#/media/File:Kiwikiu_perched_in_the_Waikamoi_Forest_Preserve.jpg">Zach Pezzilo/Wikipedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The sounds of saving the world</h2>
<p>Sound recordings give a voice to animals. They help to demonstrate their unique spirits and personalities. They remind us that these beings are invaluable, and that humans have a duty to preserve them. I hope that listening to the voices of extinct birds will lead people to lament those that are already lost, and strive to keep other species singing.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/176115/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hannah Hunter receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and Mitacs. </span></em></p>There are no more ivory-billed woodpeckers or Bachman’s Warblers on Earth, but they’ve left an echo behind.Hannah Hunter, PhD Candidate in Geography and Planning, Queen's University, OntarioLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1761032022-02-03T13:20:13Z2022-02-03T13:20:13ZCranes: why Britain’s tallest bird just had its best breeding year since the 1600s<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444252/original/file-20220203-25-y6gm9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3833%2C2553&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Nick Upton/RSPB</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Binoculars in hand, I’m hunkered down beside the floodplain at the RSPB’s <a href="https://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves-and-events/reserves-a-z/nene-washes/">Nene Washes nature reserve</a> in Cambridgeshire, England. It’s a cold, late-winter morning and there are few people around, but I’ve come early to try to get a glimpse of a giant among British birds: the common crane.</p>
<p>There are few wildlife spectacles as impressive as cranes performing their courtship dance. The graceful, leggy common crane (<em>Grus grus</em>) stands at a lofty four-foot tall. It has a dove-grey body, black-and-white neck, crimson crown, and a black bustle. It is one of the loudest birds in Europe too: their deep, bugling call <a href="https://www.rspb.org.uk/our-work/rspb-news/rspb-news-stories/how-wetland-restoration-gave-cranes-a-second-chance-in-britain/">can be heard 6km away</a>.</p>
<p>Pairs are monogamous and stay together throughout the year, reinforcing their special pair bond each spring. They strut their stuff, in a dance consisting of elaborate leaps, bows and pirouettes, trumpeting as they go.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6Ky5qqRyZXg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>It’s hard to imagine this was once a familiar sight and sound in the UK, yet 400 years ago cranes were common across the country’s wetlands. They were also, unfortunately, a favourite dish at medieval feasts: some 115 cranes were reportedly served at Henry III’s Christmas banquet at York in 1251. Pressure from hunters, combined with shrinking wetlands, led to their extinction as a breeding bird around 1600, with the fenlands of East Anglia remaining one of their last strongholds. </p>
<p>Once lost, cranes became a rare visitor. Between 1773 and 1950, there were just 73 records in the UK as passage migrants: in spring heading towards northern Europe and in autumn heading south towards Iberia. It wasn’t until the 1950s that crane visits became annual, thanks to a recovering population in continental Europe.</p>
<p>I’m watching cranes now thanks to the work of dedicated conservationists. First, by a handful of people who made it their mission to bring cranes back, and increasingly, by partnerships of like-minded people and organisations. This has involved careful guarding of nest sites as cranes reappeared under their own steam in East Anglia, alongside a carefully designed captive breeding programme in south-west England.</p>
<p>These efforts are paying off: 2021 proved to be the most successful year for cranes since the 17th century. A record-breaking 72 pairs were present in the UK, 65 of which attempted to breed, rearing an impressive 40 chicks. The total population, counting breeding and non-breeding birds, is thought to stand at over 200.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A slender, brown chick with long legs and yellow beak amid tall grass." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444257/original/file-20220203-13-omcuoy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444257/original/file-20220203-13-omcuoy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444257/original/file-20220203-13-omcuoy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444257/original/file-20220203-13-omcuoy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444257/original/file-20220203-13-omcuoy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444257/original/file-20220203-13-omcuoy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444257/original/file-20220203-13-omcuoy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A three-week old crane.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Nick Upton/RSPB</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The long road to recovery</h2>
<p>It was in the autumn of 1979 that two cranes reappeared in the Norfolk Broads. These (presumed wild) birds paired up and attempted to breed in 1981 without success, but in the following year managed to fledge a single chick – thought to be the first in the UK for over 400 years. Another followed in 1983. </p>
<p>Recolonisation proceeded very slowly in part because these long-lived birds can take four years to mature and typically only lay two eggs. The number of chicks remained low under high levels of predation, the main culprits being foxes. Just four young fledged from 14 breeding attempts over the first 11 years. </p>
<p>In 1992, it was decided that cranes needed a helping hand and captive breeding was trialled, but without success. The population’s fortunes seemed to change in the late 1990s, as their productivity improved and more and more young were successfully raised. This boost, along with work to restore and improve existing wetlands, enticed them to other parts of England, including <a href="https://www.humberheadpeatlands.org.uk/">Natural England’s Humberhead Peatlands</a>, RSPB’s Lakenheath and where I sat in the Nene Washes. </p>
<p>In 2006, the RSPB, Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, Pensthorpe Conservation Trust and Viridor Credits launched <a href="http://www.thegreatcraneproject.org.uk/">the Great Crane Project</a> with the aim of returning breeding cranes to other parts of their former range. In 2010, 20 hand-reared juvenile cranes <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-10894554">were released</a> onto the Somerset Levels and Moors and this population has steadily grown and expanded its range. Now, cranes are nesting in many English counties, and have even returned to Scotland and Wales.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two adult cranes with three adolescents in the background in a yellow-coloured field." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444259/original/file-20220203-2468-1owiztr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444259/original/file-20220203-2468-1owiztr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444259/original/file-20220203-2468-1owiztr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444259/original/file-20220203-2468-1owiztr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444259/original/file-20220203-2468-1owiztr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444259/original/file-20220203-2468-1owiztr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444259/original/file-20220203-2468-1owiztr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Christine and Gilbert call in a stubbly barley field at dawn, surrounded by three adolescent cranes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Nick Upton/RSPB</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Staring over the floodplain, my patience is rewarded as the sedge (the collective noun for a group of cranes) flies in. Here on the washes, the marshland provides the perfect place for protective parents to raise chicks during the summer. But cranes are notoriously difficult to spot when they have chicks and are generally wary. The best time to see them is during the winter when they form flocks and it is always best to watch from a good distance to avoid disturbing them.</p>
<p>On this reserve, they roost overnight, waking at sunrise, and flopping over to feed on adjacent arable land. Cranes eat a variety of food in the breeding season, including invertebrates, lizards, small fish and frogs – all important fuel for their growing chicks. During the winter, they are mainly vegetarian and will feed on root vegetables left over in the fields.</p>
<p>Around 50 of these majestic birds now swoop down to land. They seem more preoccupied with finding food than performing courtship displays. Things are looking up for cranes. I can see several pairs with one, or even two, downy young in tow, and it makes me excited for their future.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Imagine weekly climate newsletter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
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</figure>
<p><strong><em>Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?</em></strong>
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<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/176103/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Gregory works for the RSPB as the Head of Monitoring within the Centre for Conservation Science.
</span></em></p>These wetland birds were eradicated in the 17th century, but breeding pairs returned in 1979.Richard Gregory, Honorary Professor of Genetics, Evolution & Environment, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1719562022-01-13T04:38:44Z2022-01-13T04:38:44ZIn a fight between a wild and a domestic budgie, whose feathers would fly?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440595/original/file-20220113-19-2hanc8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=53%2C35%2C3874%2C1838&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wes Mountain/The Conversation</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This article is part of the “<a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/who-would-win-in-a-fight-103258">Who would win?</a>” series, where wildlife experts dream up hypothetical battles between animals (all in the name of science).</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Who would have thought the budgerigar, Australia’s most petite parrot and a denizen of our arid and semi-arid inland, would become the most popular pet bird in the world?</p>
<p>The budgerigar’s world domination began in 1840 when British ornithologist <a href="https://australian.museum/learn/collections/museum-archives-library/john-gould/">John Gould</a> returned to England from the Australian colonies. With him were two budgerigars which had survived the months at sea. </p>
<p>As Gould <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/207729500?searchTerm=%22Hamley%20Gun%20Club%22%20AND%20%22shell%20Parrots%22">later wrote</a> in a letter to a relative, the pair were “in exuberant voice and the most animated cheerful little creatures you can possibly imagine”. </p>
<p>Gould showed the birds off at scientific meetings and visits to stately homes, attracting much interest and envy. </p>
<p>By the 1860s, collectors had discovered many of the birds’ breeding grounds across Australia’s interior and the holds of ships from Adelaide to Europe were often filled with thousands of budgies. In the 1880s, fanciers in England and Europe were breeding budgerigars and budgie farms were producing vast numbers for sale as pets.</p>
<p>After 150 years of selective breeding in captivity, including as an exhibition bird, the domestic budgie would now be almost unrecognisable to its wild cousin. So in the unlikely event of a confrontation between the two, whose feathers would fly? </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A flock of wild budgerigars" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440193/original/file-20220111-25-w78x0y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440193/original/file-20220111-25-w78x0y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440193/original/file-20220111-25-w78x0y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440193/original/file-20220111-25-w78x0y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440193/original/file-20220111-25-w78x0y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440193/original/file-20220111-25-w78x0y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440193/original/file-20220111-25-w78x0y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Wild budgerigars are smaller than their domestic counterparts.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ann BrittonAAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Battle of the budgerigars - in the wild</h2>
<p>Outside captivity, the wild budgie would defeat its domesticated doppelganger without ruffling a feather. Wild budgies are swift and agile, with a slightly forward-leaning posture always ready to take off. By comparison, pet budgies are slower and less athletic – particularly show budgies, which can barely fly and are bred to stand upright.</p>
<p>Show budgies do have one factor that could possibly work in their favour: size. They’re bred big and bulky, weighing in at about 55 grams, compared to the more slender wild and pet budgies at about 30 grams. But given show budgies are bred to be placid, they’re unlikely to throw their supersized weight around.</p>
<p>And while wild budgies are smaller than a show or pet budgie, their ability to dodge a predator is considerable – especially when they are in a coordinated, wheeling flock.</p>
<p>In the 1870s in South Australia, for example, wild budgies even managed to <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/207729500?searchTerm=%22Hamley%20Gun%20Club%22%20AND%20%22shell%20Parrots%22">dodge gun club shooters</a>. Club members complained budgies were too small and swift, and hard to follow because their colour blended with the local vegetation. Eventually they abandoned them for pigeons.</p>
<p>But what of the pet budgies’ purported psychic powers – could they be used to outwit an opponent on the battlefield? </p>
<p>In late Victorian London, budgerigars were popular <a href="https://bookshop.nla.gov.au/book/flight-of-the-budgerigar.do?fbclid=IwAR1nTf8ZxsK2d7J3Jgfn5HyfQPFNnvzOTsBfOE4r2UmYO5KBjoQNA5KCGZY">tellers of fortunes</a>. Their keepers, often migrant women, earned a penny by getting their budgie to choose a predictive note from among many. Clairvoyant budgies can still be found eking out a living in Iran, Mexico, China and elsewhere.</p>
