By Jason Bittel Somehow the striking blue-throated hillstar, a hummingbird with an emerald-feathered head and sapphire splash across its neck, managed to elude us for a very long time. Scientists just recently discovered Oreotrochilus cyanolaemus, describing the species for the first time in The Auk: Ornithological Advances. Perhaps we humans didn’t notice the bird before […]
By Jane Kirchner Right now, more than a 150 species of birds are on their way northward from tropical wintering grounds to take advantage of emerging insects, budding plants and an abundance of nesting locations. While larger birds tend to travel during daylight hours, songbirds and smaller species fly at night and will stop off […]
Following a £10 million ($13.5 million) eradication scheme and nearly a decade of work, South Georgia was officially declared rodent-free on Tuesday, the first time since humans arrived on the island more than 200 years ago. The British territory is one of the world’s last great wildlife areas. There you’ll find 98 percent of the […]
A major global assessment of global bird populations paints a grim outlook for our feathered friends. A new report from BirdLife International finds that 40 percent of the world’s 11,000 bird species are in decline, with one in eight bird species now under some threat of extinction. The State of the World’s Birds 2018 report, […]
By Jason Daley When coffee consumers think about the most sustainable way to manage their caffeine habit, they normally think about the cup it’s in: Is it recyclable? But what about the coffee itself? Some coffee plantations require clear-cutting; will drinking one type of coffee have a bigger impact on the environment than another? Coffee, […]
By Kevin R. Burgio It was winter in upstate New York in 1780 in a rural town called Schoharie, home to the deeply religious Palatine Germans. Suddenly, a flock of gregarious red and green birds flew into town, seemingly upon a whirlwind. The townspeople thought the end of the world was upon them. Though the […]
By Jason Daley A major study earlier this year showed something incredible. Looking at 492 protected areas in the U.S., researchers found that 62 percent of the parks, wilderness areas and green spaces were twice as loud as they should be. About 21 percent were 10 times as loud. Noise isn’t just annoying—chronic exposure to […]
By John R. Platt This year the U.S. could experience its first bird extinction in more than three decades. That’s the warning from the scientists and conservationists working to protect the critically endangered Florida grasshopper sparrow (Ammodramus savannarum floridanus). Once common in the grasslands of central Florida, this geographically isolated subspecies has experienced a catastrophic […]
By John R. Platt What do the southern red-breasted plover, ultramarine lorikeet and Rimatara reed warbler have in common? Here’s the unfortunate answer: They’re just a few of the bird species newly listed as critically endangered in the latest update of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The update, released last month by BirdLife […]
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