Santa Cruz Ground Doves born in captivity for first time

Four Santa Cruz Ground Doves have been born in captivity for the first time. The birds – native to the southern Solomon Islands and Vanuatu – hatched at Jurong Bird Park, Singapore, on 31 December. As a result, the park became the first zoological institution in the world to successfully breed this Endangered species.

Santa Cruz Ground Dove is classified as Endangered(WRS).

In August last year, 60 Santa Cruz Ground Doves – thought to be around half the world's entire population – were rescued from poachers in the Solomon Islands. In a terribly unfortunate sequence of events, a volcanic eruption then destroyed about three-quarters of what's generally considered their sole natural habitat on the island of Tinakula.

It's thought the 60 rescued birds, all based at Jurong, are the only assurance colony in the world, with the long-term plan being to repopulate Tinakula. Little historic data in Santa Cruz Ground Dove is available, and Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS) commented: "All the information that can be collected from the birds under human care is extremely valuable and may help better understand the species and its needs in the wild."

Jurong Bird Park enjoyed similar success with the Critically Endangered Straw-headed Bulbul. In the past two years, the park has bred four of these birds, with the newest chick arriving in July last year. The first chick hatched in 2017, marking the first time in more than a decade that these songbirds were bred under human care.

'Oiled' gulls make full recovery

Nine gulls have been released back into the wild after they became contaminated by cooking oil earlier this month. Scottish SPCA was alerted to the distressed birds on 14 January by a member of the public in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire. The birds were washed and treated, before making a full recovery. The source of the oil is currently unknown.

Once rescued, the gulls were transported south to Tayside, where they were collected and taken the 240-km journey to Scottish SPCA's National Wildlife Centre at Fishcross. Colin Seddon, Wildlife Centre Manager, commented: "We recently received nine birds which had been severely contaminated with cooking oil. Within a day of their arrival they were washed and treated to minimise any ingestion and feather damage.

"We are unsure how the gulls became contaminated, but it is often due to oil simply being dumped, washed down a drain which eventually ends up in a river or estuary or even from a rubbish tip where gulls often feed. Thankfully all nine birds made a full recovery and were released back into the wild."

EC to take Spain to court

The European Commission (EC) announced yesterday [24 January 2019] that it is to refer Spain to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for its failure to implement EU nature and water laws.

According to the EC, the country is not taking adequate measures to protect the groundwater bodies that feed the Doñana Wetlands, as required by the Water Framework Directive, or preventing the deterioration of protected habitats in these wetlands, in breach of EU nature legislation.

The Doñana wetlands are among the largest in Europe. They host a considerable array of fauna and flora, including critically endangered species such as Spanish Imperial Eagle and Iberian Lynx. The national park is also on the migration fly-way of millions of birds. This unique biodiversity is protected under both the Habitats Directive and the Birds Directive.

Spanish Imperial Eagle, Córdoba, Andalucia (Helge Sorensen).

The conservation of wetlands relies on the availability of sufficient quantities of good-quality water. It is a legal obligation under the Water Framework Directive that groundwater bodies have enough water to sustain the ecosystems on which they rely.

Doñana is fed by several surface waterbodies and a large aquifer. However, large amounts of water are being diverted for both agriculture and the needs of local tourists, and the water table is sinking as a result. The sharp decline in groundwater levels has made the wetland habitats extremely vulnerable to the area's periodic dry periods, and they continue to deteriorate.

The EC’s decision follows what it calls “a reasoned opinion” sent to Spanish authorities in April 2016. The Commission is concerned that the condition of the wetlands is likely to deteriorate further, as Spain is falling short of its obligations. The measures in place to ensure the sustainable management of water resources and the conservation of the Doñana habitats are insufficient and poorly implemented.

BirdLife Europe welcomed the decision. Ariel Brunner, Senior Head of Policy at the organisation, commented: “Doñana has been suffering from a slow and – what until now seemed to be – certain death. Stealing water from Doñana to keep expanding unsustainable farming is a despicable act that cannot go unpunished. The decision the Commission has made to take Spain to court is warmly welcomed as it shows that rule of law must be respected across all sectors.”

Doñana NP is home to a huge range of protected species (Marc Ryckaert, via Wikimedia Commons).