<p>Of course, there’s no evidence to suggest pet budgies can actually predict the future. In fact in a battle outside captivity, wild budgies are more likely to display psychic-like prowess. Flocks of wild budgies have an uncanny ability to find distant water and fresh seeding grasses, travelling far as the country dries out.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cracked-it-a-30-year-cold-case-involving-an-egg-and-the-mysterious-night-parrot-66846">Cracked it! A 30-year cold case involving an egg and the mysterious Night Parrot</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="budgie in a cage" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440194/original/file-20220111-15-y0e6hm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440194/original/file-20220111-15-y0e6hm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440194/original/file-20220111-15-y0e6hm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440194/original/file-20220111-15-y0e6hm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440194/original/file-20220111-15-y0e6hm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440194/original/file-20220111-15-y0e6hm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440194/original/file-20220111-15-y0e6hm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pet budgerigars were popular fortune tellers In late Victorian London.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The budgie battle continues – in captivity</h2>
<p>Given domesticated budgerigars don’t survive long in the wild, the most likely confrontation would occur in captivity. </p>
<p>Individual budgies - particularly females – can be territorial, particularly when breeding. So the most likely squabble would occur when a wild budgie was caged with a female pet budgie. </p>
<p>In captivity, the odds of victory are stacked against the wild budgie. Away from the safety of the flock, it would be timid and nervous, in contrast to its domesticated cousin which is likely to be confident, cheeky and attention-seeking.</p>
<p>The pet might bully the wild bird by raising her wings, hissing, biting, chasing or picking at the other bird’s feathers, as well as keeping it from food and drink. </p>
<p>Pet budgies have another advantage tucked into their feathers: the gift of the gab. The respiratory system of all budgerigars allows an unbroken stream of chatter or song. Wild birds apparently do not mimic, however pet budgies – particularly males – can be taught to mimic human speech. </p>
<p>A baby-blue budgie named Puck holds the <a href="https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/70967-largest-vocabulary-for-a-bird-ever">world record</a> for vocabulary: 1,728 words. Like most clever budgies, he not only mimicked but created his own phrases and sentences. Such a champion talker would simply out-prattle a wild opponent!</p>
<p>And what if the confrontation took place in the show ring or pet shop, where the battle is for the judge’s/buyer’s eye? Sadly for the wild budgie, its sleek, standard green and gold plumage wouldn’t cut it in this competition class.</p>
<p>Pet budgies come in myriad colours except red and black. They also bear many variations in markings – with names such as clearbody, lacewing, yellowface, spangle and pied – which can occur separately or in combination.</p>
<p>But in the arena, show budgies are the real exhibitionists. Show budgies are selectively bred to feature bouffant hairdos. Sometimes fringed or crested, the hairdo makes the head appear larger obscures the eyes and sometimes even the beak. </p>
<p>Selection has also ensured that show budgies bear bright blue cheek-patches and black necklace spots of highly exaggerated size. And if that’s not enough, their owners will also pluck and trim the plumage before a show.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ever-wondered-who-would-win-in-a-fight-between-a-dingo-and-a-wolf-an-expert-explains-158312">Ever wondered who would win in a fight between a dingo and a wolf? An expert explains</a>
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<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="a coiffed show budgie" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440195/original/file-20220111-27-ptzpua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440195/original/file-20220111-27-ptzpua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440195/original/file-20220111-27-ptzpua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440195/original/file-20220111-27-ptzpua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440195/original/file-20220111-27-ptzpua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440195/original/file-20220111-27-ptzpua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440195/original/file-20220111-27-ptzpua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Show budgies are selectively bred to feature bouffant hairdos.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Context counts</h2>
<p>The native budgerigar has lived millennia of boom-bust cycles in the arid inland of Australia, a world away from the cosy domestic lives of our pet budgies.</p>
<p>And the hefty, extravagantly coiffed show budgie is as different from the free-living original as a chihuahua from a wolf. </p>
<p>So, the answer to who would win a fight between the various budgie types depends on the context. Clearly, all are fit for purpose.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-australian-birds-can-teach-us-about-choosing-a-partner-and-making-it-last-125734">What Australian birds can teach us about choosing a partner and making it last</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/171956/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Penny Olsen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>After 150 years of selective breeding in captivity, the domestic budgie would now be almost unrecognisable to its wild cousin. So who would win in the unlikely event of a fight?Penny Olsen, Honorary Professor in the Division of Ecology and Evolution, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1739542021-12-22T13:49:47Z2021-12-22T13:49:47ZSeagulls, songbirds and parrots: what new research tells us about their cognitive ability<p>As you can imagine, a human intelligence test doesn’t really cut it for birds. It isn’t that easy to assess how an animal perceives information from the environment, processes it and decides to act. But researchers have developed a range of clever experiments to find out more about their cognitive abilities. Do they recognise each other, for example, or understand causal relationships where one thing can lead to another?</p>
<p>A commonly used “intelligence test” for animals is the <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25984937/">string-pulling task </a>. In this set-up, a piece of food is attached to a string. The food is then positioned out of reach for the animal – although still visible – and if they understand the causal relationship between the string and the food, they will start to pull the string which then moves the food closer to them until they reach it. If an animal can solve the string-pulling task we assume that it understands the relationship between the string and the reward and can deliberately execute a series of actions to get access to the reward. </p>
<p>In a recent study, <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.211343">ring-billed gulls were tested</a> using the string-pulling model. Ring-billed gulls inhabit Canada and northern USA, however individual birds regularly wander to western Europe and are nowadays regular visitors in Ireland and the UK. </p>
<p>Gulls from a colony in Canada were individually marked with a colour band. This allowed the researchers to identify individual birds, which is important when testing cognition – and is often an obstacle for research on wild animals. In the test, a transparent plastic box was presented to the gulls, and they needed to pull a string through an open slit to retrieve a piece of sausage placed in a petri dish from inside the box. Gulls are omnivores and their diet consists of insects, fish, grain, eggs, worms and rodents. So a piece of sausage was particularly appealing.</p>
<h2>Seabird skills</h2>
<p>This task was given to 138 individuals at least once and 104 individuals – 75% – of the gulls attempted to solve the task. Of these, 26 individuals – 25% of those who attempted the task at least once – successfully retrieved the food from the box by pulling the string. </p>
<p>That may not seem like a particularly large number of successful gulls, but in a comparable <a href="https://academic.oup.com/auk/article/112/4/994/5168328?login=true">experiment in common ravens</a>, 26% successfully solved a similar task, suggesting that ravens and gulls perform similarly well. So that one test, at least, seems to suggest that corvids might not necessarily always possess higher cognitive abilities compared to other groups of birds, as has been widely assumed.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A rook carrying a takeaway box in its beak." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438829/original/file-20211222-23072-1itpe1r.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3620%2C2408&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438829/original/file-20211222-23072-1itpe1r.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438829/original/file-20211222-23072-1itpe1r.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438829/original/file-20211222-23072-1itpe1r.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438829/original/file-20211222-23072-1itpe1r.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438829/original/file-20211222-23072-1itpe1r.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438829/original/file-20211222-23072-1itpe1r.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rooks are known for their skills in collaboration.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Gulls also perform well in other recent cognitive tasks – for example, urban herring gulls <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsos.191959">use human cues</a>, such as human handling of food or human behaviour, to make foraging decisions which exploit their city home and help them to locate hidden food for themselves.</p>
<p>Up until recently, groups of birds such as fowl, birds of prey or penguins were rarely subjected to cognitive tests, because they were widely considered “less clever” and therefore less interesting than the songbirds – corvids such as crows, ravens, magpies and jays – and <a href="https://brill.com/view/journals/beh/156/5-8/article-p391_1.xml">parrots</a> which have attracted the most interest from animal cognition experts due to what is thought to be their <a href="http://blogs.nwic.edu/briansblog/files/2013/02/feathered_apes.pdf">extraordinary cognitive abilities</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/birds-that-play-with-others-have-the-biggest-brains-and-the-same-may-go-for-humans-151079">Birds that play with others have the biggest brains - and the same may go for humans</a>
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<p>But the recent studies on gulls – and a number of other waterfowl species – have shone a light on their previously undiscovered skills. Greylag geese can <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Isabella-Scheiber/publication/230811059_Long-term_memory_of_hierarchical_relationships_in_free-living_greylag_geese/links/552ccc770cf2e089a3acee56/Long-term-memory-of-hierarchical-relationships-in-free-living-greylag-geese.pdf">memorise social relationships</a> for at least six months, probably longer. And domestic chickens can <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.210504">learn to differentiate</a> between a rewarded and unrewarded colour as quickly as carrion crows.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Greylag goose landing on the water" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438755/original/file-20211221-19-1u5daf2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438755/original/file-20211221-19-1u5daf2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438755/original/file-20211221-19-1u5daf2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438755/original/file-20211221-19-1u5daf2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438755/original/file-20211221-19-1u5daf2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438755/original/file-20211221-19-1u5daf2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438755/original/file-20211221-19-1u5daf2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Greylag geese remember their social relationships.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Claudia Wascher</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Corvids and parrots still impress</h2>
<p>So it seems that corvids and parrots are not the only birds who show evidence of their brain power, and perhaps we should reconsider the use of the insult “bird brain”. But none of that detracts from the marvellous feats we witness in some of those more famous bird families. Earlier this year in Sydney, wild urban-dwelling sulphur-crested cockatoos not only learned to <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abe7808">open wheelie bins</a> and get food from them, but individuals also learned to do this from each other – it became a cultural innovation.</p>
<p>Other recent studies have shown that New Caledonian and Hawaiian crow are among only a handful animal species who can <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature19103">make and use tools</a>. And, in a food hoarding experiment, scrub-jays demonstrated <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352154617300025?casa_token=QPSQSIaRQWwAAAAA:cuo8OCdrycb7MqvbqGl2D_gzTR44KypUp2xXHx4YCGRWyiezCi8TiRmuTP7b0Jw2Bzxcg9vF4A">what-where-when memory</a>: they seemed to remember what type of food they had hoarded at specific locations, and when they had done it. In the more barren winter months, this helps them to remember where they have hidden food which they have gathered and stored for later consumption.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0003347214000414?casa_token=5AMokS7bPuIAAAAA:hFXpGkQ6hEMg_friH66T0T8Y6ML8gT4BDxfXStoF-pOBi4YCsExKSFd3RB_SyPJYM6zeI4JSNA">Crows, ravens</a> and <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsbl.2012.1092">goffin cockatoos</a> dislike when they are treated unfairly and have been observed to wait for several minutes to receive a better food reward. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2602707/">Rooks</a>, meanwhile, and <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/eth.12973">blue‐throated macaws</a> can cooperate with other individuals to together solve a string-pulling task. </p>
