[Caption: Bald eagle takes a break from migration]

The Globe Gazette
An adult bald eagle takes a break from migration. LOWELL WASHBURN/Iowa Department of Natural Resources
The season’s first big chill has arrived. Northern lakes are succumbing to winter’s icy grip, and thousands of bald eagles are currently staging a mass exodus from summer nesting areas.

The southward migration has reached Iowa, and area birding enthusiasts are presented with unique, firsthand opportunities to view large numbers of our magnificent national emblem.

As continental breeding populations continue to soar, Iowa’s annual bald eagle invasion has become an increasingly spectacular event. So much so that viewing along major flight paths, say biologists, is as good as it gets anywhere in the Lower 48. And as winter concentrations grow, the eagles never fail to draw an eager crowd of human onlookers.

“We now have a tremendous number of nesting bald eagles to the north of Iowa which sets the stage for truly incredible viewing opportunities as those birds move south,� said DNR Wildlife Diversity (Nongame Programs) Coordinator Doug Harr.


“Around 1,300 nesting pairs of eagles were reported in Minnesota this summer, and Canada has even more,� said Harr. “As harsh weather forces birds south, Iowa becomes a winter destination as eagles collect around open fishing waters.�

“The annual flight is occurring now and viewing opportunities along places like the Des Moines River or below dams on the Mississippi can be truly amazing. I talked to one birder who told me she drove all the way from New Jersey to Iowa to view our wintering bald eagles. Opportunities like this just don’t exist in New Jersey and the trip was well worth the effort, she said. Comments like that put things into perspective,� said Harr.

But not all migrating eagles are necessarily in search of good fishing. Many are dogging the tail end of the waterfowl migration in hopes of picking off sick, injured or careless ducks and geese.

As waterfowl concentrate into the last remaining pockets of open water, marauding eagles cruise airhole perimeters in hopes of discovering an easy target. If the tactic fails, the giant raptors become more aggressive.

At Cerro Gordo County’s Clear Lake, for example, an adult bald eagle launched a sudden surprise attack and plucked an adult goldeneye duck from the midst of a flock snoozing on the ice near Dodge’s Point.

In Mason City, another adult eagle isolated and then killed an apparently healthy Canada goose from a flock containing more than 400 honkers at rest on a frozen impoundment. The eagle then took time to carefully pluck its 10-pound lunch within 40 yards of a downtown apartment complex and nearby public hiking trail. Joggers literally ran through a windrow of drifting goose feathers as they wafted across the trail. Talk about urban viewing opportunities. I’m sayin’ that it just doesn’t get any better than that.

“As fast as the big waters are currently freezing to our north, I’d expect to see a huge influx of bald eagles move into Iowa during the next few days,� said Harr. “Most of these birds are coming straight down the chute from Minnesota and Canada, and viewing opportunities are occurring statewide. I think we’ll continue to see some pretty good stacking up of eagles during the next two weeks.�

Lowell Washburn is with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

Caption: Bald eagle takes a break from migration

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cleveland Hopkins International Airport workers have begun shooting gulls and geese as part of their plan to keep the skies around the airport free of nuisance birds, officials confirmed Friday.

"We do everything we're allowed to do -- harassing birds, shooing them away, lethal measures -- all for the safety of air travelers," said airport spokeswoman Jackie Mayo. "They have to realize that birds and planes don't mix."

The use of lethal force came to light this week after people parked at the north end of the airport on Brookpark Road -- a favorite spot for watching jets land and take off -- saw an airport employee firing a shotgun at gulls that were flying over the runway.

One of the witnesses snapped several photographs and sent them to The Plain Dealer. Some depicted the employee aiming the gun into the air, and others showed a dead gull lying beside the runway. The man later removed the carcass and drove away in a white pickup truck.

Airport officials acknowledged they have a federal permit to shoot birds that threaten to interfere with or damage aircraft during landings and takeoffs. But they declined to say whether the photographs depicted the use of lethal measures.

Hopkins Commissioner Fred Szabo said a jet struck a flock of gulls on Wednesday, and the dead bird on the runway was most likely a victim of that collision -- not of a gunshot.

"We have a pretty aggressive program here," Szabo said. "It's possible that he used lethal control, but there's no way to confirm that at this point. Lethal strategy is our last strategy of choice."

Szabo said the airport uses bird-dispersal techniques such as firing propane-powered cannons, broadcasting bird distress calls, posting effigies of hawks and owls and planting distasteful grasses by the runways.

