Observations Of Birds Research Articles

Feasibility of urban bird occurrence and nest amount evaluation by the street-view image virtual survey.

Bird observation mainly relies on field surveys, which are time-consuming and laborious. In this study, we explored using street-view images in the virtual survey of urban birds and nests. Using the coastal city of Qingdao as the study area, 47 201 seamless spherical photos at 2741 sites were collected using the Baidu street-view (BSV) map. Single-rater-all photo checks and seven-rater-metapopulation checks were used to find inter-rater repeatability, the best viewing layer for BSV collection, and possible environments affecting the results. We also collected community science data for comparison. The BSV time machine was used to assess the temporal dynamics. Kappa square test, generalized linear model, redundancy ordination and ArcMap were used in the analysis. Different rater repeatability was 79.1% in nest evaluations and 46.9% in bird occurrence. A re-check of the different-rating photos can increase them to 92% and 70%. Seven-rater statistics showed that more than 5% sampling ratio could produce a non-significant different bird and nest percentage of the whole data, and the higher sampling ratio could reduce the variation. The middle-viewing layer survey alone could produce 93% precision of the nest checks by saving 2/3 of the time used; in birds, selecting middle and upper-view photos could find 97% of bird occurrences. In the spatial distribution, the nest's hotspot areas from this method were much greater than the community science bird-watching sites. The BSV time machine made it possible to re-check nests in the same sites but challenging the re-check of bird occurrences. The nests and birds can be observed more in the leafless season, on wide, traffic-dense coastal streets with complex vertical structures of trees, and in the gaps of tall buildings dominated by road forests. Our results indicate that BSV photos could be used to virtually evaluate bird occurrence and nests from their numbers, spatial distribution and temporal dynamics. This method provides a pre-experimental and informative supplement to large-scale bird occurrence and nest abundance surveys in urban environments.

Environmental Observations at the First Offshore Solar Farm in the North Sea

Offshore solar emergence is driven by a lack of available land and the immense decarbonisation targets. It is a promising area of solar photovoltaic application, with multiple benefits when co-located with offshore wind, and with almost unlimited potential for nations living close to the sea. Research to understand the environmental implications of offshore solar must be carried out in parallel with the realization of the first pilot demonstrations. Such pilots provide important opportunities to learn to collect field data that can be used to verify untested assumptions about possible negative and positive impacts on the marine ecosystem and serve as input data for models that can forecast the effects of much larger-scale offshore solar. This paper reports on (1) the monitoring methods and first results of water quality parameters collected underneath a small (50 kWp and 400 m2) floating solar farm and at a reference location in the open sea; (2) observations of birds on top of the floating solar platforms and (3) biogeochemistry characteristics of the seabed around the solar farm. Both the water quality and the seabed characteristics studied here did not show a clear trend or deviation from normal conditions. The observations of birds on the floating platform were first-of-its-kind; no comparison is made to other floating infrastructure or other locations. Useful insights were gathered with respect to monitoring approaches around floating solar structures in high wave conditions.

Role of Indigenous and local knowledge in seasonal forecasts and climate adaptation: A case study of smallholder farmers in Chiredzi, Zimbabwe

Accessible, reliable and diverse sources of climate information are needed to inform climate change adaptation at all levels of society, particularly for vulnerable sectors such as smallholder farming. Globally, many smallholder farmers use Indigenous knowledge (IK) and local knowledge (LK) to forecast weather and climate; however, less is known about how the use of these forecasts connects to decisions and actions for reducing climate risks. We examined the role of IK and LK in seasonal forecasting and the broader climate adaptation decision-making of smallholder farmers in Chiredzi, Zimbabwe. The data were collected from a sample of 100 smallholder farmers. Seventy-three of the 100 interviewed farmers used IK and LK weather and climate forecasts, and 32% relied solely on IK and LK forecasts for climate adaptation decision-making. Observations of cuckoo birds, leaf-sprouting of Mopane trees, high summer temperatures, and Nimbus clouds are the main indicators used for IK and LK forecasts. The use of IK and LK climate forecasts was significantly positively associated with increasing farmer age and farmland size. Farmers using IK and LK forecasts implemented, on average, triple the number of adaptation measures compared with farmers not using IK and LK. These findings demonstrate the widespread reliance of farmers on IK and LK for seasonal forecasts, and the strong positive link between the use of IK and LK and the implementation of climate adaptation actions. This positive association between IK and LK usage and the implementation of adaptation actions may be widespread in smallholder farming communities throughout Africa and globally. Recognition and inclusion of IK and LK in climate services is important to ensure their continued potential for enhancing climate change adaptation.