<p>It’s clear that cognitive abilities are important for animals to cope with all sorts of challenges in their environment. Therefore, understanding how they think can bring many valuable benefits. If we know how animals learn about predators, for example, it can help us to design more effective re-introduction programmes to conserve biodiversity. </p>
<p>And if we can assess whether an animal in a zoo, farm or kennel is feeling well or suffering, we can work to improve their living conditions and perhaps even control unwanted behaviour, such as those displayed by pets or in human-wildlife conflicts.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/173954/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Claudia Wascher does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Corvids and parrots might be the superstars of the bird world - but other species like gulls, geese and even chicken have shown some impressive skills too.Claudia Wascher, Associate Professor in Behavioural Biology, Anglia Ruskin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1729832021-12-01T16:22:06Z2021-12-01T16:22:06ZOne in four UK birds now on endangered species red list due to habitat loss and climate change<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435012/original/file-20211201-13-1dp0tt1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4504%2C3303&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A pair of nesting house martin chicks.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/pair-house-martin-chicks-nest-690736996">Paulpixs/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The red list of Britain’s most endangered birds now stands at 70 species – virtually double the number it held in 1996. This means one in four of the country’s regularly occurring breeding or wintering birds are in serious trouble. Newcomers to the red list since the last estimate in 2015 include familiar species such as the house martin, swift and greenfinch. </p>
<p>These listings are the result of a comprehensive stocktake of the UK’s breeding and wintering birds, led by thousands of citizen scientists, environmental charities and government agencies. The stocktake categorises birds as green, amber or red in order of increasing concern to conservationists. </p>
<p>So, what explains these gloomy trends, and what, if anything, can we do about it?</p>
<p>It will come as no surprise that human activities are responsible for many of these species being red-listed. Farmland birds, such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/turtle-doves-are-disappearing-from-the-uk-but-theres-still-hope-for-saving-them-126978">turtle doves</a>, have long been in decline, having suffered through decades of increasingly intensive management of agricultural land, which has robbed them of habitat and food.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A small green and yellow bird perched on a twig with berries." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435013/original/file-20211201-16-ix4h5o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435013/original/file-20211201-16-ix4h5o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435013/original/file-20211201-16-ix4h5o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435013/original/file-20211201-16-ix4h5o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435013/original/file-20211201-16-ix4h5o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435013/original/file-20211201-16-ix4h5o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435013/original/file-20211201-16-ix4h5o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Greenfinches, like other farmland birds, have had to adapt to the changing rural landscape.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/greenfinch-carduelis-chloris-single-male-on-209016658">Erni/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>More recently, upland species and seabirds have also started to show serious declines, due in part to their particular vulnerability to climate change. For example, warming oceans support fewer sandeels – prey for breeding seabirds such as puffins and kittiwakes. Similarly, warming temperatures in the uplands reduce larval survival of soil-dwelling invertebrates that are important prey for birds like golden plover.</p>
<p>Two of the UK’s best-loved summer visitors – swifts and house martins – have now joined the red list, with swifts having declined by 58% in the UK since 1995. Both these species, which catch and eat insects on the wing, migrate to Africa in winter where their survival is poor during drought years. In their UK breeding grounds, failure to find nests in modern or refurbished houses and dwindling insect populations are two of the biggest causes of their decline.</p>
<p>Wetland birds which usually spend winters in the UK also seem to be faring badly as a result of climate change. Four species from this group joining the red list are smew, dunlin, Bewick’s swan and goldeneye. All breed in places to the north and east of the UK, but as winters become milder near these breeding grounds, they no longer need to make risky and arduous journeys to reach the UK’s milder climate. </p>
<p>This phenomenon, known as short-stopping, where birds curtail their journey in continental Europe before they reach Britain, accounts for some of the decline in numbers around the UK. But there is also evidence of overall population declines, which are probably linked to climate change, among high Arctic breeders such as Bewick’s swan.</p>
<h2>From red to amber</h2>
<p>Despite widespread declines across all the UK’s bird species, the stocktake does show that targeted conservation action can work. The 2021 red list no longer includes the white-tailed eagle, the UK’s largest bird of prey, which has moved to the amber list thanks to a successful reintroduction programme which restored numbers alongside strong protection measures. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An adult white-tailed eagle in flight." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435015/original/file-20211201-15-1vpdhqj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435015/original/file-20211201-15-1vpdhqj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435015/original/file-20211201-15-1vpdhqj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435015/original/file-20211201-15-1vpdhqj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435015/original/file-20211201-15-1vpdhqj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435015/original/file-20211201-15-1vpdhqj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435015/original/file-20211201-15-1vpdhqj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">White-tailed eagles last bred in Scotland in 1916, before being reintroduced to the UK in 1975.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/adult-whitetailed-eagle-flight-blue-sky-1230138760">Sergey Uryadnikov/Shutterstock</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>By investing in approaches to conserving biodiversity which encompass entire landscapes and coupling it with effective monitoring, we understand more about what’s effective for halting wider declines. This helps us keep track of how species are responding to human efforts to preserve them. This entails working with citizen scientists, whose data underpinned this stocktake of Britain’s birds, and enabling people everywhere to play an active role in tackling the climate and biodiversity crises.</p>
<p>Many of the red-list species need landscape-scale changes, particularly to how the UK produces food and fuel. Governments preparing for the <a href="https://www.unep.org/events/conference/un-biodiversity-conference-cop-15">15th UN biodiversity conference</a> in April 2022 must act to not only prevent extinctions, but also restore depleted populations and keep common birds common. Birds, afer all, are indicators of the health of the world around them – get it right for them and we get it right for an awful lot else, including ourselves.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/172983/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Juliet Vickery has received funding from the UK government through the Darwin Initiative. Viola Ross-Smith and David Noble of the British Trust for Ornithology helped write this article.</span></em></p>Swifts, house martins and greenfinches are the newest arrivals to the UK red list.Juliet Vickery, Chief Executive, British Trust for Ornithology and Honorary Professor of Biological Sciences, University of East AngliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1717802021-11-16T16:19:53Z2021-11-16T16:19:53ZBirds’ feeding habits are affected by their personality and self-control – new research<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432183/original/file-20211116-15-13ytrei.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C2%2C1597%2C1274&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">James O’Neill / UCC</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For a long while, it was assumed that only humans have personalities or can exercise self-control. Now, biologists are beginning to discover that birds and other wild animals share these traits with humans. </p>
<p>We explored how self-control and personality influenced <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2656.13600?af=R">feeding behaviour in the great tit</a>, a common species of garden bird in Eurasia, and our results revealed that both factors play a large role in how they make their decisions.</p>
<p>Self-control is the ability to control one’s impulses. Even as adults, many of us struggle with self-control on a daily basis. Against our better judgment, we might choose to eat that extra slice of cake rather than an apple, or switch on the TV instead of going for that walk. We reprimand ourselves and each other lightheartedly when we fail, and in many cases there are no serious ramifications for a few less-than-ideal choices.</p>
<p>But the evidence suggests that success in many areas of life <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/108/7/2693.full">depends on self-control</a>.</p>
<p>Personality also guides many of our decisions. Our “extraversion” influences how we socialise, and our “openness” affects our tendency to take risks. Unsurprisingly, personality too can influence <a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev.psych.57.102904.190127">life outcomes</a>, such as happiness and health.</p>
<h2>Self-control in the great tit</h2>
<p>Life in the wild is harsh and few animals live as long as they might, often because of their inflexibility when making decisions.</p>
<p>We wanted to explore whether they just keep on doing the same old thing, led by their natural impulses - or can they change their behaviour when needed.</p>
<p>First, we trained wild great tits, temporarily taken into captivity, to become proficient at finding hidden food that could only be accessed from the side of an opaque plastic tube. When the tube was switched with one that was transparent but otherwise identical, many birds pecked impulsively at the front of the tube, through which the food could be seen. Others resisted this impulse and quickly realised that food could only and easily be taken from the side. </p>
<p>This “<a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10071-017-1152-0">detour-reaching task</a>” is often used as a way of measuring inhibitory control, one of the key cognitive processes in the brain that underpins self-control. </p>
<p>Those same great tits with greater inhibitory control were also those who were more flexible in an experiment that mimicked one of the ways that great tits find food in nature. </p>
<p>In this experiment, birds were trained to find mealworms hidden under sand until this behaviour became very natural to them. When a better – bigger and more visible – food option was suddenly also made available on the surface of the sand, the birds who were identified as having good inhibitory control earlier were also the ones who were able to resist their impulse, or break their habit, of simply looking for hidden food under the sand. Instead, they switched to the new better food option, even though it was in a transparent glass vial, so not so easily accessible.</p>
<p>Foraging flexibility is important for survival, but this is the first time it has been linked to self-control in animals.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Great tit sand foraging for food in a lab experiment" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432187/original/file-20211116-17-ecnh0g.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432187/original/file-20211116-17-ecnh0g.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=296&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432187/original/file-20211116-17-ecnh0g.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=296&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432187/original/file-20211116-17-ecnh0g.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=296&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432187/original/file-20211116-17-ecnh0g.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432187/original/file-20211116-17-ecnh0g.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432187/original/file-20211116-17-ecnh0g.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The sand foraging experiment with great tits.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jenny Coomes / UCC</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Personality also influenced flexibility</h2>
<p>However, we also wanted to explore whether personality played a role in their foraging flexibility.</p>
<p>To measure personality in the great tit, we used a standard test of exploration behaviour – the tendency to explore new environments. </p>
<p>This bears a strong <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/1467-8721.00017?casa_token=giClFFsLyWQAAAAA:2tQ_bU0PAHY10j-rNQaUoMLkktmGvzr3QVczyMbLd88GARnZkMdMSLEyrGWTzFkj7kbCs0_iiso">resemblance</a> to the “openness to new experiences” personality scale in humans. </p>
<p>Exploration behaviour is measured easily by assessing how much birds move around when put in a new environment, in our case a room with five artificial trees that they had never seen before. </p>
<p>Some birds were faster explorers than others. Previous studies have shown that this simple personality trait is inherited from parents and predicts all sorts of life outcomes in great tits, including sexual promiscuity (which can increase the <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2011.1820">paternity</a> a male acquires at other nests but can also lead to a loss of paternity at their own nest) and length of life. </p>