But when all else fails, airports must resort to shooting the birds, said Richard Dolbeer of Sandusky, who spent his career as a government ornithologist devising ways to prevent bird strikes with airplanes.

Dolbeer said common birds such as gulls and geese eventually adapt to scare tactics and begin to ignore the horns and pyrotechnics once they realize they won't hurt them. So some of them must be killed, Dolbeer said.

"We explicitly outlined the steps needed to limit wildlife that poses a threat to aviation, and shotguns are one of them," said Dolbeer, now retired from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Research Center in Sandusky.

Dolbeer was thrust onto the national stage in January after a US Airways jet collided with a flock of Canada geese, forcing it to ditch in the Hudson River. All of the passengers survived, and the pilot was hailed as a hero.

The U.S. Department of Fish & Wildlife sets a limit on the number of birds that are allowed to be killed, and airport wildlife officers are required to document whenever lethal force is used, Szabo said.

In the past year, wildlife officers at Hopkins have shot 163 herring and ring-billed gulls, 40 Canada geese, 50 mourning doves and 37 killdeer, Szabo said.

At airports nationwide, about 90 percent of birds are dispersed without the need for lethal measures, said Carol Bannerman, a spokeswoman with the USDA's wildlife services. Wildlife officers at Hopkins also are permitted to shoot red foxes, groundhogs, coyotes and other animals that pose obstacles to airplanes.

"The taking of an occasional bird can be a useful deterrent because they see their friends die and they get scared," Dolbeer said. "These are federal permits to take common birds, not a James Bond 007 license to kill bald eagles or whatever they want to."

(movie)  Maybe Beauty? Look on the roof just across the street from the nest, you'll see a small black image, then it flies off.

OH Anne, I am so sorry. My deepest sympathy to you and Kevin. I know how much your dad meant to you.

~hugs~
Donna

 

[Date: December 11, 2009 - Entry 1 Reporter:]

Date:    December 11, 2009 - Entry 1   Reporter:   
Subject:   MIGRATION DAY 57   Location:   Hardin Co. TN

Had to put extra woolies on this morning to deal with the 15F temperature. Last night's forecast for minimal surface wind held, and the only possible fly in the ointment was what was waiting for us aloft - a possible headwind.

The weather models showed winds aloft as light, but there's only one way to find out what actually is happening at altitude; launching a test trike. That meant we were all galvanized into the usual early morning scramble. As I drove the several miles from camp to the flyover location, I hoped the faithful folks who kept coming out each morning to view our departure actually got to see it today.

Just before 7:30am we saw trikes approaching in the distance, and shortly thereafter the aviation radio crackled. It was Chris asking the ground crew to release the birds. What remained to be seen was would the gathering actually get to see anything. The position of the pen and gates meant a release to the east. Today's launch was going to be an air pick-up. Would the birds follow and latch on to lead pilot Chris' wing? A launch to the east lessened our chance of getting a good flyover view, while a turn to the west enhanced it.

It turned out to be an 'organized' rodeo if that isn't a bit of an oxymoron. Chris was leading the birds to the southwest to turn on course when they broke and headed back for the pen. He zoomed wide to get back in front of them and they grabbed back on to the wing. As he turned again they followed, but then a group broke away again. Some faithfully followed as Chris cut the renegades off and gathered them back behind him once more.

After that it was text book. Within a very short distance they were flying beautifully off both wings, and to the delight of the viewers, flew right over our heads. We watched until the perfect formation disappeared from sight.

Having said goodbyes to the little crowd of viewers, it was time to hit the road - but not before taking a few minutes to see if I could snag a signal to upload this posting. The answer was, no, despite three attempts.

Once flight was underway, the pen was dismantled and packed up; the camera trailer hauled out of the field; and trailers hooked up to vehicles for hauling. Within an hour or so all the ‘breaking camp’ duties were accomplished and everyone was on their way.

The decision as to whether a skip is possible is usually made by pilot consensus as the cranes and planes approach the next stopover. If the conditions ahead and the birds' performance permit, they sometimes elect to carry on past the next stopover. This was not the case this morning. The cranes and planes are all safe on the ground in Hardin County.

This officially puts us past the halfway mark of the migration, albeit by only 2.5 miles, but we're more than half way nonetheless. As Martha Stewart would say, "That's a good thing."