'Land sparing' could rejuvenate farmland bird populations

A study has found that ‘land sparing’ – the setting aside of land for biodiversity conservation – could revitalise certain British species. Andrew Balmford, a professor of conservation science at the University of Cambridge, and a team of researchers compiled the data, which shows that more intensive farming might free up more land, creating the opportunity for rewilding greater areas of countryside. This, in turn, could generate significant increases in populations of some farmland birds.

European Turtle Dove is one species closely associated with rewilding, with a dramatic increase at the Knepp Estate in West Sussex (Andrew Moon).

The research lays out how farming intensively to increase yields while turning over much larger areas of farmland to wildlife would – if combined with actions to cut wastage and meat consumption – meet Britain's demand for food, while simultaneously more than doubling the populations of breeding birds. The findings were presented at a rewilding conference organised by the Cambridge Conservation Forum, with Balmford and his team studying food production and birdlife on the Cambridgeshire Fens in order to understand how larger amounts of farmland could be given to wildlife.

In order to meet Britain's growing demand for food, it's been estimated that farmed land must increase by almost a third in the next 30 years – a figure that means increasing yields is inevitable. If wastage and meat consumption were reduced significantly, less intensive and wildlife-friendly farming could take place on current farmed land in various ways, with 5 per cent spared for nature. The research suggests 101 species would increase by some 50 per cent as a result.

However, if yields on 25 per cent of farmland were increased to the highest levels found on the Fens, with another quarter farmed in a nature-friendly way, future food demand would still be met. The difference, though, would be that half the remaining land could be set aside for wildlife, with resulting dramatic increases in birds: in the Fens, populations rose by roughly 250 per cent, with rewilded areas harbouring many of the beneficiaries, though the low-intensity farmland also saw conservation benefits.

Balmford commented: "We’re not arguing for business-as-usual industrial farming, but we have to be mindful of yield. We need a twin-track where we get serious about using some of our landscape in a way that's much better for biodiversity and ecosystem services, but that must be linked to incentives enabling some farmers to be productive in sustainable ways on remaining farmland. If we don't, it's a sleight of hand – we'll just buy our food from somewhere else and offshore the problem."

Yellowhammer has increased on low-intensity farms in the Fens (Adrian Davey).

If land sparing is taken up in the post-Brexit farm payments being developed by Michael Gove, some fear it could lead to unprofitable upland farms being turned over to nature while fertile lowlands are intensively farmed – upland farmers object because they fear the practice will force them to give up farming.

Although organic farmers and some conservationists have concerns that raising yields would lead to more environmental damage, research by Balmford and his colleagues found that in four types of farming – including European dairy farming and wheat production – intensive systems were usually less polluting than organic and low-intensity methods.

South American bird trade reaches lowest level in decades

A report has found that the illegal international trade of live birds has been reduced to its lowest level in South America in decades. Bird's-eye View: Lessons from 50 Years of Bird Trade Regulation and Conservation in Amazon Countries provides a comprehensive overview of the bird trade in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru and Suriname. The report's findings show that South Africa was the world's leading exporter of South American parrots between 2000 and 2013, after the Amazon countries largely abandoned the export of wild birds. However, underground bird trade remains a real problem in certain South American nations, in particular Guyana, Peru and Suriname.

Hyacinth Macaw is a particularly desirable species among collectors (Artur Stankiewicz).

In 1967, following decades of devastating exploitation and huge declines in many bird populations, Brazil became the first country in South America to ban the commercial sale of wild animals, instead fulfilling demand through captive-breeding programmes. However, hundreds of thousands of birds were subsequently captured to supply international trade and laundered through countries where such exports were still legal, including Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay.

Bernardo Ortiz-von Halle, author of the report, commented: "Brazil has produced the opposite situation of a market monopoly: it has unintentionally placed the right to benefit commercially from the trade in its native species in the hands of any other country that chooses to profit from them."

An example is Hyacinth Macaw. During the 1980s, up to 10,000 were captured, many ending up in captive-breeding facilities where production costs were lower than in Brazil. As a result, wild populations were seriously depleted. Conservation efforts in Brazil have since boosted the hopes of this species, with the Philippines becoming the world's main legal exporter of Hyacinth Macaws.

The complete trade ban in Brazil was largely mirrored in Ecuador and Colombia, and nowadays ecotourism is becoming an increasingly important part of the economy of these countries. Peru is also actively promoting itself as a birding destination, but alongside Guyana and Suriname, the country still allows exports of wild-caught birds from some 101 species.