<p>It also predicts the tendency to take risks. Fast explorers are risk takers.</p>
<p>So when the sand foraging experiment was repeated under predation risk, achieved by placing a stuffed hawk briefly in the same room at a safe distance from the birds, the fast explorers were far more willing to switch to the new food on the surface. </p>
<p>It is well known that animals do not like novelty when there is a threat from a predator, and we suspect this is why the slow explorers, those that avoid taking risks, stayed with choosing the hidden but familiar food, while the fast explorers were happy to increase their risk of being eaten, so they could exploit a new, and potentially better, food source.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432182/original/file-20211116-15-on76qt.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432182/original/file-20211116-15-on76qt.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432182/original/file-20211116-15-on76qt.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432182/original/file-20211116-15-on76qt.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432182/original/file-20211116-15-on76qt.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432182/original/file-20211116-15-on76qt.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432182/original/file-20211116-15-on76qt.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Greater control and exploration led to increased flexibility in food foraging behaviour.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jennifer Coomes / UCC</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The complexity of animal behaviour</h2>
<p>Our findings suggest that these two quite different behavioural traits – exploration behaviour and risk-taking (personality) and self-control – together explain how flexible birds are when choosing food. This illustrates how complex animal behaviour can be. </p>
<p>Since survival and reproduction depend enormously on food, our results suggest that self-control and personality may well be influential determinants of Darwinian fitness, that is, the ability to pass on genes to the next generation. </p>
<p>However, the implications for fitness are not easy to predict. In the same way that impulsive behaviour can also be <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/teen-angst/201510/the-blessings-and-curses-impulsiveness">good</a> for people in specific circumstances – it may benefit innovation and entrepreneurship – the costs and benefits of having good or poor self-control, or indeed of being a fast or slow explorer is also likely to vary in the wild. </p>
<p>Humanity would do well to remember that we are controlled by the same behavioural traits that determine whether wild animals prosper or become extinct, and ensure that we apply our ability for flexible thinking to the most important challenges facing our planet.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/171780/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jenny Coomes received funding from the European Research Council for her PhD. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Quinn does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>We discovered that the ability to be flexible and change behaviour in certain circumstances is just as important for birds as people.John Quinn, Professor in Zoology, University College CorkJenny Coomes, PhD Candidate, Biological Sciences, University College CorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1624712021-06-18T12:36:13Z2021-06-18T12:36:13ZThere are over 7,000 English names for birds – here’s what they teach us about our changing relationship with nature<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/405939/original/file-20210611-27-94lj8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C54%2C1746%2C1191&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The common nightingale is a small songbird best known for its powerful song</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/biodivlibrary/20329495476">Biodivlibrary/Flickr</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>I shall never forget hearing my first <a href="https://ewatlas.net/animalia/luscinia-megarhynchos">nightingale</a>. It was May 8 1980, and as a recent graduate in environmental biology, I had moved to Oxford.</p>
<p>While searching for a job, I volunteered my time transcribing bird records for the Oxfordshire Biological Records Scheme based in the <a href="https://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/residents/leisure-and-culture/museums/oxfordshire-museum?utm_term=nil&utm_content=">County Museum</a>. Here I discovered that the nightingale, a bird that had so far eluded me, was not uncommon locally. A friend at the museum advised me where best to look for one.</p>
<p>And so, at 10pm on a mild, still, moonlit night, I found myself four miles east of Oxford. With neither traffic nor artificial light to disturb the stillness, I heard absolute silence pierced only by the unmistakably rich music for which I had waited so long.</p>
<p>My notebook records that I saw one, and heard five, distinct <a href="https://ewatlas.net/digital-heritage/oxfordshires-lost-voices">nightingale voices</a> that night: originating from Whitecross Green Wood a mile to the north, Waterperry Wood as far to the south, and Bernwood Forest to my southeast. </p>
<p>As an ornithologist, I knew that these birds had arrived in recent weeks from west Africa, <a href="https://theconversation.com/scientist-at-work-tracking-the-epic-journeys-of-migratory-birds-in-northwest-mexico-154156">risking their lives</a> to cross the Sahara and join this choir. Here, they directed their voices at any passing female nightingale, advertising that they had found a suitable location to continue creating the magic.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A drawing of a bird singing, with Japanese characters" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/405935/original/file-20210611-19-ndhr8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/405935/original/file-20210611-19-ndhr8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=674&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/405935/original/file-20210611-19-ndhr8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=674&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/405935/original/file-20210611-19-ndhr8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=674&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/405935/original/file-20210611-19-ndhr8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=848&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/405935/original/file-20210611-19-ndhr8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=848&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/405935/original/file-20210611-19-ndhr8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=848&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Japanese illustration of a nightingale among roses and bamboo from between 1800-1844.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://picryl.com/media/roses-and-bamboo-with-nightingale-36bd12">Metropolitan Museum of Art</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Ten years later, the M40 motorway was <a href="https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/8863386.m40-anniversary-twenty-years-since-extension-opened-linking-oxford-to-birmingham/">extended</a> beyond Oxford, bisecting the landscape and drowning nature’s night music with the rumble of traffic. One by one, these ancient woods fell silent.</p>
<p>Over the next few years, I delighted in discovering more nightingales around Oxford in Brasenose Wood, Otmoor Spinney and even a back garden in Kidlington. I encountered five singing males in <a href="https://www.wythamwoods.ox.ac.uk/home#/">Wytham Woods</a> in 1982, where I had found work as a <a href="http://egi.zoo.ox.ac.uk/">research assistant</a>, and where I discovered that the nightingale’s sweet song mixed at night with the heady fragrance of honeysuckle.</p>
<p>My experience of the nightingale was holistic. It brought all things – time, place, sights, sounds, scents, my lived experience – together into sharper focus.</p>
<h2>From ornithology to ethno-ornithology</h2>
<p>My <a href="https://bioone.org/journals/Journal-of-Ethnobiology/volume-37/issue-4/0278-0771-37.4.637/The-Human-Factor--Ecological-Salience-in-Ornithology-and-Ethno/10.2993/0278-0771-37.4.637.short">research on bird names</a> suggests that such encounters with birds have always been part of a deeper and largely unrecorded human history. </p>
<p>Echoes of those relationships come to us in the documented <a href="https://ewatlas.net/community/desfayes-thesaurus-bird-names">folk names</a> of birds. In the English language alone, more than <a href="https://www.britishwildlife.com/article/volume-30-number-6-page-391-397">7,000 names</a> have been recorded for some 150 bird species in the British Isles, with yet more in Scottish Gàidhlig, Irish Gaeilge, Welsh Cymraeg and Cornish Kernewek. </p>
<p>Each different name recalls a context of folk encounter with birds: sometimes these encounters are discernible, sometimes they’re obscured by the distance of time and culture. Names such as Sally Wren (for the willow warbler <em>Phylloscopus trochilus</em>), Polly Dishwasher (the pied wagtail <em>Motacilla alba</em>), and Tom-in-the-wall (the wren <em>Troglodytes troglodytes</em>) suggest a wealth of potential connections with birds experienced by our ancestors. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A brown bird sings on a bare tree branch" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/405937/original/file-20210611-17-1u3k0ub.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/405937/original/file-20210611-17-1u3k0ub.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/405937/original/file-20210611-17-1u3k0ub.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/405937/original/file-20210611-17-1u3k0ub.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/405937/original/file-20210611-17-1u3k0ub.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/405937/original/file-20210611-17-1u3k0ub.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/405937/original/file-20210611-17-1u3k0ub.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The common nightingale <em>Luscinia megarhynchos</em>.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Common_Nightingale_(Luscinia_megarhynchos)_(25936816473).jpg">Bernard Dupont/Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For example, the name “wren” implies a small bird, as does the name “Tom” (as with the folklore character <a href="https://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/eft/eft26.htm">Tom-thumb</a>). But “Sally” is etymologically both a girl’s name, a reference to the bird’s frequent appearance in willow trees (the Latin name for willow is <em><a href="https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/british-trees/a-z-of-british-trees/white-willow/">Salix</a></em>) and to its behaviour (<a href="https://www.thefreedictionary.com/sallying#:%7E:text=1.,position%20to%20attack%20an%20enemy.">“sallying for”</a>, or catching, insects). Dishwasher is a reference to the pied wagtail’s appearance and movement near water, while “-in-the-wall” indicates the wren’s nesting place. </p>
<p>The details of these names provide valuable information about the <a href="https://bou.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/2012-ecosystem-services-goslerjackson-houlston.pdf">cultural context</a> in which they were coined. The inclusion of an element in the bird’s name indicating close familiarity or friendship, such as a first name, is strikingly common. In fact, it appears in one or more of the names of 62 out of 78 songbirds. </p>
<p>These elements suggest that names were being coined through people creating memories with and for their children that were rich with bird life – experiences which included birds as beloved family members.</p>
<p>Such elements also indicate that up until fairly recently, the population of the UK was not only deeply familiar and comfortable with nature, but also possessed sophisticated knowledge of the ecology and behaviour of wild birds – independent of any scientific framework.</p>
<h2>Recognising life’s kinship</h2>
<p>My colleagues Karen Park, Felice Wyndham, John Fanshawe and I have created the <a href="https://ewatlas.net/">Ethno-Ornithology World Atlas</a> for people to document, record and share their names for, folklore about, and encounters with birds. We do this work partly because, like the nightingale, the world is losing its voices – many of which are those of <a href="https://theconversation.com/respect-for-indigenous-knowledge-must-lead-nature-conservation-efforts-in-canada-156273">indigenous people</a> – speaking out against the destruction of habitats. But we also hope to inspire new encounters that benefit both birds and people.</p>
<p>By 2000, nightingales had <a href="https://www.oos.org.uk/bulletin.php">disappeared</a> from all the sites where I had once known them. One by one, they had fallen prey to human development, habitat modification or loss, or the <a href="https://theconversation.com/cities-can-help-migrating-birds-on-their-way-by-planting-more-trees-and-turning-lights-off-at-night-152573">increased risks</a> imposed on their migration. </p>
<p>Researchers and activists have long been pointing out the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17524032.2013.802704?casa_token=FqVziGRfu_gAAAAA%3AgP9m7EhgsfONTi0KZTijiYzFOqIewf5qnEKa3CBcMvJWWrur39VmF7Zq0PGvUgYoGFA9_Wp8_e0d&journalCode=renc20">growing disconnection</a> of people from nature, and the <a href="https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/fee.1225">“extinction of experience”</a> that this entails. </p>
<p>My own <a href="https://www.britishwildlife.com/article/volume-30-number-6-page-391-397">recent research</a> suggests that over 40% of UK-born undergraduate biology students cannot name five British bird species: giving generic names such as “duck” rather than “mallard”, or “seagull” rather than “black-headed gull”. As we lose knowledge of the names of birds and other creatures, we risk also losing the cherished, ancient relationships with nature that lie behind these names.</p>