Date:    December 11, 2009 - Entry 4   Reporter:   
Subject:   PREDICTING   Location:   Hardin Co. TN
Sorry folks, I have no lead pilot report to post for you. But, thanks to flyover attendee, John Bendall, I do have a super photo to share.

We were unable to deploy the CraneCam this afternoon. Heather has been suffering with a pain in her right side ribcage for some time, and lifting some pumpkins today did her in. Once we reached Savannah,  I drove her to emergency where x-rays revealed she had a cracked rib and some badly pulled muscles. A couple of injections later, a stop to fill prescriptions, a quick bite to eat, and it was off to bed for a very drowsy Miss Heather.

Now for tomorrow. Even if the weatherman isn't 100% right, we can almost 100% guarantee you we will not be able to fly. South winds and rain that may turn to ice pellets appear to be the order of the day.

[Evidence says it was some kind of bird that shorted out the entire Whitehorse-Aishihik-Faro electrical grid and its 14,000-plus customers late Thursday afternoon.]

Evidence says it was some kind of bird that shorted out the entire Whitehorse-Aishihik-Faro electrical grid and its 14,000-plus customers late Thursday afternoon.

Evidence says it was some kind of bird that shorted out the entire Whitehorse-Aishihik-Faro electrical grid and its 14,000-plus customers late Thursday afternoon.

But what kind of bird?

Craig Steinbach, manager of customer service for Yukon Electrical Co. Ltd., said today residents in the area of the power lines across from the Kopper King called the fire department and Yukon Electrical after witnessing a fireball along the line.

Firefighters didn’t see anything of a blaze when they arrived. And when the lineman from Yukon Electrical showed up, the only thing he could see was an area near a pole where all the frost on the wires was missing, and a few feathers on the ground.

Steinbach said without finding the carcass of the bird, nobody can be certain what caused the outage.

But the evidence does suggest a bird, he said.

The power on the grid went out at 3:58 p.m., and all customers were fully restored by less than an hour later, at 4:49.

The outage forced businesses to shut down. It also sent Whitehorse bylaw officers to the busier intersections to help unsnarl traffic that was backed up several blocks in the falling darkness.

Second Avenue traffic was backed up from Main Street north to Ogilvie Street. It took almost half an hour to reset the flashing traffic lights at Main and Second after power was restored.

Customers at Marsh Lake down to Teslin were the first to come back on at 4:17, and Porter Creek was the last.

Steinbach explained when the system is shorted out, Yukon Energy has to let its hydro units wind down before spinning them back up.

As generation climbs and power becomes available, Yukon Electrical turns on different communities and sections of Whitehorse, according to how much power is available and how much is required to recharge each area, he said.

Steinbach said he suspects the bird flew through the lines in the fading daylight. Its wings came into contact with two wires at the same time, he believes, causing an initial arc that quickly turned into the bright fireball witnessed by residents.

The initial arc, he explained, likely caused the brief power bump a split second before the entire system went down.

It’s not uncommon to find no carcass but feathers or blood at the source of a power outage, Steinbach said.

He said the bird could still be alive, and it could have flown off a considerable distance, but it was likely temporarily blinded by the bright flash of the fireball.

The feathers located at the base of the pole are white with grey tips, he said.

Bruce Bennett, Environment Yukon’s wildlife viewing biologist, said this morning he couldn’t determine what type of bird it was without seeing the feathers.

But he doesn’t think it was an owl, as there are no snowy owls in this area and the short-eared owl has already migrated through.

And none of the three common owls that are around – the great horned own and Boreal owl and northern hawk owl – have white feathers.

Perhaps a magpie, suggested a hesitant Bennett.

He said it sounds like a gull, but there are no gulls here at this time of year, although one was found dead near Johnson’s Crossing in January 2007.

http://wfmz.img.entriq.net/htm/PopUpPlayer-v3.htm?articleID=1312689&v=a  video


REPORTER: One vulture flying can be ominous, but what if your neighborhood was surrounded.

>> ROBERT POINDEXTER: It was unbelievable it was like a horror film. Of course I'm looking at this and it looks like one too.

>> REPORTER: Robert Poindexter is looking at the vultures all around his home near Pendora Park in southeast Reading.

>> POINDEXTER: I'm sorry... They're black vultures. And if you study them on the Internet, they have some carnivorous tendencies.

