Page 218 - Cornell Lab News Today

“Something about their sounds knocked me out, inspired a sense of wonder, just a ‘wow’ reaction,” recalls Roger Payne of hearing the recordings for the first time, and realising they could help draw public attention to whales. “It felt obvious to me that this is the way that we can capture people’s imagination.” Payne produced the album from Watlington’s audio and released it commercially as Songs of the Humpback Whale. The album was a hit. National Geographic magazine gave it a...

1:01 Manu Minute with Patrick Hart, December 30th, 2020. Field recordings from the Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (ML289741). To learn more about Dr. Harts work with the birds of Hawaii, visit lohelab.org. Youve likely seen a Cattle egret (or a whole flock of them) perched atop the backs of cows or other livestock. From this vantage point, these egrets can forage for flies or other insects that live in the tall grasses of pastureland. Its a bucolic picture, but its not the...

The horrifying plague of dead birds in the southwestern US in late summer was caused by starvation, according to a new government report. Hundreds of thousands, possibly even millions of birds, died in Arizona and nearby states in August through early September.  Many scientists blamed the devastating wildfires raging in the West at the time, but lab results from the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish rule out smoke poisoning. The blazes could have caused the birds to migrate early or alte...

Nancy Brandt, courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology The White-breasted nuthatch is an active little creature known for jamming nuts and acorns into the bark of a tree and then hitting it with their bill to hatch the seed. They’ll also be happy to enjoy nuts, sunflower seeds or peanuts from a bird feeder. Like woodpeckers, the more trees around your neighborhood, the more nuthatches. Look for the smaller and more animated pygmy nuthatch in the higher elevation ponderosa pine forests of Co...

The bird vote, Mr. Peanut’s shock sacrifice, Spike Lee’s Viagra: 10 of the strangest stories of 2020 Updated Dec 27, 2020; Facebook Share But it’s also been a deeply weird year, and weirdness sometimes can be wonderful. To be clear, this particular roundup of the Year That Was will offer nothing about politics. We all know our politics has become very weird -- and very divisive. We’re going to concentrate instead on the kind of weird that unites us, the quirky and goofy kind that elici...

SALT LAKE CITY — Cutting pollution that is harmful to human health is not only helping people but is helping migratory bird populations in a staggering way. A new study by Cornell University and the University of Oregon suggests that efforts under the Clean Air Act to cut ozone pollution over the last 40 years may have averted the deaths of 1.5 billion birds, or 20% of bird life in the United States today. Ground-level ozone is a vexing problem in Utah during the summer and the target of loca...

4:56 On a recent morning, local naturalist Rebecca Weiss led a small group of amatuer birders through the frozen cattails near the John Denver Sanctuary in Aspen. Dawning binoculars and masks, they stood at the edge of the Roaring Fork River to get a closer look at an American Dipper bobbing in and out of the frigid water as it foraged.  “We heard this gorgeous singing and we were all looking and listening as hard as we could to try to pinpoint the sound and who was making it,” Weiss said....

1:02 Manu Minute with Patrick Hart, December 23th, 2020. Archival recordings from the Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (ML218186). To learn more about Dr. Harts work with the birds of Hawaii, go to lohelab.org. Credit Ann Tanimoto-Johnson Like other short-eared owls, our Pueo may move across the landscape following rodent outbreaks. However, the Pueo will also prey upon birds, including native species. The Pueo is diurnal, so the best time to spot one is during daylight hours....

   Overview 2020 has been a slow year for many industries, but hobbies like bird watching--safely be accomplished while mask-wearing and social distancing--have gotten a huge boost.  Sales of birding supplies, like binoculars, feeders, field guides, etc... are stronger than ever. Not only are there more birders out there this year, birding in Southeast Michigan in 2020 is better than usual due to an irruption year, where many species not normally found in our region have been sighted, due to...

 E-Mail IMAGE: A global study of songbirds like this field warbler shows that song frequencies primarily depend on body size. view more  Credit: Tomáš Albrecht An analysis of the songs of most of the worlds passerine birds reveals that the frequency at which birds sing mostly depends on body size, but is also influenced by sexual selection. The new study from researchers of the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology and colleagues suggests that habitat characteristics do not affect so...