<p>Over billions of years, the tapestry of life on Earth has been woven from the threads of innumerable lives, including ours. Our very survival depends on that tapestry. Conservation science documents the <a href="https://www.bto.org/our-science/publications/birdtrends">declining populations</a> of countless species, and the diverse causes and consequences of that decline. But when it affirms these concerns with purely <a href="http://teebweb.org/">economic arguments</a> for why they matter, we risk losing sight of a deeper, more vital issue – that humanity is part of, not merely an observer of, the web of life.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/162471/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Gosler receives funding from Arts and Humanities Research Council. He is affiliated with University of Oxford, Royal Society of Biology, Linnean Society of London, Third Order of the Society of St. Francis and is a minister in the Church of England. </span></em></p>Research suggests our names for birds reflect our changing relationship with the natural world: here’s why that mattersAndrew Gosler, Professor of Ethno-ornithology, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1541562021-03-03T13:24:59Z2021-03-03T13:24:59ZScientist at work: Tracking the epic journeys of migratory birds in northwest Mexico<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386775/original/file-20210226-19-1rmnrnh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C208%2C5353%2C3395&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Shorebirds gather by the thousands at important feeding and resting areas, but how individual birds move among sites remains a mystery.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Julian Garcia-Walther</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>One morning in January, I found myself 30 feet (9 meters) up a tall metal pole, carrying 66 pounds (35 kilograms) of aluminum antennas and thick weatherproofed cabling. From this vantage point, I could clearly see the entire <a href="https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/d78dbb88d9cd4ad7a09bc6a48603e751">Punta Banda Estuary</a> in northwestern Mexico. As I looked through my binoculars, I observed the estuary’s sandy bar and extensive mudflats packed with thousands of migratory shorebirds frenetically pecking the mud for food.</p>
<p>In winter, more than 1 million shorebirds that breed in the Arctic will visit and <a href="https://whsrn.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/biodiversitas.pdf">move throughout the coastline of northwest Mexico</a>. It’s possible they are tracking rare <a href="https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/5781542#page/91/mode/1up">superabundant seasonal resources</a> like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sp_k_gXdxM&t=43s">fish spawning events</a>. Or maybe they are scouting for sites with better habitat to spend their nonbreeding season. The truth is, researchers don’t actually know. It has been incredibly hard to elucidate how birds use the region and what drives their movements in this vast network of coastal wetlands spanning 3,100 miles (5,000 kilometers) of coastline. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384324/original/file-20210215-23-12zrkua.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A map of existing Motus stations covering much of North America and showing planned stations in northwest Mexico." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384324/original/file-20210215-23-12zrkua.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384324/original/file-20210215-23-12zrkua.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384324/original/file-20210215-23-12zrkua.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384324/original/file-20210215-23-12zrkua.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384324/original/file-20210215-23-12zrkua.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=650&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384324/original/file-20210215-23-12zrkua.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=650&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384324/original/file-20210215-23-12zrkua.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=650&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">There are currently few Motus stations in Mexico, leading to a large information gap.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Julián García Walther</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Tracking birds has always been a challenge. To make it easier, scientists have built a massive network of radio antenna devices called <a href="https://motus.org/about/">Motus stations</a> across the U.S. and Canada that can automatically track the movements of tagged birds. However, Motus stations – Motus means movement in Latin – are still <a href="https://motus.org/data/receiversMap?lang=en">missing in much of Latin America</a>. This has resulted in large gaps in biologists’ understanding of where migratory shorebirds go during their nonbreeding season. </p>
<p>A biology <a href="http://www.sennerlab.com/people.html">doctoral student</a> studying bird migration, I am collaborating with the nonprofit <a href="https://www.pronatura-noroeste.org/">Pronatura Noroeste</a>. We have one goal: to expand the Motus network in northwest Mexico and unravel the mystery of where shorebirds are going during the winter.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384328/original/file-20210215-21-g1z54l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Side-by-side photos of a red knot in summer plumage in the Arctic and in winter plumage in Mexico." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384328/original/file-20210215-21-g1z54l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384328/original/file-20210215-21-g1z54l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=208&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384328/original/file-20210215-21-g1z54l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=208&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384328/original/file-20210215-21-g1z54l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=208&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384328/original/file-20210215-21-g1z54l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=261&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384328/original/file-20210215-21-g1z54l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=261&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384328/original/file-20210215-21-g1z54l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=261&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Red knots and many other shorebirds travel thousands of miles from breeding grounds in the Arctic (left) to nonbreeding grounds in Latin America (right).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Julián García Walther</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How to track a bird</h2>
<p>Much of my work is focused on <a href="https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red_Knot/overview">red knots</a> – stubby sandpipers that feed on muddy flats that are uncovered during low tide in many estuaries. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386777/original/file-20210226-13-1jz5j43.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A red knot standing on a rock with a tiny colored flag on its leg." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386777/original/file-20210226-13-1jz5j43.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386777/original/file-20210226-13-1jz5j43.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386777/original/file-20210226-13-1jz5j43.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386777/original/file-20210226-13-1jz5j43.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386777/original/file-20210226-13-1jz5j43.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386777/original/file-20210226-13-1jz5j43.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386777/original/file-20210226-13-1jz5j43.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Biologists use tiny flags attached to the legs of birds to track them over thousands of miles, but it’s not very efficient.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Julián García Walther</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the past, to learn how red knots move among wetlands meant walking through knee-deep mud with a scope, trying to find birds with color-coded flags on their legs. I would then have to get close enough to read the writing on the flags to determine who had attached the flag and where in the continent the bird had been seen before. This is not easy work. It requires large numbers of flagged birds and many skilled ecologists trying to find them, so you get very limited data in return for a lot of time and effort.</p>
<p>Motus stations make this job much easier, and with a Motus network in Mexico, ecologists like me will get much more data on the movements of these animals. The project involves two parts: attaching tiny radio transmitters to birds and building a network of stations to track them.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384310/original/file-20210215-17-5brj2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two transmitters sitting next to a paper clip for size comparison. The paper clip is bigger." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384310/original/file-20210215-17-5brj2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384310/original/file-20210215-17-5brj2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384310/original/file-20210215-17-5brj2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384310/original/file-20210215-17-5brj2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384310/original/file-20210215-17-5brj2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384310/original/file-20210215-17-5brj2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384310/original/file-20210215-17-5brj2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The transmitters are tiny and extremely light.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Julián García Walther</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Motus stations work similarly to a cellphone tower. Researchers attach tiny transmitters weighing just 0.45 grams to animals and these transmitters emit a radio pulse every five seconds. Each station has multiple antennas pointing toward a site used by birds – like the mudflats at Punta Banda – and is always listening for these radio signals. </p>
<p>Motus stations can pick up signals from tagged birds in a 12-mile (20-kilometer) radius, 24/7. A small computer built into the Motus station can then record and send information to researchers about when animals arrive to the site, how long they stay and in which direction they are headed when they leave.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Author climbing a pole to mount the radio receivers and the view from the top of the receiver." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384325/original/file-20210215-17-1e464d3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384325/original/file-20210215-17-1e464d3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=273&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384325/original/file-20210215-17-1e464d3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=273&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384325/original/file-20210215-17-1e464d3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=273&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384325/original/file-20210215-17-1e464d3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=343&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384325/original/file-20210215-17-1e464d3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=343&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384325/original/file-20210215-17-1e464d3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=343&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Motus stations require a high vantage point that overlooks estuaries.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Julián García Walther</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Building a network</h2>
<p>The station at Punta Banda is the first and, so far, the only tower my team and I have erected. But the ultimate goal of our project is to deploy two dozen Motus stations in 15 coastal wetlands spanning the whole northwest coast of Mexico. When we are done, we will use these stations to track the movements of birds among these sites, as well as the <a href="https://motus.org/data/numbers">more than 1,000 other sites with active stations</a> across the world.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://visitpuntabanda.com/">Punta Banda Estuary</a> is one of the key stopovers for red knots. To maximize our chances of detecting birds, we chose to build the station on top of an old 30-foot metal pole overlooking the whole estuary. After getting approval from the pole owner, my colleagues and I assembled the station components. Then I climbed the pole, hoisting multiple antennas with me, and pointed them in all directions over the estuary.</p>
<p>By the time red knots start arriving in the fall, after breeding in the Arctic, our team hopes to have built many more stations like this one across northwest Mexico, ready to detect passing birds.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384319/original/file-20210215-19-s16m3a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A red knot with a radio transmitter glued to its back." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384319/original/file-20210215-19-s16m3a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384319/original/file-20210215-19-s16m3a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384319/original/file-20210215-19-s16m3a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384319/original/file-20210215-19-s16m3a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384319/original/file-20210215-19-s16m3a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384319/original/file-20210215-19-s16m3a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384319/original/file-20210215-19-s16m3a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Any bird with a transmitter will be picked up if it flies within 12 miles (20 kilometers) of a Motus station.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Julián García Walther</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Tagging birds</h2>
