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"The red and black ‘Iʻiwi was once one of the most common endemic forest birds in Hawaiʻi, but this spectacular honeycreeper has disappeared from most of its former range. Their long, decurved (downward-curving) bills are specialized for sipping nectar from tubular flowers; they also feed on moths, spiders, and other insects. As is the case with other Hawaiian forest birds, ‘Iʻiwis have declined because of habitat loss, avian disease, and the introduction of alien plants and animals. The ʻIʻiwi is extremely susceptible to avian malaria and avian pox, both transmitted by non-native mosquitoes.The 'I'iwi follows the flowering of nectar-producing plants, and so is often attracted into low elevation areas where mosquitoes are more prevalent. Research has shown that 90% of ʻIʻiwis bitten by a single malaria-infected mosquito will perish from the disease. The ‘Iʻiwi has benefited from efforts to restore native forest and control the spread of alien plant and animal species." - John (bird whisperer)

He purty. - Jenny R from Android

Listing decisions covering ten bird species outside North America and one butterfly species (Miami Blue) found in Florida. - John (bird whisperer)

bir erkek bir kadina omru boyunca bagli kalbiliyorsa bir erkek bir erkege haydi haydi bagli kalir:)) - bikomoko

niye hiç göremiyorum? - Sıppaaa!

There was a White-throated Robin on the other side of the wall. - John (bird whisperer) from Bookmarklet

It does seem a little over-the-top. :-) - John (bird whisperer)

Courtesy of the The New York Public Library<http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldig...>where you can see hundreds more illustrations dated around 1870. - M F from email

Geordies probably, then :) - Eivind

punctulata und undulata! - Finch Wench from Bookmarklet

:-) - Halil from Bookmarklet

wow...what a pic. - ☆彡Jazzy-B

"Fewer than 200 pairs of spoon-billed sandpipers were thought to exist in 2009, and since then, the population has thought to have declined by a quarter each year. So a specialist team of bird experts are flying to the sandpiper's home in northeast Russia to collect and incubate eggs and set up a captive breeding population." - Eivind from Bookmarklet

The Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) is or was one of the largest woodpeckers in the world, at roughly 20 inches in length and 30 inches in wingspan. It was native to the virgin forests of the southeastern United States (along with a separate subspecies native to Cuba). Due to habitat destruction, and to a lesser extent hunting, its numbers have dwindled to the point where it is uncertain whether any remain. The species is listed as critically endangered and possibly extinct by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).[1] The American Birding Association lists the Ivory-billed Woodpecker as a Class 6 species, a category they define as "definitely or probably extinct."[2] - Halil from Bookmarklet

:( - Lit

Driving home from a long weekend at my sister’s house on Florida’s east coast back to my place in St. Petersburg (west coast) I witnessed something heart wrenching: I was cruising along the two-lane SR-710 north just over the Martin/Okeechobee line when I saw a bird in the road up ahead next to a road-killed animal – an all-too-frequent site on Florida roadways. Cars and trucks swerved into the other lane to avoid hitting the bird, and I did the same. I was astounded that the bird didn’t fly off as the cars passed so closely, until I realized that the roadkill was a pileated woodpecker and the bird next to it was its mate! I quickly pulled to the side of the narrow shoulder, chased the live woodpecker off the road, grabbed the dead bird and tossed it about 30 feet from the road. The experience was heartbreaking. What bond did those two birds share? As little as I cared to touch the dead bird, I wanted to save the mate from meeting the same tragic fate. I hope it realized quickly that its mate was dead and that it moved away from the road to get on with its life. - Halil from Bookmarklet

:( - Son of Groucho

Scientists today released a report announcing that a decrease of at least 5,000 red knots was observed at key wintering grounds in Tierra del Fuego, Chile from the previous year. Scientists reported population counts of wintering knots in other locations declined as well. The estimated current total population for the migratory shorebird is now unlikely to be more than 25,000. - Halil from Bookmarklet

This news is a little confusing, I can't find any other source supporting these findings, that doesn't mean it's not real though. But IUCN Red List still have them listed as Least Concern! http://www.iucnredlist.org/apps... I hope IUCN update their data soon to stop any confusion on this issue, otherwise it'll be too late if they are extinct! :( - Halil