Minimizing Data Waste: Conservation in the Big Data Era

Minimizing Data Waste: Conservation in the Big Data Era

Use of anvils by the Great Kiskadee (Aves, Tyrannidae): a description based on citizen science data.

The use of anvils to strike prey is a behavior observed in some species of birds around the world. Here, I investigated the use of anvils by the Great Kiskadee (Pitangus sulphuratus). The study was carried out through the analysis of citizen science photographs and comments made by the authors of these records. In the 365 records analyzed, vertebrates were the predominant prey (n = 213; 58.35%) and Hemidactylus mabouia was the most frequent species. Tree branches were the most used anvil category (n = 199; 54.52%), and in 12.87% of the photographic records the authors described in their comments the behavior of the bird beating the prey before feeding on it. The use of anvils allows birds to strike down different types of prey and expand their food niche. It, thus, favors the establishment of their populations. However, these relationships still require further investigation. By the observation and registration of birds in natural environments, citizen science has become an important research tool for ornithologists.

Conservation Education Media: Birdwatching Guidebook in the Buffer Zone of the Rawa Danau Nature Reserve

Rawa Danau Nature Reserve is a conservation area that protects various remaining flora and fauna on Java island, including birds. However, at present, Rawa Danau Nature Reserve 's existence is threatened due to changes in the structure and habitat function by the activities of the surrounding community. Therefore, it is necessary to have a solution in the form of efforts to preserve and preserve the diversity of species and their ecosystems. One form of this program is conservation education. Conservation education is a form of effort to protect biodiversity and natural resources by increasing knowledge, skills, participation, attitudes, and awareness of the importance of natural resources to sustain life. Information media is needed to facilitate the achievement of conservation education goals, one of which is the development of a birdwatching field guidebook. This study aimed to develop a birdwatching field guidebook as a medium for conservation education in the Rawa Danau Nature Reserve area The development method was used to create the field manual. The developed guidebook contains information on bird diversity, bird conservation, observation techniques, and bird observation locations, as well as bird identification sheets accompanied by bird distribution patterns in the form of descriptions and illustrative pictures or photographs of research results. The book was also developed to meet the principles of environmental education, namely to develop awareness, knowledge, attitudes, skills, and participation in protecting the environment.

Point count offsets for estimating population sizes of north American landbirds

Bird monitoring in North America over several decades has generated many open databases, housing millions of structured and semi‐structured bird observations. These provide the opportunity to estimate bird densities and population sizes, once variation in factors such as underlying field methods, timing, land cover, proximity to roads, and uneven spatial coverage are accounted for. To facilitate integration across databases, we introduce NA‐POPS: Point Count Offsets for Population Sizes of North American Landbirds. NA‐POPS is a large‐scale, multi‐agency project providing an open‐source database of detectability functions for all North American landbirds. These detectability functions allow the integration of data from across disparate survey methods using the QPAD approach, which considers the probability of detection (q) and availability (p) of birds in relation to area (a) and density (d). To date, NA‐POPS has compiled over 7.1 million data points spanning 292 projects from across North America, and produced detectability functions for 338 landbird species. Here, we describe the methods used to curate these data and generate these detectability functions, as well as the open‐access nature of the resulting database.