<p>The stations alone can’t detect these animals. The final step, which will happen in the coming months, is to catch birds and tag them. To do this, our team will set up a soft, spring-loaded net called a whoosh net in sandy areas where the red knots rest above the high-tide line. When birds walk past the net, the crew leader will release the trigger, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwMiA2iqVc0">safely trapping the birds with the net</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vwMiA2iqVc0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A team of biologists using a whoosh net to safely capture birds in Texas.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Once we’ve successfully caught a bird, we will attach a transmitter to its back. Transmitters are solar-powered and very light – less than 1% of the bird’s weight – and they can thus provide many years of data <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.12934">without harming the birds</a>. Because younger birds may move differently than adults across the region, our team hopes to tag 130 red knots of different ages at other estuaries in northwest Mexico. The larger Motus project has already tagged more than <a href="https://motus.org/data/numbers">25,000 animals</a>, so any other birds that come to northwest Mexico will also get picked up by our stations.</p>
<h2>Filling important gaps in knowledge</h2>
<p>Migratory shorebirds are among the most threatened bird groups. Their populations have <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1126/science.aaw1313">plummeted by 37% since 1970</a> owing to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/04/27/opinion/shorebirds-extinction-climate-change.html?mtrref=www.ecosia.org&gwh=6DD49ABEFC5BE097C8850B9AC1EE6161&gwt=regi&assetType=REGIWALL">habitat loss, human disturbance and climate change</a>. Without robust information on how birds use important sites like the ones we are working on in Mexico, it is hard to focus conservation actions when and where they are most needed. As our network of stations grows, the data they collect will help fill critical knowledge gaps. </p>
<p>For researchers like me, this data will allow us to understand how the movement of shorebirds might be disrupted as global threats such as sea level rise continue to affect the coastal wetlands they depend on. In turn, conservationists will be able to implement better and more effective on-the-ground actions to conserve species like red knots.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/154156/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julian Garcia-Walther is a PhD Student at the University of South Carolina and consults for Pronatura Noroeste, A.C. He receives funding from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Sonoran Joint Venture and The David and Lucile Packard Foundation.</span></em></p>In northwest Mexico, biologists are building a network of radio towers to track how individual migratory birds move among important wetland areas.Julián García Walther, PhD Student in Ornithology, University of South CarolinaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1492252020-11-16T13:21:46Z2020-11-16T13:21:46ZHow do geese know how to fly south for the winter?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369377/original/file-20201113-13-7fvj1e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1218%2C0%2C3624%2C2488&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Geese fly day or night, depending on when conditions are best.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/migrating-canada-geese-royalty-free-image/108309781">sharply_done/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption"></span>
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<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/curious-kids-us-74795">Curious Kids</a> is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to <a href="mailto:curiouskidsus@theconversation.com">curiouskidsus@theconversation.com</a>.</em></p>
<hr>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>How do geese know how to fly south for the winter? – Oscar V., age 9, Huntington, New York</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>To be ready to migrate in the fall, geese start preparing in midsummer. Babies born in the spring are mostly grown up by then. Adult geese <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/1369611">grow a new set of plumage</a> after shedding their old feathers – a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0425-8_6">process called molting</a>.</p>
<p>They need flight and body feathers to be in good condition for the long flight ahead, and to insulate their bodies from the winter cold. For a few weeks during this process, geese can’t fly at all, and they stay out on the water to avoid predators.</p>
<p>Geese have a clock in their brain that <a href="https://www.americanscientist.org/article/avian-migration-the-ultimate-red-eye-flight">measures how much sunlight there is each day</a>. The days grow shorter during the late summer and early fall, and that’s how geese know it’s time to get ready for the journey south. Families join together in larger flocks. Geese gorge on grains and grasses to fatten up in preparation for their journey.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369378/original/file-20201113-19-z06ost.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="two geese tails emerge from water as they look for food" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369378/original/file-20201113-19-z06ost.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369378/original/file-20201113-19-z06ost.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369378/original/file-20201113-19-z06ost.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369378/original/file-20201113-19-z06ost.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369378/original/file-20201113-19-z06ost.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369378/original/file-20201113-19-z06ost.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369378/original/file-20201113-19-z06ost.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Geese fattening up by eating some underwater foods.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/two-canada-geese-searching-for-food-royalty-free-image/1282657623">Jennifer Yakey-Ault/iStock via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>When it’s time to go</h2>
<p>There are two different types of bird migration. For most bird species that migrate from temperate climates to the tropics in winter, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2011.07.009">migration is instinctual</a>. These birds, such as swallows, orioles and warblers, leave their northern breeding place before weather turns harsh and food becomes scarce.</p>
<p>Most migrate at night, individually rather than in flocks, and they know where to go and how to get there without guidance from parents or other birds. They migrate continuously, except for short stopovers to fuel up on insects, fruit, or seeds before continuing on their way. </p>
<p>Canada geese and other migratory geese species are different. They usually remain in their summer range until the weather is cold, water starts to freeze, and food gets hard to come by. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/oik.03121">Once conditions become so tough</a> that they can’t find enough to eat, geese migrate.</p>
<p>Maybe you’ve observed flock members signaling they’re ready to go: <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/4083454">They honk loudly and point their bills toward the sky</a>. Single families of geese, or flocks of several families together, take off and head south. Flocks join with other flocks. Geese fly by day or night, depending on factors like weather conditions or brightness of the moon.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4161751">Geese navigate based on experience</a>, using landmarks including rivers, coastlines and mountain ranges. They may also use celestial cues such as the sun and stars. Geese have a physical compass in their head that allows them to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1641/B570207">tell north and south by detecting the Earth’s magnetic field</a>.</p>
<p>Young geese learn the migration route and landmarks by following their parents and other experienced geese. People who have raised and socially bonded with geese have even taught the birds new migration routes by leading them in an ultralight aircraft – as in the movie “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116329/">Fly Away Home</a>.”</p>
<p>[<em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=experts">Expertise in your inbox. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter and get expert takes on today’s news, every day.</a></em>]</p>
<h2>On their way</h2>
<p>Geese are heavy birds, and they fly fast – over 30 miles per hour – using powerful wing beats, rather than gliding like eagles or vultures. All this flapping for a heavy bird <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0908-8857.2004.03378.x">takes a lot of energy</a>. Geese work very hard during migration flights. To reduce the effort, geese fly at night when the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4161751">air is calmer, or in the day when there’s a helpful tailwind</a>; they avoid flying into a headwind that would blow them backward.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369379/original/file-20201113-15-xo4vqf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="geese fly in a V against a clear sky" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369379/original/file-20201113-15-xo4vqf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369379/original/file-20201113-15-xo4vqf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369379/original/file-20201113-15-xo4vqf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369379/original/file-20201113-15-xo4vqf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369379/original/file-20201113-15-xo4vqf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369379/original/file-20201113-15-xo4vqf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369379/original/file-20201113-15-xo4vqf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The different wing positions of these greylag geese show their flapping motion, with the individual at the tip of the V working the hardest.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/flock-of-greylag-geese-in-the-sky-royalty-free-image/461948687">Anagramm/iStock via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In addition, they have another energy-saving trick. To reduce drag and to receive a little extra lift, geese fly close behind and about one wing length to the side of the one immediately in front. When all flock members do this, the familiar V shape appears.</p>
<p>This <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-5193(83)90110-8">form of drafting, also called vortex surfing</a>, saves a lot of energy. Following another bird at the right distance blocks any headwind. The flapping of the bird ahead creates a forward movement of air called a slipstream, which helps pull the trailing bird forward. And little pockets of spinning air, called vortices, produce lift that helps keep a trailing bird aloft. The same physics explains why fighter jets fly in V formation to conserve fuel.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-bkxG28OUZw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">This video explains some of the physics of how the V formation helps keep geese up in the sky for less energy.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The bird at the point of the V, in the front of the flock, gets no advantage from drafting. It is working much harder than the others. When it gets too tired, it drops back and another takes the lead. Recently, ornithologists have discovered that when families migrate together as a flock, the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/jav.02392">parents take turns at the tip of the V</a>. The younger geese, which are not as strong, line up along the V behind the lead parent.</p>
<p>Most geese that breed in a particular region will migrate along similar routes, <a href="https://www.ducks.org/conservation/waterfowl-research-science/understanding-waterfowl-the-flyways">called flyways</a>. For example, geese that pass by my house in Northern New York follow the Atlantic flyway. They’ll end up on the Atlantic Coast and migrate south following the shoreline.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369380/original/file-20201113-15-1k8iqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="three Canada geese fly over sand dunes" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369380/original/file-20201113-15-1k8iqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369380/original/file-20201113-15-1k8iqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369380/original/file-20201113-15-1k8iqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369380/original/file-20201113-15-1k8iqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369380/original/file-20201113-15-1k8iqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369380/original/file-20201113-15-1k8iqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369380/original/file-20201113-15-1k8iqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many geese head to the coast and then navigate south along the shoreline.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/canada-geese-over-sand-dunes-at-jones-beach-long-royalty-free-image/639801946">Vicki Jauron, Babylon and Beyond Photography/Moment via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Rather than migrate nonstop to their wintering grounds, many geese travel in stages, pausing at traditional stopover sites to rest and regain lost fat. Geese from the <a href="https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Canada_Goose/lifehistory">most northern populations travel to the farthest south</a>. More southerly breeding populations don’t migrate as far. This is called leapfrog migration, since the northern geese literally fly over the more southern birds. <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/3676124">Why this happens is a bit of a mystery</a>, but it’s possible the northern breeders continue further south to avoid competing for food with southern geese that have already found good wintering conditions closer to their summer homes.</p>
<p>Because geese learn migratory routes, they can flexibly adjust where <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14061">they go as conditions change</a>. Goose migration stopover sites and wintering grounds have shifted, for example, because of changes in farming practices, availability of lawns and golf courses, and other changes in land use. Migratory geese are now adjusting when and where they migrate <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2019.00502">as a consequence of global climate change</a>. And some groups of Canada geese have decided <a href="https://doi.org/10.1675/063.034.0403">to just stay put and skip the migration altogether</a>.</p>