Between 2000 and 2013, Peru commercially exported 37,233 birds listed in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) – a fifth of such species exported from Amazon countries – with the majority two types of parrot: Cordilleran Parakeet and Mitred Parakeet. Between 2000 and 2016, Guyana exported 145,000 birds belonging to 24 CITES Appendix II-listed species and Suriname exported 74,890 parrots between 2000 and 2013. In Guyana, it's estimated that 5 per cent of the country's rural population benefit from this economic activity.

Mitred Parakeet is one of the most common species to be exported from Peru (Tim Dean).

Although bans have resulted in a disappearance of birds for sale on the streets, much of the trade has gone underground. Peru, both as a recipient and source of wild bird species from and to its neighbours, is the biggest regional challenge. Brazil, too, continues to have a serious problem with internal trade of songbirds, despite stringent law enforcement efforts. Many of these birds are destined for 'songbird competitions', where spectators bet money on the outcomes of how many songs or phrases a bird will sing in a set time period.

Ortiz von-Halle added: "Habitat loss remains the greatest threat to wild bird populations in Amazon countries, while the banning of most bird trade in the region has had some unexpected consequences such as effectively exporting the region's biodiversity resources and the removal of economic incentives to conserve habitats and species.

"The complexities of the bird trade have been underestimated: to secure a future for the region's increasingly threatened birds we need integrated strategies that seek urgently to halt or reverse habitat destruction and improve enforcement, complemented with economic incentives for local income generation through tourism and sustainable."

Palm oil demand pushing pitta to extinction

The last fragments of forest supporting Gurney's Pitta are being cleared for oil palm plantations. Following its relatively recent loss from Thailand, the species now occupies a small range of flat, low-lying forests in Myanmar. Unfortunately, these same forests are being cleared to make way for oil palm and betel nut plantations, leaving the species in an exceptionally precarious state.

Gurney's Pitta is currently listed as Endangered (Steve Arlow).

Gurney's Pitta has declined by a remarkable 70 per cent during the last 13 years, with this staggering drop largely due to habitat loss. The latest threats are not the first time the species has flirted with extinction, however. Widespread in Thailand before 1915, it was feared extirpated there after there were no confirmed sightings between 1952 and 1985. However, it was rediscovered in 1986 and populations were then unearthed in five separate locations.

However, by 1997 the species had again dwindled, occurring in only one of its previous five Thai habitats. At that time, the global population was estimated at a mere nine pairs and the pitta was believed to be one of the rarest species on earth.

Thankfully, a search for Gurney's Pitta in Myanmar in 2003 successfully found the species at several sites and estimated the population at between 5,000 and 8,500 pairs. Despite this positive development, though, since then the decline has been rapid.

While it’s currently listed as Endangered, civil unrest within the final stronghold of its range could increase rates of habitat loss and push the species to Critically Endangered.

Pheasant photo ID guide

Three species of pheasant are on the British List but they differ dramatically in their status. One is super-abundant and barely merits a second glance from most birders, one is very rare and localised and the other is probably already extinct here. For various reasons, therefore, the identification of pheasants is a rarely discussed topic. This article looks at all three species, not just the obvious gaudy males but also the much drabber and more similar females.

Common Pheasant (Crosby, Lancashire, 25 March 2007). Pheasants come with lots of political baggage but, irrespective of the merits or otherwise of their presence in the British countryside, this is an undeniably attractive species, brightening up our woodland and farmland landscape (Steve Young / www.birdsonfilm.com).

Common Pheasant

Common Pheasant is on Category C1 of the British List ('naturalised introduced species'). In its home range, it occurs from the Black Sea to eastern Asia and was – according to some sources – introduced into Britain by the Romans, although most authors attribute the first introductions to the Normans in the 11th century. It is now a ubiquitous inhabitant of our countryside (apart from the far north-west of Scotland), intensively reared and released for commercial recreational shooting, to the tune of perhaps 12 million birds annually. Its presence here defines the management of much of the British landscape, although it has no place in our natural avifauna.

Males are distinctive with their burnt orange bodies, green heads and necks and bare red skin around the eye. The species has around 30 subspecies across its natural range, with many British releases being of the western form colchicus or the more eastern torquatus. At least six subspecies have been released here, however, and today's British population represents a hybrid swarm of forms, with a bewildering variety of male plumages evident, though many retain the white collar typical of torquatus. A particularly distinctive and locally common form is the so-called 'tenebrosus' type, which is dark green and superficially resembles Green Pheasant from Japan. Another common type shows an unusually pale back – the result of partial leucism.