A rare case of a first-winter male hybrid Common Redstart Phoenicurus phoenicurus × Black Redstart P. ochruros ringed at Ottenby, Sweden

A first-winter male hybrid Common Redstart Phoenicurus phoenicurus × Black Redstart P. ochrurus was trapped, ringed, photographed and sound recorded at Ottenby Bird Observatory, SE Sweden. Hybrid redstarts are rare but regularly encountered in Europe, but most observations concern birds in worn breeding plumage during spring and summer. This bird appears to be the first record for Sweden of an autumn bird in fresh post-juvenile plumage.

Acadia National Park Winter Birds: 51 Years of Change along the Coast of Maine

There is a long history of recording bird observation in Acadia National Park, ME. These studies and resulting long-term data sets provide evidence of changes happening within and around the park, as well as an opportunity to compare local dynamics with trends detected in regional to continental-scale studies. Over 51 years (1971–2021), community volunteers in and around Acadia National Park engaged in annual Christmas bird counts (CBC), collecting valuable information to assess winter bird-population dynamics and species trends. We analyzed the cumulative data from 2 CBC circles that encompass Acadia and the surrounding lands and waters to generate a combined summary of early winter population-trend estimates for 162 species. We found a 43% reduction in the total number of birds over the 51-year study, with 42 species exhibiting declines, and 33 species showing increasing abundance. The annual number of species observed has declined by over 7%; however, the cumulative species in the full dataset continues to increase as newly observed species are added in most years. Our study complements many other studies from Acadia documenting ongoing changes in the physical environment and coastal biota. Conservation and management actions take place at the local level (e.g., Acadia National Park), and local resource data and trends are critical to synthesize and share for effective decision making.

Timing of spring migration of Norwegian Great Cormorants: long-term trends and effects of winter severity

Migratory birds are showing species-specific responses to climate change through changes in phenology, distribution and abundance. While many bird observatories collect standardised data on migratory passerines to provide invaluable information on changes in their abundances and migratory phenology, some bird observatories also undertake visual observations of passing migratory waterbirds and seabirds. In this study, we use two such long-term datasets of Great Cormorants (Phalacrocorax carbo) compiled during their spring migration. We explore the extent to which winter severity has affected their migration phenology and whether there have been long-term trends in migration timing. Observations were conducted at Lista Bird Observatory in southwest Norway (1992–2020) and at Skagen in north Jutland, Denmark (1974–98). At Skagen, there were no detectable long-term trends in Great Cormorant migratory timing. However, the median date (marking the passage of 50% of birds) was significantly advanced following warm winters. Changes in the date of passage of the first 10% of birds was close to doing so as well, but the late phase (the passage of 90% of birds) showed no relation to temperature. At Lista, winter temperatures in the southern part of the wintering area had no significant effect on the overall timing of the spring passage, but the first 10% of the Cormorants migrated significantly earlier in years with mild late March temperatures at Lista. The early phase of passage at Lista showed a significant long-term trend towards an advancement of migration, leading to an extended migration period. The findings of this study indicate that the timing of Great Cormorant spring migration does in some cases respond to late winter temperatures or show long-term trends, but that the responses and trends differ between sites and between the beginning, middle and late phases of the migration, with the early and middle phases generally showing stronger responses and trends than the late phase.

Открытые источники данных для моделирования ареалов: информационные системы о биоразнообразии и наборы пространственных данных условий среды

Открытые источники данных для моделирования ареалов: информационные системы о биоразнообразии и наборы пространственных данных условий среды

Орлан-белохвост в республике Татарстан – продолжение исследований

Орлан-белохвост в республике Татарстан – продолжение исследований

Орел-могильник в Республике Татарстан — продолжение исследований

Орел-могильник в Республике Татарстан — продолжение исследований

Changes in habitat suitability for wintering dabbling ducks during dry conditions in the Central Valley of California