>> REPORTER: Vultures are scavengers but as our wildlife expert from the Penn State Cooperative Extension took a look, he says there is nothing to be concerned about.

>> RICK KAUFFMANN: There should be no fear involved they're not out there for any evil purposes they're not going to do anything to cats or dogs, or anything in the neighborhood.

>> REPORTER: Even a neighborhood that is being overwhelmed.

>> POINDEXTER: It started out with probably 4 or 5 of them since then they've multiplied to look like a couple a hundred. We haven't actually counted them but if you see them together it looks like a couple of hundred.

>> REPORTER: It may look unusual, but vultures are known to migrate to Southeastern Pennsylvania because of milder winters.

>> KAUFFMANN: They look for roadkills, they look for garbage, so folks ought to make sure their garbage is not accessible to them that's where they can be a nuisance. They can be pecking on your garbage if it's left out and about.

>> REPORTER: Kauffman says if the food is taken away eventually the birds will leave.

>> KAUFFMANL: But they have a great place to perch, woods right there, so it's really not unusual but they can be a nuisance more than likely they'll move real soon.

>> REPORTER: For Robert Poindexter that moment can't come soon enough.

>> POINDEXTER: Well my concern is that they're sitting on my roof and when they fly and land. I guess when they land they hit the roof really hard and if I'm in my bedroom you can actually hear them landing on the roof.

Very nice videos Annette.....thanks!

   December 10, 2009 - Entry 3   Reporter:    Bev Paulan
Subject:   Engine Gremlins: 3 - OM: 0   Location:   Carroll Co. TN

Seems the bad luck just keeps on coming. It’s almost as if someone has asked for extra helpings of it. And not unlike eating three helpings of Thanksgiving turkey, I’m stuffed with it. Full to the brim with the bad luck. Wishing for a trip to the purgatorium to be rid of it.

Yesterday, our morning started out with trying to hold on while getting dressed in a swaying motorhome. Not swaying in a gentle , isn’t this cozy way, but more in a holy moly we’re goin’ over way. The winds were howling out of the northwest across several fields running into nothing until it hit our snug little home. Riding out a typhoon on a sailboat would have been less rocky. Thank goodness the occupants of said camper are pilots and love rollercoasters. No airsick bags were needed!

So right at the get go of the still dark day, we knew we weren’t flying, so it was off on a quest for pumpkins. The 20 pre-adolescents we are hosting had gone through all the pumpkins and had sent out an SOS for more, so Brooke and I mounted up to go retrieve some generously donated unfrozen, un-squashed squash. Waiting until a more civilized time of day and having arranged for the pick-up, we set off in the here-to-far trusty tracking van.

After attempting to navigate as Brooke drove (I say attempting because I was trying to read Brooke’s handwriting), and correcting for a wrong turn, Brooke suddenly said “It died�. “Who died?� was my response and the quick answer along with a look that said way more, was “The van, did, Ms. Genius�. Sure enough with absolutely no warning and definitely no fanfare, the van just up and quit. No chugging, no squealing, just that awful sudden silence that goes along with any engine failure.

And if any of you are keeping score, this is now Engine Gremlins 3, OM-0. Luckily, unlike Chris and Don and Paula, we were already on the ground and had to merely pull over to the side of the winding narrow hilly country road, ensuring we were safely out of the flow of traffic.

Our first phone call was to the provider of the pumpkins---and here is where I would like to thank Mrs. Rushing not only for her kind donation of orange-juvenile-Whooping-crane-distracters, but for also providing us with the name of a tow truck service to come to our rescue. After a quick call and explaining our dilemma, a wrecker was dispatched to our location. A very short time later, the flat bed came, loaded us up and we were on our way to an auto repair shop for what would hopefully be an immediate repair. With the hope of flying the next morning (this morning) we needed the van, especially crucial with the absence of top cover.

After first one stop where the soonest we could be helped was the next day, we were toted to another shop, where upon hearing our plight of potential flight, we were ushered into the waiting room and told no problem. And no problem it turned out to be for the wonderful people at Cowan’s Auto Repair---thanks to Jeff and his staff, they diagnosed the problem (bad fuel pump), ordered up a part, drove to get the part and had it in all in a half days work. Not only did they get us back up and running in short order (I never got to see all of Oprah), but they replaced a bad headlight as well and wished us luck with our birds.

We eventually got to pick up the pumpkins, got our other errands done and finally made it back to camp in time to prepare for the next morning’s pre-flight scramble.

