Rare squacco heron flies in to WWT Welney July 2012. Birders have been gathering at WWT Welney in Norfolk this week to see an extremely rare squacco heron. The reason why it has turned up in the UK is unknown as these birds normally spend the summer in Southern Europe. This record is the second […]
Squally weather blows rare gull-billed tern off course to WWT Llanelli June 2012. Birders are flocking (Why do birders always flock? Why don’t they migrate, slime or even ponce?) to WWT NationalWetland Centre Wales at Llanelli to see an extremely rare gull-billed tern who has taken up residence. It is thought the recent squally weather […]
A lumbering giant Galapagos tortoise known as Lonesome George lifts his head up during a walk in his protected home in the island chain in Puerto Ayora this February. Lonesome George was the last remaining tortoise of his kind and a conservation icon Photo: (c) Stringer/Files Lonesome George, the last remaining tortoise of his kind […]
World’s most bird bio diverse country increases its lead! June 2012. With more than 1880 species, Colombia has the highest number of recorded bird species of any country, and this week Colombian ornithologists have unveiled the discovery of a brand new endemic species of bird, the Antioquia Wren. The new species of Wren (Thryophilus Sernai) […]
You might think birds, of all animals, could just pick up and move if their environment changes in a way not to their liking, but global warming poses a very real threat to the avian world. Scientists say climate change is likely to drive up to 900 bird species into extinction by the end of […]
226 free flying condors May 2012. California condor numbers have crept above 400 for the first time since they teetered on the verge of extinction. There are currently 226 wild flying condors, 125 in California, 80 in Arizona and a small population of 21 in Baja Mexico. Of these birds, 29 fledged in the wild, […]
Ever since those dreamy childhood days when I would lie on my back on a straw rick listening to the chattering and murmuring of a flight swallows as they wheeled and swooped in the yard outside the barns on my fathers farm I have been a birder at heart. Saddened as I am by the […]
Bird collisions have been one of the primary negatives of the recent growth in wind power across the United States and beyond. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) estimates that almost a half million birds are killed each year in the U.S. by wind turbines. “Birds can die in collisions with the turbine blades, […]