November 2009

Birdsong helps scientists to count bird populations BBC News Why Do Hummingbirds “Sing” with Both Their Tail and Their Syrinx? NeuroDojo (see original Am Nat paper here) Feet shape and hunting techniques in raptors A DC Birding Blog (see original PLoS ONE paper here) Tiny birds have more complex songs than big birds TopNews.in (see original paper in J. Evol. Biol.) New method to determine chick sex ScienceDaily Europe's red kites in peril RSPB Explore online what Darwin wrote about birds in his correspondence Extinct Moa rewrites New Zealand's history ScienceDaily (link to original PNAS paper) Why do Toucans have large bill? Unruled Notebook blog (link to original Science paper) A new species of finch may have evolved in the Galapagos The Evolution List blog (link to original PNAS paper by Peter & Rosemary Grant) Studies suggest males have more personality EurekAlert! A rare mockingbird could be reintroduced to the Galapagos Islands - with the help of some specimens collected by Charles Darwin BBC News Hundreds of thousands of signals from satellite transmitters fitted on penguins, albatrosses, and marine mammals write the first atlas of South America’s Patagonian Sea. Wildlife Conservation Society Wind-farms increase extinction probability (en ESPAÑOL: Los parques eólicos aumentan la probabilidad de extinción) Estación Biológica de Doñana Ancient penguin DNA raises doubts about accuracy of genetic dating techniques ScienceDaily Birds need between 5 and 20 times as much light as humans to see colors ScienceDaily Brown Pelican delisted A DC Birding Blog Rare birds monitored by dog GPS BBCNews A new life for Croatia's griffon vultures Telegraph Female canaries sing sexily with testosterone ScienceDaily Making commercial plantations better for birds Conservation Maven Pelicans filmed eating gannet chicks (VIDEO) BBC EarthNews Endangered birds share traits with extinct species JournOwl Too sanitary for vultures Estación Biológica de Doñana (original Science Letter) A marvellous hummingbird display BBC EarthNews see video Extinction crisis continues apace BirdLife International