Since I am a big believer in things coming in threes, I feel we are now done with the engine issues and will make the rest of the trip with no problems. I can at least hope, can’t I?

[Caption: Dave Brown, of Penn State's Office of Physical Plant, launches pyrotechnic noisemakers in the university's crow relocation program on Monday, Dec. 7, 2009. CDT/Craig Houtz]

UNIVERSITY PARK — Beneath last night's snowy sky, the epic struggle of man versus crow kicked off with a bang.

And another bang. And another. Until at least 500 pyrotechnics — called “bangers� and “screamers� — had been ignited in hopes of shooing 3,000 migrant black birds, feces and all, from campus.

It’s the crow show. And it’s celebrating its second anniversary.

“The crows have minds of their own,� said Office of Physical Plant spokesman Paul Ruskin. “We haven’t had anyone attacked, but we’ve gotten calls from people who feel threatened by the crows, because there are so many of them.�

Janitors by day, 16 OPP workers donned protective eyeglasses, earplugs, and blue vests with fluorescent green stripes, which provided little protection from the below-freezing temperatures. They toted red and yellow boxes adorned with crow cartoon characters, labeled “Bird Bangers� and “Screamer Siren.�

Six were armed with six-inch orange, toylike pistols to launch the fireworks eastward from north campus.
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“Everybody get loaded up,� OPP supervisor Jeremy Smith said into his walkie talkie, signaling for the first shot at 5:50 p.m. “Commence at will.�

The “screamers� make high-pitched squealing sounds, like bottle rockets, as their spiraling trails of orange sparks illuminate the sky, making crows think they’re being chased.

“It’s like the Fourth of July, but I guess — not as pretty,� said OPP maintenance worker Chris Diehl, 23, of Tyrone, as he fired off another round.

“Bangers� send the crows flying from their roosting areas and sound like gunshots when they explode about 75 feet in the air.

Residents can expect the same noises every night this week, Smith said. Despite efforts of OPP to inform the public, the sounds were initially alarming to unsuspecting passers-by.

“What’s the occasion?� asked Jeff Berger, a grad student on his way to Wagner Building. “I heard the noise while I was listening to my heavy metal and wondered who had brought Baghdad to Penn State.�

Officials are hoping to relocate the crows, which are roosting in north campus, to a clump of trees east of the visitors’ center or the duck pond near the university’s wastewater treatment facility. Today, OPP’s tree crew will hang dead crow effigies in the trees of Hort Woods to further alarm the birds.

“Most people don’t really realize it’s a problem,� Smith said. “You don’t know they’re here until they poop on you.�

Currently, the airborne nuisances are scattering their droppings across sidewalks near the Agricultural Administration Building on Shortlidge Road.

“If you’re in a wheelchair, you can’t go up a sidewalk that’s covered in droppings,� Ruskin said. “The action of using the wheelchair gets droppings on your hand.�

Some students passing by last night said they don’t mind the crows.

“My car isn’t up here ... so they can’t poop on it,� said sophomore A.J. Spicca. “It’s not a big deal to me.�

But it is a huge deal to Gary Thomas, an OPP employee who was out for vengeance last night. Thomas was walking near the creamery recently when a crow made a mess on his shoe.

“I don’t know how it missed me,� Thomas recalled. “But they were white shoes, so…�

Between 2008 and 2009 OPP has spent $3,500 on materials for “crow harassment,� Smith said. About 30 hours of manpower were invested last night.

By 7 p.m., most of the crows evacuated campus.

The battle was won. But the war is far from over. Crows aren’t as dumb as they look. They’ll be back, Smith said.

“They’re smart animals. It may take days or weeks to get them to where we want them to go,� said Ruskin. “This is much more than a one night stand.�

Caption: Dave Brown, of Penn State's Office of Physical Plant, launches pyrotechnic noisemakers in the university's crow relocation program on Monday, Dec. 7, 2009. CDT/Craig Houtz   

While babysitting today, me and the kids heard this loud racket outside. We ran out and saw, to our amazement....thousands of crows...circling...crowing...just around dusk. It was awesome!

[Usually, if a female bird (and at times if a human female) is caught cheating, the partner punishes her by doing less work in raising the chicks, or in extreme cases, leaves her to raise the chicks on her own.]

While women may cheat on men for personal reasons, superb starling females appear to stray from their mates for the sake of their chicks, according to recent Cornell research published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B.

