Birding Wire

Science

Wednesday, October 25, 2017
A new study from The Condor: Ornithological Applications applies an old technique called "mark-recapture" in a novel way, eliminating the need to actually capture and mark Golden Eagles but instead, using math that allows scientists to turn individual observations into population estimates.
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Wednesday, June 28, 2017
A study from The Condor: Ornithological Applications tries a new approach for determining what declining migratory grassland birds called Bobolinks eat after they head south for the winter—analyzing the carbon compounds in their plumage, which are determined by the types of plants the birds consume while growing their feathers during their winter molt.
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A new study from The Condor: Ornithological Applications examines California Spotted Owl habitat use in Yosemite National Park and shows that while owls avoid the badly burned areas left behind by massive stand-replacing fires, they benefit from habitat that includes a mosaic of burned patches of different sizes and degrees of severity.
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Every spring, tourists from around the world flock to Nebraska to watch over half a million migrating sandhill cranes (Grus canadensis) roosting on the Platte River. Where the birds choose to rest on this landscape depends on channel width, bank vegetation height, access to cornfields and proximity to human disturbance, a recent study found.
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Scientists explored the extent to which silviculture could enhance wood thrush habitat in a study in central Massachusetts and found that wood thrushes were more abundant and nested successfully in managed forests, and that fledglings selected structurally diverse habitats created by forestry.
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Wednesday, November 23, 2016
New research from The Auk: Ornithological Advances suggests that the neural processes underlying visual hunting behavior in hawks are similar to those in humans. To study a raptor's head movements while hunting, the scientists behind the study recruited an unusual research assistant—a Northern Goshawk named Shinta, fitted with a tiny head-mounted camera.
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he researchers behind a new study in The Condor: Ornithological Applications analyzed samples from condor museum specimens dating back to the 1820s and found that the historical population was surprisingly diverse, but that a substantial amount of that diversity was lost in the last two centuries.
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