<hr>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tom Langen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Geese honk loudly and point their bills toward the sky when they’re ready to start the migration. Here’s how they know it’s time, how they navigate and how they conserve energy on the grueling trip.Tom Langen, Professor of Biology, Clarkson UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1464842020-10-20T01:46:22Z2020-10-20T01:46:22ZHard to spot, but worth looking out for: 8 surprising tawny frogmouth facts<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361266/original/file-20201002-24-wkstt2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C35%2C7856%2C5194&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://australian.museum/learn/animals/birds/tawny-frogmouth/?gclid=CjwKCAjw_NX7BRA1EiwA2dpg0sqSuSf8dkALMbiMCj657VwrMiusEVI7FDOUNL4IWhyXVpIjBOKXkxoCfqoQAvD_BwE">tawny frogmouth</a> is one of Australia’s most-loved birds. In fact, it was first runner-up in the Guardian/BirdLife Australia <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/nov/15/black-throated-finch-wins-2019-bird-of-the-year-as-tawny-frogmouth-comes-second">bird of the year</a> poll (behind the endangered black-throated finch).</p>
<p>Tawny frogmouths are found throughout Australia, including cities and towns, and population numbers are healthy. We’re now in the breeding season – which runs from August to December – so you may have been lucky enough to see some pairs with chicks recently.</p>
<p>Here are eight fascinating things about tawny frogmouths that you might not know.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358771/original/file-20200918-18-97cfqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C6%2C1125%2C894&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A Tawny Frogmouth and its chick." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358771/original/file-20200918-18-97cfqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C6%2C1125%2C894&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/358771/original/file-20200918-18-97cfqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358771/original/file-20200918-18-97cfqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358771/original/file-20200918-18-97cfqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358771/original/file-20200918-18-97cfqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358771/original/file-20200918-18-97cfqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/358771/original/file-20200918-18-97cfqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">You might have been lucky enough to see a tawny frogmouth chick recently.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Carol Smith</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-australian-birds-can-teach-us-about-choosing-a-partner-and-making-it-last-125734">What Australian birds can teach us about choosing a partner and making it last</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>1. They are excellent parents</h2>
<p>Tawny frogmouths are excellent parents. Both males and females share in building the nest and incubating the eggs, generally one to three. The eggs take 30 days to hatch, with the male incubating during the day and both sexes taking turns during the night. </p>
<p>Once hatched, both parents are very involved in feeding the fledglings. A young bird’s wings take about 25 to 35 days to develop enough strength for flight (a process known as “fledging”).</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1310872114178662401"}"></div></p>
<h2>2. They mate for life</h2>
<p>Tawny frogmouths pair for life. Breeding pairs spend a great deal of time roosting together and the male often gently strokes the female with his beak. Some researchers <a href="https://theconversation.com/laughs-cries-and-deception-birds-emotional-lives-are-just-as-complicated-as-ours-69471">report</a> seeing tawny frogmouths appear to “grieve” when their partner dies.</p>
<p>For example, renowned bird behaviour expert Gisela Kaplan <a href="https://www.afr.com/life-and-luxury/arts-and-culture/the-inner-lives-of-birds--on-show-in-mornington-20161118-gssuc9">tells of</a> rearing a male tawny frogmouth on her property then releasing it to the wild. It found a female mate and raised nestlings. One day, the female was run over on the highway; Kaplan recognised its markings. </p>
<p>She found the male “whimpering” on a nearby post. Kaplan reportedly said: “It sounds like a baby crying. It affects you to listen to it.” According to Kaplan, the male stayed there for four days and nights, and did not eat or drink.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361251/original/file-20201002-16-4opbvx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A pair of Tawny Frogmouths in a tree." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361251/original/file-20201002-16-4opbvx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361251/original/file-20201002-16-4opbvx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361251/original/file-20201002-16-4opbvx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361251/original/file-20201002-16-4opbvx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361251/original/file-20201002-16-4opbvx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361251/original/file-20201002-16-4opbvx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361251/original/file-20201002-16-4opbvx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Breeding pairs spend a great deal of time roosting together.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>3. They’re not owls</h2>
<p>Although tawny frogmouths are often referred to as owls, they are not. But they do resemble owls with their large eyes, soft plumage and camouflage patterns, because both owls and frogmouths hunt at night. This phenomenon (where two species develop the same attributes, despite not being closely related) is called “convergent evolution”.</p>
<p>Unlike owls, tawny frogmouths do not have powerful feet and talons with which to capture prey. Instead, they prefer to catch prey with their beaks. Their soft, wide, forward-facing beaks are designed for catching insects. They will also feed on small birds, mammals and reptiles.</p>
<h2>4. They are masters of disguise</h2>
<p>Tawny frogmouths are extremely well camouflaged and when staying statue-still on a tree branch they appear to be part of the tree itself. They often choose to perch near a broken tree branch and thrust their head at angle, further mimicking a tree branch.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361244/original/file-20201002-13-17aa6o5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A tawny frogmouth sits still on a branch." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361244/original/file-20201002-13-17aa6o5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361244/original/file-20201002-13-17aa6o5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361244/original/file-20201002-13-17aa6o5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361244/original/file-20201002-13-17aa6o5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361244/original/file-20201002-13-17aa6o5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361244/original/file-20201002-13-17aa6o5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361244/original/file-20201002-13-17aa6o5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tawny frogmouths are extremely well camouflaged and when staying statue-still on a tree branch they appear to be part of the tree itself.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>5. They make strange noises</h2>
<p>Tawny frogmouths are quite vocal at night and have a range of calls from deep grunting to soft “wooing”. When threatened, they make a loud hissing sound. Their vocalisations have also variously been described as purring, screaming and crying.</p>
<figure>
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<h2>6. They can survive extremes</h2>
<p>In colder regions of Australia, tawny frogmouths are able to survive the winter months by going into torpor for a few hours. In this state, an animal slows its heart rate and metabolism and lowers its body temperature to conserve energy. </p>
<p>On very hot summer days tawny frogmouths will produce mucus in their mouths which cools the air they breathe in, thereby cooling their whole body. </p>
<h2>7. They need old trees</h2>
<p>It’s not that uncommon to see tawny frogmouths dead on the road; they often flit across the road chasing insects at night and can be hit by cars. </p>
<p>Tawny frogmouth populations are holding relatively steady, but there is a shortage of old trees for nesting. They especially like trees with old branches as they mimic old branches and stick out like sore thumbs on young branches. </p>
<p>When one NSW council chopped down a suburban tree that a tawny frogmouth pair had reportedly used for years as a nesting site, one of the birds was <a href="https://au.news.yahoo.com/owl-tawny-frogmouth-central-coast-council-hides-on-wood-chipper-as-last-tall-tree-on-street-felled-101536900.html?guccounter=1">photographed</a> sitting on a nearby woodchipper — a poignant image. </p>
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<h2>8. They’re not good at building nests.</h2>
<p>Tawny frogmouths are pretty slack when it comes to nest building. They simply dump twigs and leaves in a pile and that is it. Chicks and eggs have even fallen out of the nest when parents are swapping brooding duties.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361249/original/file-20201002-19-cfyrw5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Three tawny frogmouths in a tree" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361249/original/file-20201002-19-cfyrw5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361249/original/file-20201002-19-cfyrw5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361249/original/file-20201002-19-cfyrw5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361249/original/file-20201002-19-cfyrw5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361249/original/file-20201002-19-cfyrw5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361249/original/file-20201002-19-cfyrw5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361249/original/file-20201002-19-cfyrw5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tawny frogmouths especially like trees with old branches.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/laughs-cries-and-deception-birds-emotional-lives-are-just-as-complicated-as-ours-69471">Laughs, cries and deception: birds' emotional lives are just as complicated as ours</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/146484/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Les Christidis was Senior Curator of Ornithology at the Museum Victoria from 1987 to 1996.</span></em></p>Breeding pairs spend a great deal of time roosting together and the male often gently strokes the female with his beak.Les Christidis, Professor, Southern Cross UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1428742020-09-11T12:20:36Z2020-09-11T12:20:36ZWomen have disrupted research on bird song, and their findings show how diversity can improve all fields of science<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/356400/original/file-20200903-18-1mysw98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=20%2C0%2C2316%2C1535&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Female song is common among fairywrens, like this red-backed fairywren.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/XqFbHC">Paul Balfe/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Americans often idealize scientists as <a href="https://www.amacad.org/sites/default/files/publication/downloads/PFoS-Perceptions-Science-America.pdf">unbiased, objective observers</a>. But scientists are affected by conscious and unconscious biases, just as people in other fields are. Studies of birds’ vocal behavior clearly show how research approaches can be affected by the people who do the work.</p>
<p>For more than 150 years, dating back at least to <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Descent_of_Man_and_Selection_in_Rela/tvEEAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=song">Charles Darwin’s writings on sexual selection</a>, scientists have generally considered bird song to be a male trait. The widely accepted view was that bird songs are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.53.1.37">long complex vocalizations produced by males</a> during the breeding season, whereas such vocalizations in females are <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Bird_Song/sB24pLg4gywC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=catchpole+and+slater+bird+song+themes+and+variations+1995&printsec=frontcover">generally rare or abnormal</a>.</p>
<p>But over the past 20 years, research has shown that both males and females in many bird species sing, especially in the tropics. For example, our group has studied female song and male-female duets in <a href="https://ebird.org/species/ventro1">Venezuelan troupials</a>, a tropical species that <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2016.00014">sings year-round to defend territories</a>. And we have studied female song in <a href="https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Eastern_Bluebird/overview">eastern bluebirds</a>, a temperate species in which females <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arz130">sing to communicate with their mates</a> during the breeding season. </p>
<p>Recent findings have shown that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms4379">female song is widespread</a>, and it is likely that the ancestor of all songbirds had female song. Now, rather than asking why males originally evolved song, the question has become why both sexes originally evolved song, and why females have lost song in some species.</p>
<p>In a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2020.07.021">recently published study</a>, we reviewed 20 years of research on female bird song and found that the key people driving this recent paradigm shift were women. If fewer women had entered this field, we believe that it likely would have taken much longer to reach this new understanding of how bird song originally evolved. We see this example as a powerful demonstration of why it’s important to increase diversity in all fields of science.</p>
<p><audio preload="metadata" controls="controls" data-duration="14" data-image="" data-title="Male and female troupials duetting in Puerto Rico" data-size="235355" data-source="Karan Odom" data-source-url="" data-license="CC BY-ND" data-license-url="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">
<source src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/audio/2044/duet-pr20120403-kjo-r028-001006-pb02.mp3" type="audio/mpeg">
</audio>
<div class="audio-player-caption">
Male and female troupials duetting in Puerto Rico.