The study found that superb starling females (Lamprotornis superbus) cheat on their mates for a variety of reasons. Some females mate with subordinate males from within their social group when they need help to raise their chicks. (Superb starlings are cooperative breeders, meaning breeding pairs get help in raising chicks from other family group members.) This additional male then also acquires food and tends to the nestlings, which increases the chicks' survival rates.

While females often leave the group when young, most males live their entire lives with their families and, therefore, are usually related to the chicks. By helping the chicks survive, they pass on familial genes.

In contrast, some females cheat with males outside their group if they sense their mates are too genetically similar to themselves. Mating with strangers increases their brood's genetic diversity, even though it does not reap additional help. As yet, it is unknown how females detect the genetic similarities between themselves and their mates, though other species of birds appear to adopt similar mating strategies.

"This is the first study to show that individuals from the same population mate with extra-pair males and gain both direct (like additional helpers) and indirect benefits (like better genes for the offspring), but that they do so in different contexts," said Dustin Rubenstein, a former Cornell graduate student in neurobiology and behavior and now a research associate at the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology and a Miller Research Fellow at the University of California-Berkeley.

Usually, if a female bird (and at times if a human female) is caught cheating, the partner punishes her by doing less work in raising the chicks, or in extreme cases, leaves her to raise the chicks on her own. But because superb starlings, a bird common to East Africa, are cooperative breeders, females have more incentive to stray, said Rubenstein, because even if she is caught cheating, she still may get help from other group members. Yet, superb starlings tend to stray much less often than other cooperative breeders, despite the dual potential benefits for females in seeking extra-pair mates.

"In most avian cooperative breeders, 40 to 60 percent of offspring are a result of extra-pair matings, but in superb starlings, only about 14 percent of the offspring are fathered by other males," said Rubenstein. No one knows why superb starling females have lower rates of cheating, but Rubenstein said it suggests that there may be less conflict between the sexes than in other species. He is currently researching this issue.

While it has long been known that males of many species cheat and mate widely to produce as many offspring as possible to spread their genes, the reasons behind female infidelity appear more complex. With this study and this species, "we can break down the reasons why superb starling females are not faithful to their mates and see that they have different extra-pair mating strategies," said Rubenstein. "It adds a whole new layer of complexity to the story."

Source: Cornell University

 The Nazca booby, a Galápagos Island seabird, emerges from its shell ready to kill its brother or sister. Wake Forest University biologists and their colleagues have linked the murderous behavior to high levels of testosterone and other male hormones found in the hatchlings.

The study appears in the June 18 edition of the online journal PLoS ONE.

The elevated levels of male hormones, called androgens, increase aggression in both male and female chicks and prepare the birds to fight to the death as soon as they hatch, said David J. Anderson, professor of biology at Wake Forest and project leader.

Much of the field work was completed by Martina Müller, while she was a graduate student at Wake Forest.

"The older of two Nazca booby hatchlings unconditionally attacks and ejects the younger from the nest within days of hatching," Anderson said. Because Nazca boobies have difficulty raising more than one chick, it is important for the older chick to vanquish the younger one in order to increase its own chances of survival.

According to the study, the high hormone levels also cause the surviving chicks to behave like bullies after they grow up. They frequently seek out nestlings in their colony, and during those visits they often bite and push around the defenseless youngsters.

Blood samples were taken from Nazca booby chicks within 24 hours of hatching. In 15 nests with two eggs, blood samples were taken from both hatchlings. Samples were also taken from 15 hatchlings in one-egg nests. Then, blood hormones were analyzed by researchers at the University of Maryland, who co-authored the study. For comparison, the researchers did the same for blue-footed boobies, a closely related species.

The researchers suspect that the Nazca booby hatchlings experience the high level of aggression-related hormone during a "sensitive period" in their growth, when long-term growth patterns are easily affected.

Some Nazca booby nestlings experience a one-two hormonal punch, raising their aggression hormones even higher when they actually have a nest mate. The nestlings that fight siblings become bigger bullies as adults than the Nazca booby nestlings who never fight.

"The hormones that are part of this epic battle early in life seem to permanently change some aspects of their social personality," Anderson said.

Nazca booby chicks have aggression-related hormone levels three times as high as their less aggressive cousins, the blue-footed boobies. Blue-footed boobies do not have the same lethal fights right after hatching and do not go on to bully their fellow birds as adults.