Females are brown and drab by comparison. They are, however, attractive birds, long-tailed of course but with dark-centred upperpart feathers with neat 'scaly' pale fringes and prominent 'arrowhead' flank markings.

Golden Pheasant

This species is a shy and elusive inhabitant of lush temperate and subtropical forests in south-west China. It was introduced to Britain from the late 19th century at a number of sites including south-west Scotland, North Wales, the Norfolk and Suffolk Breckland, the Hampshire and Sussex Downs, Dorset and Tresco, Scilly.

Some of these populations became self-sustaining, enabling its admission to Category C1 of the BOU's British list. For a while it did well, most notably in the dry pinewoods of East Anglia, but in recent years it has disappeared from many areas and is in steep decline even in its Breckland stronghold. Most people now see the species in the Wolferton and Sandringham area of West Norfolk. The British population may no longer be truly self-sustaining and it is quite feasible that the species may now die out in the wild here. It can also occasionally be encountered away from its traditional locations thanks to escapes or deliberate releases, although such birds often prove to be Golden x Lady Amherst's Pheasant hybrids.

Male Golden Pheasant is truly spectacular and unmistakable, draped in red and yellow, with a golden 'shawl' and a long brownish-gold tail. Interestingly, although normal males are red-throated, a dark-throated (so-called 'obscurus') plumage has been noted in the British population (particularly in West Norfolk but also recorded elsewhere). This was once thought to be the probable result of hybridisation with Lady Amherst's Pheasant, but is now considered more likely to be a consequence of inbreeding within an increasingly isolated population, as the same plumage type can develop in captive-bred birds.

Females are both elusive and increasingly rare so the chances of seeing one in Britain are shrinking fast. They are brown and therefore superficially similar to Common Pheasant, but are smaller and have a 'ghosting' of the male nape 'shawl'. The plumage is a bright pale brown and heavily barred (including on the belly). The orbital skin around the eye is limited in extent and a yellowish-pink colour, while the legs are yellowish.

Lady Amherst's Pheasant

This close relative of Golden Pheasant is also a shy inhabitant of forests in south-west China. Also introduced to Britain in the 19th century, Lady Amherst's Pheasant occurred mainly in Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire as well as at a number of other sites in southern England and North Wales. The former population thrived, enabling the species to be admitted to Category C1 of the British List. Numbers peaked in the 1970s, but it has recently suffered a catastrophic decline and is now considered to be potentially or actually extinct in the wild in Britain. It is now listed as a Category C6 species (that is, those "formerly placed in C1 whose naturalised populations are either no longer self-sustaining or are considered extinct"). As with Golden Pheasant, the occasional escaped or deliberately released bird can be encountered, though these are often hybrids.

Discussing the identification of the species is therefore perhaps a little academic but the males are striking indeed, glossy blue-black and white with a golden rump,  prominent white nape 'shawl' and a long black-and-white barred tail with red sides at its base.

Females closely resemble Golden Pheasant but are darker and richer brown and the barring does not extend to the belly, which is plain. The orbital skin is extensive and grey in colour and the legs are grey also.

Other possibilities

Not all escaped or released 'exotic' pheasants are Golden or Lady Amherst's – there are other options too, the most frequent being the beautiful Reeves'sand Silver Pheasants. A chance encounter with either would bring a welcome flash of colour to a British woodland.

Common Pheasant (Thetford, Norfolk, 1 March 2015). Although the genetic history of our Pheasants is now pretty confused, this is a typical male showing the standard combination of burnished copper body, pale greenish rump, glossy green head and neck and bright shining red wattles. The white neck ring is typical of torquatus-types whose native range is in China (James Lowen /www.jameslowen.com).
 

Common Pheasant (Fishers Green, Essex, 17 January 2013). This strangely dark tenebrosus-type variant of Common Pheasant is patchily distributed although locally common. With its sombre green hues shot through with blue and purple, it is a striking bird indeed and has some resemblance to Japanese Green Pheasant (Dominic Mitchell / www.birdingetc.com).
 