AbstractIn arid and Mediterranean regions, landscape‐scale wetland conservation requires understanding how wildlife responds to dynamic freshwater availability and conservation actions to enhance wetland habitat. Taking advantage of Landsat satellite data and structured and community science bird survey data, we built species distribution models to describe how three duck species, the Northern Pintail (Anas acuta), Green‐winged Teal (Anas crecca), and Northern Shoveler (Anas clypeata), respond to freshwater supply and food resources on different flooded land cover types in the Central Valley of California. Specifically, our models compared duck habitat suitability between the wettest and driest conditions in each month from September through April. Using abundance‐weighted boosted regression trees, we created three sets of species occurrence models based on different covariates: (1) near real‐time (hereafter “real‐time”) covariates in which duck observations were matched to the water availability within the 16‐day window of a Landsat observation, (2) a combination of real‐time covariates and waterfowl food resource covariates describing annual corn and rice biomass and managed wetland moist soil seed yield estimates derived from Landsat data, and (3) long‐term average covariates—the most common approach to species distribution modeling—in which long‐term average surface water availability was used. We modeled the monthly occurrence of three duck species as a function of surface water availability, land cover type, road density, temperature, and bird data source. We found that dry conditions result in reduced habitat suitability, with the biggest reductions in November through January and in agricultural fields; in contrast, suitability of flooded wetland habitat was relatively robust to surface water availability. When models of habitat suitability based on long‐term average climate conditions were compared to models based on real‐time conditions, the highest long‐term suitability values occurred in areas where suitability was high regardless of whether it was a wet or a dry year. While all models performed well, the inclusion of crop and wetland plant yield covariates resulted in slightly higher model performance. Overall, species distribution models created using data on the environmental conditions present at the time of bird observations can aid conservation efforts under extreme conditions over large spatial scales.

Wildlife Undergrads Spread Their Wings in Citizen Science Research Experience

Citizen science has become a valuable tool for natural resource professionals; however, many undergraduate students are not aware of its use as a means of collecting data for scientific analysis. To address this, we introduced a bird-focused research experience into an undergraduate Wildlife Management Techniques course. The objective of this course is to provide practical experiences in wildlife science by learning and using tools and techniques applied in the field. Students designed, implemented, and presented the results of a wild bird observation survey that contributed data to an existing e-Bird-based program. Pre-post surveys were collected to assess student learning and behavioral changes. We observed increased student awareness of citizen science. Ninety-two percent of students correctly defined citizen science following the experience. However, only sixteen percent of students stated they would continue participation in STWB, fifty percent were unsure, and thirty-four percent would not continue involvement. Improvements are discussed to promote participation in citizen science, connections with the community, and communication skill development for future employment.

How ornithopters can perch autonomously on a branch

Flapping wings produce lift and thrust in bio-inspired aerial robots, leading to quiet, safe and efficient flight. However, to extend their application scope, these robots must perch and land, a feat widely demonstrated by birds. Despite recent progress, flapping-wing vehicles, or ornithopters, are to this day unable to stop their flight. In this paper, we present a process to autonomously land an ornithopter on a branch. This method describes the joint operation of a pitch-yaw-altitude flapping flight controller, an optical close-range correction system and a bistable claw appendage design that can grasp a branch within 25 milliseconds and re-open. We validate this method with a 700 g robot and demonstrate the first autonomous perching flight of a flapping-wing robot on a branch, a result replicated with a second robot. This work paves the way towards the application of flapping-wing robots for long-range missions, bird observation, manipulation, and outdoor flight.

Shorebird community and diversity in Bagan Serdang Beach, North Sumatra

The occurrence of shorebirds is strongly influenced by environmental factors, especially food availability. Shorebirds are closely linked to their habitat conditions, so they seek out feeding sites according to their life cycle. Coastal conditions that have changed due to human activities may affect the assemblage of shorebird community. The aim of this study is to determine the diversity of shorebird species and the factors that influence them. Bird observations were made for three days using the point count method while the number of individuals was estimated by using “block method”. The results revealed 17 shorebird species from the families, Charadriidae, Scolopacidae and Sternidae. The dominant species were Charadrius mongolus, Pluvialis fulva and Sterna hirundo. The number of species in the morning observations was higher than in the afternoon. The diversity index for migratory birds ranges from 1.16 to 1.96, which is relatively low. This study showed that mudflats in Bagan Serdang Beach, Pantai Labu District is occupied by shorebirds in this region.