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Karan Odom</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a><span class="download"><span>230 KB</span> <a target="_blank" href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/audio/2044/duet-pr20120403-kjo-r028-001006-pb02.mp3">(download)</a></span></span>
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<h2>New voices lead to new perspectives</h2>
<p>Traditionally, white men working in countries of the Northern Hemisphere have conducted much of the research on bird song. Researchers in countries such as the U.S., Canada, England and Germany have focused much of their work on migratory birds that <a href="https://www.elsevier.com/books/natures-music/marler/978-0-12-473070-0">breed in the north temperate zone</a>. </p>
<p>But starting in the 1990s, new research began to contradict this view. Studies pointed out the bias toward temperate zones in previous work, and indicated that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0169-5347(97)01241-X">in the tropics, females of many species are prolific singers</a>. Researchers began to study <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.1996.0022">how female birds use their songs</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-3454(03)33002-5">how females learn songs </a> and why females in some species join their mates to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-003-0741-x">sing precisely coordinated duets</a>. </p>
<p>We noticed that women had written many of the key papers on female song published in recent years and wondered whether this was a general trend. To see whether women were significantly more likely to publish about female bird song than men, we identified all papers with “female song” in the title or abstract that had been published in the last 20 years. Next we assembled a set of papers generally published in the same journals in the same years, but focused on “bird song” more broadly. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357524/original/file-20200910-18-1qvmclq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Pair of Venezuelan troupials" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357524/original/file-20200910-18-1qvmclq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357524/original/file-20200910-18-1qvmclq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357524/original/file-20200910-18-1qvmclq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357524/original/file-20200910-18-1qvmclq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357524/original/file-20200910-18-1qvmclq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357524/original/file-20200910-18-1qvmclq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357524/original/file-20200910-18-1qvmclq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Male and female troupials. Both sexes are elaborately colored, and both sexes sing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Karan Odom</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For each of these papers we determined the genders of all authors, including the first author, middle authors and final author. Final authors frequently are the senior authors – for example, research group leaders.</p>
<p>Focusing on first authors, we found that 68% of female song papers were written by women, whereas only 44% of the bird song papers were written by women. Therefore, men were 24% less likely to study female song than bird song. Conversely, women were 24% more likely to study female song.</p>
<p>Middle authors on female song papers were also slightly skewed toward women. However, last authors were much more commonly men for both female song and bird song papers. In other words, the team leaders on these projects were still more likely to be men. </p>
<p>For female song studies, 58% of last authors were men. In our view, although ornithology is now a relatively gender-balanced field, more women need to be promoted into senior leadership positions, so that they can lead key decisions on research directions, funding and student projects.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ph2dJIlqTs0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Female northern cardinals sing along with males and have many different calls.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Diverse perspectives help drive scientific progress</h2>
<p>A major goal of our study was to recognize and promote the diverse perspectives of researchers with different backgrounds and identities. However, we felt it was crucial for our study to look back at least 20 years, since that was the time frame over which this key paradigm shift occurred. Many authors from that far back would be difficult to contact directly for a variety of reasons. </p>
<p>In the future, allowing authors to self-identify for studies of gender and authorship in a range of fields would likely produce more correct gender data and allow researchers to identify as nonbinary or non-gender-conforming.</p>
<p>Our case study on bird song provides dramatic evidence that who researchers are, where they are from and what experiences they have had influence the science that they do. More diverse groups of researchers may ask a broader range of questions, utilize more varied methods and tackle problems from a wider range of perspectives.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>Gender is just one aspect of identity that could influence topics, conceptual approaches and specific methodologies used in a wide range of scientific disciplines. Many other factors, such as race, ethnicity, geographic location and socioeconomic standing, could also have important impacts on scientific research. </p>
<p>Recent events have vividly illustrated the effects of racial biases in areas ranging from <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/28/us/jacob-blake-shackles-assault.html">criminal justice</a> to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/14/nyregion/central-park-amy-cooper-christian-racism.html">outdoor recreation</a>. Our study shows why it is important to address racial, gender and other biases to improve the outcomes of research, teaching and outreach at colleges and universities around the world.</p>
<p><em>Casey Haines, a recent undergraduate student at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, was lead author of the study on which this article is based. Michelle Moyer, a PhD student at UMBC, helped with this work.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/142874/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kevin E. Omland receives funding from the National Science Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Evangeline Rose receives funding from the Maryland Ornithological Society</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Karan Odom was supported by a U.S. National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology (Grant No. 1612861) while working on this research. </span></em></p>For decades, scientists believed that only male birds sang. Then women entered the field and showed what their predecessors had missed.Kevin Omland, Professor of Biological Sciences, University of Maryland, Baltimore CountyEvangeline Rose, Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of MarylandKaran Odom, Postdoctoral Fellow, Cornell UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1373202020-05-15T10:57:37Z2020-05-15T10:57:37ZStork chicks hatch in UK for first time in 600 years – why that’s great news for British wildlife<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330981/original/file-20200428-110748-1boj503.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=373%2C0%2C1895%2C1232&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Keeping the nest warm.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alexander Lees</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a spring marked by bad news, events unfolding in the crown of an old oak tree could offer a dose of optimism. Three pairs of white storks settled down to breed on the Knepp Estate in West Sussex, southern England, in March 2020. On May 15, <a href="https://twitter.com/ProjectStork/status/1261220266924965888">it was announced</a> that the first chicks had hatched – the first to be born in Britain since a pair nested on the roof of St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh in 1416.</p>
<p>This was no chance event – we owe this precious conservation breakthrough to the efforts of all those involved in the <a href="https://www.whitestorkproject.org/">White Stork Project</a>, who have released over 100 storks at three sites in southeast England. </p>
<p>Wildlife, such as the storks and the <a href="https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/white-tailed-eagles-25metre-wingspan-21837082">white-tailed eagles</a> reintroduced to the Isle of Wight in 2019, has provided a lockdown distraction. Both species have treated <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-discover-the-wildlife-wonders-of-your-own-garden-134197">garden birdwatchers</a> to spectacular sights as they’ve toured southern England, and in the case of the eagles even <a href="http://www.roydennis.org/category/sea-eagle/isle-of-wight-sea-eagles/">further afield</a>.</p>
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<p>Stork bones have been found in the limestone caves of the Peak District dating from the late glacial period, between 43,000 and 10,000 years ago, and in human settlements from the Isle of Scilly to the Shetlands in the Bronze Age, as far back as 2,500 years ago. But their sparse remains suggest that they were probably always rare in the UK. </p>
<p>Despite this, the history of Britons <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/595ca91bebbd1a1d0aaab285/t/5cd2ea7b08522957d7fe4dd9/1557326478324/Final+White+Stork+Reintroduction+Feasibility+Report+December+2017.pdf">living alongside storks</a> is preserved in place names like <a href="https://www.storrington.org.uk/">Storrington</a>, close to the Knepp estate, which in Saxon times was called “Estorchestone” – village of the storks. But storks, along with other large wetland birds like cranes and spoonbills, were erased from Britain after centuries of hunting and the draining of their wetland habitats.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-bison-moose-and-caribou-stepped-in-to-do-the-cleaning-work-of-extinct-mammoths-132627">How bison, moose and caribou stepped in to do the cleaning work of extinct mammoths</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>Storks have held a significant role in different cultures throughout recorded history. Ancient Egyptians associated storks with the soul, while Greek mythology cast them as baby-stealers. European Christians have imagined storks as everything from carers to adulterers. Their penchant for eating snakes was seen as a particularly holy trait, in protecting people from serpentine evils. </p>
<p>In more recent history, storks provided a eureka moment for scientists studying bird migration. A few 19th-century storks returning to Germany from their African winter grounds arrived with hunters’ arrows stuck in their bodies. These “arrow storks”, or <a href="https://www.birdlife.org/europe-and-central-asia/news/bird-solved-migration-mystery-now-illegally-killed-its-journey">Pfeilstörche</a>, as the Germans named them, offered ornithologists proof of their intercontinental wanderings.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330996/original/file-20200428-110779-1bsplgn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330996/original/file-20200428-110779-1bsplgn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330996/original/file-20200428-110779-1bsplgn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=305&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330996/original/file-20200428-110779-1bsplgn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=305&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330996/original/file-20200428-110779-1bsplgn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=305&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330996/original/file-20200428-110779-1bsplgn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330996/original/file-20200428-110779-1bsplgn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330996/original/file-20200428-110779-1bsplgn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A migrant white stork foraging alongside Thomson’s and Grant’s gazelles in the Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alexander Lees</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Standing under the stork umbrella</h2>
<p>White storks now commonly nest at the top of tall trees across Europe. Their numbers have been boosted by <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ece3.845">multiple reintroduction schemes</a> in the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and Sweden. Storks are touted as potent symbols of ecosystem health, and with European governments spending millions on <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/environment/archives/life/publications/lifepublications/lifefocus/documents/wetlands.pdf">restoring wetlands</a>, they’re joining cranes and spoonbills as another long lost wetland bird which has recolonised old haunts in recent decades without any direct help from humans. </p>
<p>But the success of these wetland species stands in stark contrast to the declines of many other birds <a href="https://nbn.org.uk/stateofnature2019/reports/">in other habitats</a>. It’s easier to care for species that live in discrete patches of habitat like wetlands, than it is to save the wildlife of the wider countryside. Nevertheless, like the beaver, white-tailed eagle and pine marten, white storks are thought to make excellent “<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-conserving-natures-umbrella-species-could-benefit-whole-habitats-119122">umbrella species</a>” – species whose habitat needs match up with lots of other wildlife, so protecting storks can help countless other species. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330987/original/file-20200428-110734-1kleu0o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330987/original/file-20200428-110734-1kleu0o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330987/original/file-20200428-110734-1kleu0o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=317&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330987/original/file-20200428-110734-1kleu0o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=317&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330987/original/file-20200428-110734-1kleu0o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=317&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330987/original/file-20200428-110734-1kleu0o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330987/original/file-20200428-110734-1kleu0o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330987/original/file-20200428-110734-1kleu0o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">White storks are a familiar sight in lightly farmed rural landscapes in some parts of Europe.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alexander Lees</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>But storks are adaptable creatures too. News that Spanish storks have given up migrating to “<a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/storks-give-up-migrating-to-binge-on-junk-food-in-landfill-sites-a6932916.html">binge on junk food</a> in landfill sites” suggests that they may not always be the best indicators of ecosystem health.</p>
<p>The white is not western Europe’s only stork either. The more furtive black stork has been expanding westwards in recent decades. This is a success that’s also partially the result of a reintroduction programme. The return of beavers to the forested waterways of western Europe has been a boon for black storks. Beavers are ecosystem engineers, meaning they create large wet woodland habitats full of the amphibians that storks like to eat. </p>
<p>Migrant black storks have even visited the Knepp Estate, where the new white chicks hatched. This wild estate is expecting to receive <a href="https://knepp.co.uk/new-blog/2020/2/3/bringing-beavers-back-to-sussex">beavers</a> soon, meaning black storks might naturally join their white cousins as breeders one day.</p>
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<span class="caption">Black storks are known to move into wetland areas when beavers return.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/black-stork-ciconia-nigra-120767752">CezaryKorkosz/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>In contrast to some reintroduced species which shy away from people, white storks have a long association with human settlements, offering an opportunity to welcome the wild right into the heart of British towns and villages. This new generation of native British storks could be a conduit for greater public engagement with nature, bringing <a href="https://natureconservation.pensoft.net/article/12055/element/4/481/">wider awareness of the issues</a> facing a broad range of British wildlife. After all, it’s hard to ignore a stork nest on your chimney pot.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/137320/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Storks – those harbingers of new life – are breeding in Britain again.Alexander C. Lees, Senior Lecturer in Conservation Biology, Manchester Metropolitan UniversityOliver Metcalf, PhD Candidate in Ornithology, Manchester Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.