Seven hundred and fifty pelicans have been found dead in a Unesco world heritage site in northern Senegal that provides refuge for millions of migratory birds, the country’s parks director has said. Rangers found the pelicans on Saturday in the Djoudj bird sanctuary, a remote pocket of wetland near the border with Mauritania and a […]
Tag: migratory birds
Tackling illegal killing, taking and trade of birds in Sub-Saharan Africa
As part of our effort to curb the devastating damage wreaked by the bird trade, BirdLife has embarked on a study to compile all existing information about bird killing, trapping and trade in Sub-Saharan Africa. We’re inviting you to get in touch with any information that can help us fill in the gaps. A bustling […]
Mass die-off of birds in south-western US ’caused by starvation’
The mass die-off of thousands of songbirds in south-western US was caused by long-term starvation, made worse by unseasonably cold weather probably linked to the climate crisis, scientists have said. Flycatchers, swallows and warblers were among the migratory birds “falling out of the sky” in September, with carcasses found in New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, Arizona […]
How Migrating Birds Could Warn Us of the Next Pandemic
“Fire!” A baritone retort accompanies a spray of tawny sand as a large cannon net stretches wide. Small shorebirds with white bellies and mottled orange and black feathers try to flee, but the net is faster: It settles and traps a flock of Ruddy Turnstones underneath. A ragtag crew leaps up and dashes to the indignant […]
Philadelphia Sees Largest Mass Bird Collision Event in the City in 70 Years
In a single day, more than 1,000 migrating birds collided with buildings within a small area in downtown Philadelphia, killing a particularly large number of Parula, Magnolia, Black-and-white, and Black-throated Blue Warblers, Common Yellowthroats, and Ovenbirds as well as smaller numbers of many other species. Birds collide with many types of buildings on a regular […]
‘There’s nowhere like it’: Alaska’s wildlife refuge fears death by drilling
Biologist George Schaller has traversed the Amazon rainforest, studied lions in the Serengeti and searched for rare antelope in Tibet, but for him nothing quite compares to a vast and little-known wilderness found in the north-eastern reaches of Alaska. Schaller first encountered the region in the 1950s, taking a canoe down the Colville River, a […]
Victory! Federal Judge Rules Trump Administration’s Bird-Killing Policy is Illegal
NEW YORK – “Like the clear crisp notes of the Wood Thrush, today’s court decision cuts through all the noise and confusion to unequivocally uphold the most effective bird conservation law on the books–the Migratory Bird Treaty Act,” said Sarah Greenberger, Interim Chief Conservation Officer for the National Audubon Society. “This is a huge victory […]
New study quantifies impact of hunting on migratory shorebird populations
Habitat loss and climate change are often blamed for the decreasing numbers of migratory shorebirds in a major flyway in the Asia-Pacific region in recent years. But it might be time to add another likely suspect: hunting. More than 50 million waterbirds from more than 250 different populations use the East Asian-Australasian Flyway (EAAF), a […]