News: About Birds

[susha]

This is astounding!  I love this

[The Peregrine Chick]

And she is at it again - at at least 62 years of age!!!

Mom again at 62: world's oldest wild bird hatches new chick
Albatross 'Wisdom' has raised 30 to 35 chicks so far
posted: 6 Feb 2013 - CBC News



(Wisdom on the left trying to nudge her younger mate off her egg in late November)

A wild bird believed to be the oldest in the world is still making babies and flying 80,000 kilometres a year in her seventh decade of life.

Wisdom, a Laysan albatross who nests in the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, about 2,800 kilometres northwest of Hawaii, hatched her latest newborn early Sunday morning, the U.S. Geological Survey repoprted in a news release.

Peter Leary, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist who observed the hatching, reported that the chick appeared to be healthy.

After returning from foraging at sea on November 29, 2012, Wisdom (left) attempts to nudge her mate off the nest for her turn at incubating the couple's egg. (Pete Leary/USFWS)Wisdom is at least 62 years old, but could be older than that. She was first banded by the U.S. Geological Survey in 1956 while incubating an egg, so she must have been old enough to breed by then.

Albatrosses typically breed starting at eight or nine years of age. But if Wisdom was an early breeder and started at age five — the earliest possible breeding age for her species — she would now be 62.

To her human followers, Wisdom is "simply incredible," says Bruce Peterjohn, chief of the USGS's North American Bird Banding Program.

"If she were human," he said, "she would be eligible for U.S. Medicare in a couple of years yet she is still regularly raising young and annually circumnavigating the Pacific Ocean."

According to the USGS, albatrosses lay one egg a year, although they occasionally take a year off from breeding. Peterjohn estimates that Wisdom has likely raised at least 30 to 35 chicks to date. Most recently, she has nested every year since 2008.

There are 21 known species of albatross in the world. The Laysan albatross is one of only two that are not considered to be threatened with extinction


Link to story: http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2013/02/05/technology-oldest-bird-albatross-wisdom.html

[RCF]

Where is that titmouse going with all your sunflower seeds? How far will a chickadee travel for food in a day, or a month? Is "your" favorite nuthatch also a regular at someone else's feeders? We know surprisingly little about the habits of our most familiar birds

http://eepurl.com/o-tnH

[Kinderchick]

I love the Puffin Patrol story! Thanks for posting the link RCF! 

[allikat]

Very cool story!  Thank you very much RCF for posting it!!!

[susha]

Wonderful story!  Thanks RCF!

[RCF]

Puffin patrol rescues more birds than ever

The Puffin Patrol in Witless Bay, Newfoundland collected 37 disoriented puffin chicks, a record number, on Friday night, and released them into the wild on Saturday morning.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2012/08/12/nl-puffin-patrol-more-rescues-812.html

[The Peregrine Chick]

Three Cornell undergraduate ornithologists found and named a new species of Barbet ...

New Species Discovered by Cornell Grads, Named for Cornell Lab Director


And a longer article about the expedition itself ...

Stretching the Canvas

[Elaine L]

This brings to mind Alfred Hitchcock's movie, "The Birds".  I found this movie scary, particularly as I could see how this could possibly happen; after all, how would you survive if all the birds in the world decided that they had enough of humans?!  Anyway, the book was even more scary.

[Kinderchick]

That surely can't be a very pleasant experience but I guess they need to be grateful that they're not being dive bombed by a raptor such as a peregrine falcon.

[GCG]

Angry birds halt mail in Winnipeg neighbourhood

Several residents on Ralph Avenue in Winnipeg's Transcona neighbourhood have been unable to receive their mail due to crows or ravens dive-bombing their mail carrier.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/story/2012/06/21/mb-angry-birds-mail-winnipeg.html

  Just had to respond to this post. My son is a Canada Post carrier. Earlier this week, while talking to him, (he has bluetooth and earpiece) while delivering his route, he was being divebombed by a crow. This is frightening and is happening all over. Not the route as above. Across town. Scary, boys and girls!

[jadoo]

This is my favorite:

"This is just the beginning. In a few years, these birds will be elected to a majority Government and will enslave us!"

...i wonder if the writer was dissing the Selinger majority government, the Harper majority government (politically, diametrically opposed), or just majority governments in general?

[birdnut]

This is my favorite:

"This is just the beginning. In a few years, these birds will be elected to a majority Government and will enslave us!"


...Can a postie carry an umbrella and the mail at the same time?

[irenekl]

BIRDS GO POSTAL

Hilarious! You gotta read some of the comments CBC viewers have posted on this story.  Theres wit in this town

[RCF]

Angry birds halt mail in Winnipeg neighbourhood

Several residents on Ralph Avenue in Winnipeg's Transcona neighbourhood have been unable to receive their mail due to crows or ravens dive-bombing their mail carrier.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/story/2012/06/21/mb-angry-birds-mail-winnipeg.html