Golden Pheasant (Wayland Wood, Norfolk, February 1997). Male Golden Pheasant has to be the brightest bird on the British list. With its golden mane and rump and shocking red underparts, it positively gleams if caught out in the sunshine. Despite the finery of its plumage, however, it can be surprisingly – and frustratingly – difficult to see as it slinks away through dark forest understorey (Robin Chittenden).
 

Lady Amherst's Pheasant (Lidlington, Bedfordshire, 11 March 2015). Almost as colourful is the bizarrely-plumaged Lady Amherst's Pheasant – a riot of white and dark glossy green with reddish highlights in the crown, belly and tail base. The precise colour scheme is difficult to take in on a quick view but the flowing white nape shawl, finely laced with black, normally catches the eye (Josh Jones / www.joshrjones.com).
 

 
Common Pheasant (Rutland, 2011). Game bird females are generally brown and drab compared with the resplendent hues of the males, and Common Pheasant is no exception to this rule. This female bird is typically pale straw-coloured with dark, neatly defined feather centres and pale feather fringes forming a crisply scaled pattern (Tony Clarke).
 

 
Common Pheasant (Crosby, Lancashire, 12 February 2011). Common Pheasant is hugely variable, this being particularly obvious in the gaudy males. However, females can vary in their appearance too, this bird being strikingly dark, although the overall scaled appearance is still apparent (Steve Young / www.birdsonfilm.com).
 

Golden Pheasant (Wayland Wood, Norfolk, February 1997). The very long tail and lack of scaled body plumage immediately confirm that this is not a Common Pheasant, and it must therefore be one of the 'exotic' species. The bright pale brown heavily-barred plumage, yellowy orbital skin around the eye and yellowish legs identify it as a female Golden Pheasant (Robin Chittenden).
 

 
Lady Amherst's Pheasant (Sichuan, China, 24 June 2017). This obviously barred female pheasant is also one of the 'exotics'. It resembles female Golden Pheasant, but it is a darker and richer brown, the orbital skin is grey in colour and the legs are also greyish. These features all identify it as a female Lady Amherst's Pheasant (Summer Wong).
 

 
Common Pheasant (Poland, 5 October 2013). This bird, although superficially brown and female-like, is on closer examination a young male. Note in particular the bright coppery-orange hues coming through on the breast and flanks and the bright red skin around the eye (Thomas Harbig).
 

 
Golden Pheasant (Wolferton, Norfolk, April 2006). The barred plumage and yellowy legs identify this superficially female-like bird as a Golden Pheasant. There are, however, plenty of emerging clues that this is a young male – note the beginnings of the yellow mane and scattered bright red feathers in the flanks (Julian Bhalerao).
 

Lady Amherst's Pheasant (Sichuan, China, 16 April 2015). This superficially female-like Lady Amherst's Pheasant (note the grey legs) also shows plenty of emerging young male characters. Most obvious are the strong and contrasting black and white hues in the tail, a developing white belly and new dark feathers with a growing mane on the head (Summer Wong).

Egg smuggler gets jail

A man who attempted to smuggle 19 rare and endangered bird eggs into the UK strapped to his body has been jailed for three years and one month.

The smuggling attempt was uncovered by Border Force officers at Heathrow Airport on 26 June 2018, when officers stopped Jeffrey Lendrum after he arrived on a flight from Johannesburg.

Lendrum, 57, the self-proclaimed "Pablo Escobar of the falcon egg trade", was wearing a heavy jacket which officers thought was unusual due to the very warm weather conditions. When asked whether he had anything to declare, Lendrum stated he had some "fish eagle" and "kestrel" eggs strapped to his body. During a full search, he was found to be wearing a body belt concealing 19 bird eggs as well as two newly hatched chicks.

Border Force specialist officers identified that the eggs were protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), the import trade for which is controlled by the issue of permits. Officers ensured that both the eggs and the live chicks were kept warm and quickly transported to the Heathrow Animal Reception Centre, managed by the City of London Corporation. The live chicks and the eggs were later moved to a specialist care facility at the International Centre for Birds of Prey.

Lendrum was arrested and the investigation passed to the National Crime Agency (NCA). Lendrum stated during an interview that his intention was to rescue the eggs after he encountered some men chopping down trees containing their nests. However in court, experts stated that a number of the eggs were from species that nest in cliffs. Their values on the black market ranged from £2,000 to £8,000.