Changes in a Bird Community in an Agricultural Landscape in Northeast Germany between 1999 and 2015

Temporal changes in the bird community of an agricultural landscape in northeast Germany were analysed covering three different analytical foci (landscape-wide, habitat types, sample plots) and two aggregation levels of bird observation data (whole bird community, bird guilds). The analyses are based on a systematic data sampling over two multi-year campaigns (1999–2002; 2013–2015). Our analyses address the question of how changes in the occurrences of agricultural birds (numbers of species and of individuals) at local spots manifest themselves in the landscape as a whole. By summarizing all findings concerning single variables (number of species, observation frequencies, abundances, different habitat types, bird guilds), a dramatic, systematic decline of the bird community at sample plots was discovered between the campaigns, which is not yet recognisable across the whole landscape in terms of species richness. Furthermore, we found that landscape-wide, the birds’ use of habitat changed; the variability between single sample plots increased strongly and most species occurred at fewer sample plots over the whole landscape. Obviously, sample plots with high bird occurrences are becoming more relevant for maintaining bird communities over the whole landscape. Bird community composition changed significantly within the observation period.

Assessment of raptor species relative abundance in Hadejia Nguru Wetlands, Nigeria

Birds of prey are some of the most threatened vertebrate taxa, and in the last three decades many species have experienced severe population declines or faced extinction. The global loss of raptors per se is worrying, not just because of their charisma and flagship role, but also because reduced abundance of raptors can have cascading effects on ecosystem functioning. Raptor decline may also lead to loss of ecosystem services, sometimes acutely impacting human well-being. Therefore, population distribution, diversity and abundance of birds of prey demand investigation for potential conservation interventions. The study aimed to determine the abundance of birds of prey in Hadejia-Nguru wetlands, carried out in March to August, 2021, with a view to providing information in a bid to establish a baseline for conservation for this group of birds. Transect line method was used for the bird survey. This involved moving slowly along the transect line and recording all birds seen in and around the transect line. The survey was carried out for a period of six (6) months and each site was surveyed twice every month during the study period. Bird observation was carried out twice daily; morning between 6:00 to 10:00 a.m. and evening between 3pm to 6p.m. A pair of binoculars with magnification 7X50 was used for identification of birds visually alongside with field guide “Birds of West Africa” for identification of birds. Relative abundance and t-test were used for data analysis. The total number of birds was calculated as the number of birds seen. Transect line survey method detected a total of 1,562 individual birds of prey that belong to twenty four (24) species of 2 families. Accipitridae with 20 species and Falconidae with 4 species. The most abundant species, Yellow billed kite, black shouldered kite and gabar goshawk comprised 68.5% of all individuals seen in all wetlands in all seasons. Out of the 24 species recorded 16 are resident, 5 Palearctic migrant and 3 intra-African migrant. Four species of global conservation concern were also recorded; the Vulnerable Tawny eagle (Aquila rapax) the near threatened Red-necked falcon (Falco chicquera) and Pallid harrier (Circus macrourus) and the endangered Martial eagle (Polemaetus bellicosus ). Public awareness should be raised to inform the local populace about the importance of these species to the environment vis-à-vis protecting the man-made structures used by the bird species.

PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS WITH THE ORNITHONYM COMPONENT: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

The research paper is devoted to the study and comparative analysis of the English and Ukrainian phraseological units with the ornithonym component, revealing their linguistic, cultural and pragmatic peculiarities. The empiric material of the research includes English and Ukrainian phraseological units selected by continuous sampling from phraseological, explanatory, and bilingual dictionaries. The sample size is 601 phraseological units. Analyzing Ukrainian and English phraseological units with an ornithonym component, it can be seen that the names of birds are more often used to denote positive concepts. In both linguistic cultures, the imagery of the stork, chicken, and cock components completely coincide. Most phraseological units were formed on the basis of objective observations of domestic and wild birds. However, extralinguistic factors such as fairy tales, holidays, geography, and gastronomic traditions were singled out. The research material can be used in further research on comparative, contrastive phraseology of English, Ukrainian and other languages.