Birds? Lice Match Their Feathers
Not surprisingly, but interestingly, the lice living on a bird match the colors of the bird’s feathers.  Darker birds get darker lice and lighter birds get lighter lice, at least, on birds’ bodies.  On birds’ heads, where a bird can’t see them, lice always tend to be dark.  Evolution in action! Copyright 2009 - For [...]

Conservation Club closes in on 100 members
We’re extremely proud to say that the 10,000 Birds Conservation Club has attracted close to 100 members in its first nine months. We’ve already given away several thousand dollars worth of books, art, and holidays and raised almost USD2500.00 for conservation projects! Thanks to everyone who’s joined for your faith and support. Copyright 2009 - [...]

Inbred bumblebees ?face extinction threat?
Some of the UK’s rarest bumblebees are at risk of becoming extinct as a result of inbreeding, research suggests. The lack of genetic diversity is making the bees more vulnerable to a number of threats, including parasitic infection, say scientists in Scotland who warn that some populations of bees are becoming increasingly isolated as a [...]

Stop Swatting Wasps - Buglife
Buglife is asking the public to learn to appreciate Wasps, and to stop swatting them! In a new campaign launched this week, Buglife is challenging common-held beliefs that wasps are dangerous, aggressive and of no use. Buglife is asking people to take a new look at wasps and to sign up to the Stop-swatting pledge. [...]

Birding (and Fishing) Onteora Lake
This past weekend was another upstate weekend, and one couldn’t have created a more beautiful Labor Day weekend if one had a weather machine and the willingness to use it.  The sun shone from blue skies with fluffy white clouds for almost the entire weekend while a cool breeze blew to prevent the heat from [...]

Mangrove Finch: the rarest of Darwin?s finches
Last week we posted a press-release from the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust (re-posted below) which told of the relocation of a small number of the Critically Endangered Mangrove Finch Camarhynchus heliobates from Playa Tortuga Negra on the north western coast of Isabela Island, Galapagos, to a suitable mangrove forest 22km to the south at Bahía [...]

Win: ?Nightjars of the World?
Okay, much as I don’t want to do this, I’m going to give my copy of Nigel Cleere’s superb ‘Nightjars of the World’ away to one of our 10,000 Birds Conservation Club members. Why don’t I want to give it away? Have a look at the review I wrote, see how much I love this [...]

Best Bird of the Weekend (Labor Day 2010 Edition)
Here in the United States, we celebrate our labors by taking a break from them, at least for a long weekend. Any longer than that may mean unemployment, a state that afflicts far too many across this country and the wider world. The world economic conditions may seem bleak at times, as may your own microeconomic [...]

Mangy Mocker
Pity the poor mockingbird.  They are despised for singing all night, chided for being a bully at the feeders, and killed in the title of a famous novel.  Surely no bird deserves such persecution?  Sadly, the list of injustices that mockingbirds have to suffer through has a new addition: the mange.  Poor, poor, mangy mockingbird. … Copyright [...]

Short, Kind-of Diabolical, Shorebird Quiz
I somehow think that this quiz will not be diabolical enough.  Or maybe it will be too diabolical.  I tend to misjudge these things, especially when my diabolicalibrator is in the shop.  Anyway, you know the drill.  Identify the birds in each picture in the comments.  First to get them all right wins the eternal [...]