At Snaresbrook Crown Court on Tuesday 8 January, Lendrum, who has previous convictions for similar CITES offences in Canada, Brazil and Africa, pleaded guilty to attempting to import the 19 bird eggs.

Grant Miller, head of the national Border Force CITES team at Heathrow, said: "My officers are experts in their field and, in this case, their vigilance has stopped a prolific wildlife criminal in his tracks. Their intervention also ensured that the birds and eggs received the immediate care and attention that they needed.

"Wildlife crime is a global issue and Border Force officers play a crucial role in preventing offenders from moving the products across borders, stripping them of their illegal profits. We will continue to work closely with enforcement partners such as the NCA to tackle the international illegal wildlife trade which threatens the survival of endangered animals and plants."

Chris Hill, NCA investigations manager Heathrow, added: "This offence was clearly no accident as Lendrum had gone to great lengths to both source and then attempt to conceal the birds eggs. His claims that he was engaged in an effort to save them from deforestation did not hold water.

"Wildlife crime is a cynical business, indulged in by those who have no qualms about the environmental damage they cause as long as there is a profit to be made. This case sends a clear message that we are determined to bring cases like this before the courts."

When stopped, Lendrum claimed that some of the eggs he was carrying were from African Fish Eagle (Jamie MacArthur).

The importation of endangered species into the UK is strictly controlled by CITES, which is an international agreement covering more than 35,000 species of animals and plants. The Heathrow-based Border Force CITES team are specialist officers who work across the UK and who are recognised as world leaders in their field.

Anyone with information about activity they suspect may be linked to smuggling and trafficking of any kind should call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Plastic found in almost all gannet nests on Alderney

Virtually all of the 8,000 Northern Gannet nests on Alderney are contaminated with plastic pollution, a survey has found.

This shocking statistic comes despite the fact that, as recently as 20 years ago, only small quantities of plastic were seen in the nests on the third-largest of the Channel Islands. According to the Alderney Wildlife Trust (AWT), plastic build-up in the breeding colonies is killing the birds, with some entangled gannets found hung or missing legs.

Alderney's Northern Gannet population is still increasing despite the high level of plastic pollution (AWT).

Northern Gannets are known to forage as far as 20 nautical miles in order to collect nesting materials and the plastics found in the nests generally consist of rope or line from the fishing industry. Alderney, 15 km from France and the northernmost of the inhabited Channel Islands, holds around 2 per cent of the entire global population of Northern Gannets.

Roland Gauvain, from AWT, said: "Over the last 20-30 years we've gone from little bits of plastics here and there to every nest now, pretty much, having a significant quantity of plastic in it. The plastic build-up is posing a significant risk to chicks and adults alike as they become entangled or end up eating it.

"It's not uncommon to find Northern Gannets hung, for them to lose legs or to find their wings entangled. Most of these plastics aren't going to be coming from Alderney. We have a population of 2,000 people and we're talking about upwards of 8,000 nests on the colonies. Really, the tale is that we are impacting our waters so much more than we ever realised."

AWT further highlighted concerns over plastic pollution across the British Isles, along with sewage spills and a build-up of waste on beaches. Alderney's Northern Gannet population is still growing, but the island's position in the English Channel mean it is particularly vulnerable to plastic pollution. 

University uses drones to monitor gull colonies

The University of Gloucestershire has deployed drones to survey breeding gulls more accurately, while also limiting disturbance at the same time.

The study provides a semi-automated system for counting the number of birds while causing minimal stress to the birds, with the future of the technology possibly set to boom given that accurate estimates of population size are key to understanding the population dynamics and consequently support effective conservation management.

During 12 drone observations of different Lesser Black-backed Gull colonies, there was no impact on the birds behaviour (J G Snowball).

By the nature of their colonies, seabirds can be difficult to study, prompting staff and students studying Geography and Biology at the university to use increasingly affordable drone technology to gather aerial views of populations. The university has developed a protocol for carrying out surveys with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) on breeding gull colonies – namely Lesser Black-backed Gulls – and then determining population numbers by analysing the footage.

During observations of 12 different Lesser Black-backed Gull colonies, no instances of nest loss were recorded and the UAV had no noticeable impact on gull behaviour. By comparison, walk‐through counts caused all gulls in the sub-colony to take flight, with a few birds even attacking fieldworkers. Furthermore, the technology has the potential to include species differentiation (ie recognise different species in mixed colonies) in the future.