The discrepancy is that this concerns Calidris canutus rufa, the subspecies of Red Knot that uses the Atlantic flyway in the Americas. These birds breed in the Arctic and return to Tierra del Fuego via the U.S. eastern seaboard. There are a few other subspecies that I don't think are in as critical of condition. - John (bird whisperer)

:( - chaz2b from Bookmarklet

:-( - vicster

They had little ones on the way. (((sobs))) - rowlikeagirl

Lady, believed to be one of the world's oldest wild ospreys, has laid three eggs in her nest in the Scottish Highlands. The veteran osprey that set a record by breeding for 21 successive years may soon reach another landmark: wildlife experts believe she could produce her 50th chick this month. - Halil from Bookmarklet

Staff at the Scottish Wildlife Trust revealed on Thursday that Lady, believed to be one of the world's oldest wild ospreys, has laid three eggs in her nest in a reserve in the Highlands after returning to her eyrie for a 21st breeding season. Ospreys normally live for about eight years in the wild; Lady is 26 and has had 48 successful chicks. The trust announced she had laid one new egg... more... - Halil

I like this story, it fills one with joy and hope! - Halil

Fortunate bird, yay;) - etesien

http://ff.im/qBTBB :) - grizabella

#عکس - یکتا

"Researchers looked at more than 200 bird species and found that there is a significant relationship between bill length and climate. Birds that live in hot environments, like the toucan, tend to have large bills. Those in colder environments, like the turkey, have smaller ones. In the case of the toucan, about 30 to 60 percent of body heat can be lost through the beak. In a hot, tropical environment, this is extremely useful. On average, birds living in cooler climates, like the turkey and the partridge, have beaks one-third to one-fourth the size of birds in warmers climates, said Glenn Tattersall, a biologist at Brock University in Ontario, Canada, and one of the study’s authors. This helps them retain body heat, Dr. Tattersall said. For the study, he gathered data on birds that live in Canada’s cooler climate, while his co-author, Matthew Symonds of Melbourne University, focused on Australian birds that live in warmer climates." - John (bird whisperer) from Bookmarklet

#NomNom - chaz2b from Bookmarklet

"Cooper’s Hawk" - .مهــــــــدى. from Bookmarklet

#photography - Jozef

"Steady loss of habitat, including shrub-steppe in Eastern Washington and Oregon, and the subsequent decline in burrowing animals like badgers that create the burrows where owls establish nests prompted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to classify them as a species of concern. They also are a species of concern in Washington, although the Lower Columbia Basin Audubon Society has asked the Department of Fish and Wildlife to declare them threatened or endangered in the state. In Canada, once home to vast numbers of the little predators, they are endangered. Yet burrowing owls are flocking to the 20,000-acre depot -- where the Army is disposing of the last of a once vast storehouse of chemical weapons -- because of the artificial burrows, biologists say. In 2008, biologists and volunteers began creating a series of artificial burrows using 50-gallon juice barrels, plastic pipe and buckets. Just eight nesting pairs of adults were caught and banded in 2008. This year, Gregg said there... more... - John (bird whisperer) from Bookmarklet

They are one of our species of concern, also. Glad to hear a success story! - Jenny R

I think they're of concern pretty much everywhere in their range. - John (bird whisperer)

"A nightingale may – or indeed may not – have sung in Berkeley Square, but its song can now no longer be heard in many of its former haunts. According to the latest figures from the British Trust for Ornithology, Britain's nightingale population has plunged by more than 90% in just 40 years." - John (bird whisperer) from Bookmarklet

How sad. Such a pretty little bird. - Yolanda

"Anyway... as if this isn't bad enough, members of this species can sometimes be poisonous. But I don't mean that they can inject venom with their wing-spurs, or anything like that. Rather, some populations (those in the Gambia) feed on a poisonous beetle (specifically, a member of the blister beetle group (Meloidae)), and then sequester the beetle's poison into their own tissues (Bartram & Boland 2001). Blister beetles are well known for producing the toxin cantharidin, small amounts of which (as little as 10 milligrams) cause death in humans. The effect of cantharidin on the urinary tract (it results in swelling of the genitalia) means that people have been using it as an aphrodisiac for centuries; the Spanish fly Lytta vesicatori is a blister beetle. So the result of blister beetle ingestion by spur-winged geese is that their flesh is toxic. Eating one can - apparently - result in death (Wanless 2001)" - John (bird whisperer) from Bookmarklet

It probably could. - John (bird whisperer)

The Mandarin duck is a medium-size perching duck, closely related to the North American wood duck. Referred to by the Chinese as Yuan-yang, they are frequently featured in Oriental art and are regarded as a symbol of conjugal affection and fidelity. - .مهــــــــدى. from email

#amazing_picture - Jozef

دماخ:) - reズa .