[A juvenile Saltmarsh Sparrow.]

December 9, 2009 Researchers Identify the Most Promiscuous Birds in the World


(PhysOrg.com) -- UConn ornithologist Chris Elphick and his colleagues carried out DNA tests to discover the paternity of Saltmarsh Sparrow nestlings.

Saltmarsh Sparrows practically blend into the grays and browns of the marshes they inhabit along a narrow fringe of coast in Connecticut and other eastern states.

But as new research by CLAS faculty member Chris Elphick and colleagues shows, these shoreline birds are remarkable for their “extreme levels of multiple mating� and are thought to be the most promiscuous birds in the world.

Elphick’s work was carried out in collaboration with Christopher E. Hill from Coastal Carolina University and Carina Gjerdrum of the Canadian Wildlife Service.
In an article in The Auk, a premier ornithological journal, the scientists describe mating patterns that give new meaning to the term “multiple paternity.�

Fifty-seven out of 60 broods had at least two chicks with different fathers.

At least 97 percent of females were mating with more than one male.

In any one nest, it was impossible to tell who the fathers were of all the chicks without checking DNA.

While most small birds have monogamous relationships, ornithologists say that low levels of “extra-pair mating� happen in many species. Even so, the promiscuity levels seen in Saltmarsh Sparrows are extraordinarily high. Only the Greater Vasa Parrot of Madagascar and the Superb Fairy-Wren of Australia are known to come close.

The researchers didn’t set out to track the sexual habits of the sparrows. But as an offshoot of their long-term research on the birds, funded by Connecticut Sea Grant, the US Environmental Protection Agency, and the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, they decided to track whether reports of unusual mating patterns were true.

Elphick, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, and Gjerdrum, then an EEB research technician who now works for the Canadian Wildlife Service, collected data on sparrow paternity for two summers in nine marshes along the Connecticut coast.

To do their sparrow research, they catch the birds in fine mesh nets and band them. For this study, they took blood samples to test the birds’ DNA. Chicks in the nest were also sampled.

Chris Hill, a biologist at Coastal Carolina University, did the molecular analyses for the study.

It was easy to determine maternity of the chicks, because the mothers sit on the nests, Elphick says: “The tricky part is the fathers.�

Male Saltmarsh Sparrows take no part in chick rearing, so the only way to associate a male with a brood is to catch all the males in an area and conduct paternity tests.

Easier to figure out was whether the chicks in a nest had the same father, and the DNA analyses showed how rare that was.

The Saltmarsh Sparrows face multiple habitat threats, and their conservation is the focus of Elphick’s research. They live only in a narrow fringe of coastal land from Virginia to Maine, a habitat favored by humans for development and seaside homes.

Their saltmarsh nests are flooded regularly, so many chicks drown. As sea levels rise with global warming, the birds’ very existence is threatened.

But for now, they hold the world’s record for promiscuity in the bird world

A juvenile Saltmarsh Sparrow. pic

[Sporting only four plumes of feathers, Oscar the Moluccan cockatoo, who is in fact a girl, seems oblivious to her almost complete baldness.]

Pushing on in years, the 35-year-old bird lives in Florida, with Cherie Wachter, at the Humane Society of Broward County.

"She has become part of the family and is very particular about who she becomes friends with," said Ms Wachter.

"Of course when people first see her when they walk in they are taken aback, but they soon realise that despite her appearance she is quite a happy bird."

Oscar was taken in by the Fort Lauderdale, Florida, centre 13 years ago after she was recovered during a local drugs raid.

However, it quickly became apparent that she was suffering from a condition that affects birds called Beacon Feather.

Dec 9

"Her disease caused her immune system to become repressed," said Ms Wachter.

"It is contagious and therefore she can't be around other birds.

"Another side-affect is that she plucks her own feathers because they irritate her so much.

"That is why she is bald."

Given only six months to live by the centre's vets, Oscar defied their medical opinion and is still going strong today, albeit short of a full covering of feathers.

She has a couple of growths on her face and one each round her head and neck," said Ms Wachter.

"She is fussy with her friends and chooses carefully who she lets near her.

"She will say stuff like 'who's a pretty boy?' and 'I love you' which is really cute.

"And one of my favourite things is when she sits on my arm and relaxes."

Sporting only four plumes of feathers, Oscar the Moluccan cockatoo, who is in fact a girl, seems oblivious to her almost complete baldness.