University of Gloucestershire Biology Lecturer, Dr Matt Wood, said: "Seabirds are amazing; they're such great indicators of the health of our marine ecosystems. But they nest in awkward colonies that are often hard to count. We used a drone to get a bird's-eye view of a gull colony, but we did two important things: we did it without disturbing the colony too much, and then we trained a computer to count the gulls.

"Getting the images is one thing, but computerising the seabird counts is a whole new ball game. We're rolling this out in other gull colonies and developing ways of identifying different species. Hand on heart, this is the coolest study of my 25 years in science."

These studies could well be a sign of the future, with developments in analytical and survey tools (such as UAVs) likely to play a major part in the future of ecological surveys due to the lessened disturbance that they offer.

Tiny tech tracks hummingbirds at urban feeders

A new study has given researchers around-the-clock insights into the behaviour of individual hummingbirds visiting feeding stations.

'Beep' is not a sound you expect to hear coming from a hummingbird feeder, yet beeps abounded during a study led by the University of California, Davis, to monitor hummingbirds around urban feeders and help answer questions about their behaviour and health.

For the study, published recently in the journal PLOS ONE, veterinary researchers tagged 230 Anna's and Allen's Hummingbirds with passive integrated transponder (PIT) tags and recorded their visits to feeders equipped with radio-frequency identification (RFID) transceivers. This is the same technology that animal rescue shelters use when placing microchips under the skin of cats and dogs so they can be tracked if lost.

The study focused on the behaviour and number of visits of both Anna's (above) and Allen's Hummingbirds to feeding stations in California (Manfred Kusch).

Similar to when a grocery item is swept across a supermarket scanner, little beeps sounded each time a hummingbird fluttered inside one of the study's feeding stations. This gave researchers around-the-clock information about how often individual hummingbirds visited the feeders and how long they stayed there.

Such information can help explain how hummingbirds interact with each other at feeders, as well as inform veterinarians about potential disease transmission that could occur from such interactions.

A passive integrated transponder tag, shown on a fingertip for scale, is inserted under the skin of a hummingbird to help researchers monitor its movements (Don Preisler/UC Davis).

In the wild, hummingbird species do not tend to directly interact much with each other. But with urban feeders, that dynamic changes. "Hummingbird feeders attract birds to gather in areas where they normally wouldn't congregate," said co-leading author Lisa Tell, a professor at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. "This is a human-made issue, so we're looking at how that might change disease transmission and dynamics in populations." 

RFID technology has been used to monitor hummingbirds before, but this is the first time it has been used to monitor multiple hummingbirds at feeders at the same time, which is critical when studying their interactions.

The study, conducted between September 2016 and March 2018, recorded about 65,500 visits to seven feeding stations across three California sites. These included the UC Davis Arboretum Nursery, a private home in Winters, west of Sacramento, and The Gottlieb Native Garden in Beverly Hills. More than 60 per cent of the tagged birds returned to feeders at least once — some immediately, some months later. During spring and summer, most visits occurred in the morning and evening hours.

Behavioural differences by gender were also recorded: females tended to stay longer at feeders than the males, while males overlapped their visits with other males more frequently than with other females.

"It's the first time we were able to truly quantify not only the time spent at feeders but also time spent co-mingling with fellow hummingbirds at these feeders," said co-leading author Pranav Sudhir Pandit of the UC Davis EpiCenter for Disease Dynamics within the School of Veterinary Medicine.

Science has yet to make an informed judgment call on whether backyard hummingbird feeders are 'good' or 'bad' for hummingbirds. The authors note that planting native plants known to attract hummingbirds, such as salvias and those with tubular-shaped flowers, provide a clear benefit to the birds. But given that urban hummingbird feeders are highly prevalent, researchers want to understand the health implications for birds congregating and sharing food resources at these bird buffets. Data from the study is one piece of that puzzle.

Science has yet to make a call on whether hummingbird feeders, like these in Beverley Hills, California, are 'good' or 'bad' for the birds (Jen May Photography).

"The aggregation of hummingbirds in urban habitats due to feeders is the new normal and now it's time to understand the implications of this," said co-leading author Ruta Rajiv Bandivadekar, a visiting research scholar in the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.

Before she was tagging hummingbirds, Bandivadekar was radio collaring tigers to monitor their movements at a national park in India. The collar itself weighed about 2 kg, whereas a hummingbird's entire body is about 5 grams. 