شبیه سگ هست Sausage Dog:))) - mina_sydney

:) آره فقط پوزه نداره - reズa .

what a beautiful looking bird - Thomas Smith

#photography - Jozef

"They mostly go to Strawberry Fields for one purpose: to remember John Lennon. It is a landscaped area of New York's Central Park, named after the Beatles' song "Strawberry Fields Forever" and situated across the way from the Dakota Building where Lennon lived for the last years of his life with Yoko Ono, and where, on 8 December 1980, Mark Chapman, a deranged fan, shot him dead. Strawberry Fields is one of the park's most pleasant areas, a series of wooded arbours and shrubberies, and its focal point is a circular mosaic inlaid with the single word that proclaims the title of one of Lennon's best-known songs: "Imagine". It's 8am on a beautiful May morning, but already the tourists are beginning to crowd around the mosaic and more are coming into the park; I am watching them with one eye, yet one eye only, because from where I am standing, a hundred yards away, I can see something that excites me even more than the memorial to the dead Beatle, moving though that is. It is a bird. It... more... - John (bird whisperer) from Bookmarklet

"And then there is something even tastier still, a few trees along, a bird which is black with bright orange wing and tail patches, which I have longed to see but never glimpsed before. It is an American redstart, which despite its name is no relation to our redstart (a thrush relative) but is one of the warblers, and it is flitting around the white blossoms of a black locust tree like... more... - John (bird whisperer)

"I had gone to New York from my other, perhaps unlikely, American birding destination: Washington DC. People often say that this city or that city is one of the world's best-kept secrets; I felt a little like that about America's capital, in a certain respect, because all the attention is, of course, focused on the White House, the President and the Federal Government, but if you're an... more... - John (bird whisperer)

"Of the 57 piping plovers color-banded in the Bahamas throughout January and February, 36 have been spotted so far in breeding territories ranging from Nova Scotia to North Carolina.... To date 13 of the birds have been spotted on Massachusetts beaches, which comes as no surprise since the commonwealth is home to a third of the Atlantic population. One banded bird in particular has settled down in Aquinnah, where he was first discovered on April 10 by Mass Audubon field assistants Jennifer Sepanara and Emily Heiser. His trials and travails have already illustrated well the fraught existence of the plover." - John (bird whisperer) from Bookmarklet

"If wintering in the Bahamas and summering on the Vineyard all sounds rather exclusive, consider the first day of a plover’s life, when hungry and bleary-eyed, it must step clumsily out of its sand nest and search for its first meal on its own, braving a merciless gauntlet of gulls, crows and skunks, and even the oblivious footsteps of beachgoers and off-road vehicle tires.... more... - John (bird whisperer)

"Although the piping plover has made large strides in its recovery (in 1986 there were fewer than 550 plovers on the entire Atlantic seaboard; today there are about 575 in Massachusetts alone) it still faces the constant threat of encroachment and overdevelopment. Much of the available breeding habitat in Massachusetts is already in use, and sustaining a stable population will require... more... - John (bird whisperer)

"Last week we opened access to comprehensive scientific information on 15 species that are at risk from the BP oil spill. At the request of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, we’ve added eight species to that list for a total of 23. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists already receive access to our full set of Birds of North America Online accounts, but thousands of non-agency rehabilitators, surveyors, and others are working along the Gulf Coast without a convenient way to answer specific life-history questions as they come up. The newly opened species accounts should help with that." - John (bird whisperer) from Bookmarklet

If it wasn't so bloody hot out there and I wasn't dead-ass tired, I could have listened to these guys all day. Absolutely beautiful song they have. - Jenny R from Bookmarklet