Their small size is the main reason finding the proper technology to monitor hummingbirds can be challenging. For instance, before the study, researchers weren't sure they could successfully tag and monitor Allen's Hummingbirds, a smaller species the Audubon Society has determined to be a 'climate endangered' bird.

Regulations require that tracking devices weigh no more than 3 per cent of an animal's body weight, a maximum Tell and colleagues did not want to risk approaching. But the efficient use of PIT tags is providing valuable insight into their movements and behaviors, which could ultimately help their health and conservation in a changing landscape.

Record breeding year for endangered parakeet

Grey-breasted Parakeet, a threatened species endemic to northern Brazil, enjoyed a fantastic year in 2018, in part thanks to the prize-winning project for its protection and recovery, conducted by the Brazilian NGO Aquasis with the Loro Parque Fundación as principal supporter since 2007.

Prior to 2007, the wild Grey-breasted Parakeet population suffered a dramatic decline due to habitat destruction and trapping for trade. Now it is found in only three places in Ceará State, with the main population residing in the Baturité Mountains, south of the city of Fortaleza. This so-called 'sky island' is a remnant of humid Atlantic Rainforest, completely surrounded by unfavourable dry lowland caatinga scrub and agriculture.  Much smaller populations occur in the Quixadá Inselbergs, and another elevated area called Ibaretama. The combined area of these sites totals no more than 830km2.

The selective removal of certain trees and the destruction of nest sites by poachers have resulted in a shortage of suitable nesting cavities for parakeets. In response, Aquasis has made a determined effort to install nestboxes in forested areas on the land of sympathetic owners, being places which provide more deterrence against nest poachers. The nestboxes preferred by the parakeets are wooden with more than one entry and exit hole. The project discovered that Grey-breasted Parakeet is a co-operative breeder, with occupation of a single nest by a group of parakeets instead of just one breeding pair. 

Grey-breasted Parakeets have taken well to the nestboxes installed for them (Aquasis).

The annual increase in breeding success in the nestboxes has been truly remarkable, with a cumulative total of 841 young parakeets fledged between 2010 and 2018. Given that the Aquasis field team places numbered and coloured leg-rings on the chicks, subsequent observations confirm the eventual incorporation of fledglings into the breeding population. The impact of this increased recruitment is reflected in result of the latest census, which estimates the wild population to be 660-870 individuals. For several years previously, the population was thought to approximate only 250 individuals. These positive changes caused by the project have allowed the species to be down-listed in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species from Critically Endangered to Endangered.

The breeding season in 2018 set a new record for this species, with 62 occupied nestboxes producing a total of 446 eggs, of which 340 hatched and 234 parakeets fledged – a 42 per cent increase from the previous year. The hatching rate for all years combined stands at 74.8 per cent, and the rate of fledging from hatched chicks is 78.2 per cent. The average clutch size stands at 6.9 eggs, and the average number of parakeets fledging per artificial nest has been 4.3. Incremental improvements to features of the nestbox design has helped to deter nest competitors and predators. In 2018 only five natural nests were found, and therefore the work with nestboxes has great importance while the forest of the Baturité Mountains recovers.

Additional contributions to various aspects of the project have been made by Fundação Grupo Boticário, Zoological Society for the Conservation of Species and Populations, The Parrot Society UK, Chester Zoo and the American Bird Conservancy.

Ringing the fledglings is crucial to ascertaining whether they incorporate themselves into the breeding population (Aquasis).

Conservation success story for Brazilian parrot

Following nearly 24 years of targeted conservation across its range in Brazil, Red-tailed Amazon is no longer considered a threatened species.

Over this period, the species has been downgraded on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List from Endangered to Vulnerable and latterly, at the end of 2017, Near Threatened.

This positive change in status has not happened overnight. Loro Parque Fundación (LPF) began supporting the conservation of this species in 1995, and only after almost 24 years and US$561,400 of support from LPF have conservationists been rewarded with the official recognition that the species is no longer threatened.

A pair of Red-tailed Amazons in flight (Zig Koch/SPVS).

LDF's Brazilian counterparts can justly claim to have achieved success in averting Red-tailed Amazon’s extinction. In Paraná State, LPF established its first collaboration with Pedro Scherer-Neto of the Museum of Natural History in Curitiba, and then between 1999 and 2006 with the Institute for Ecological Research (IPÊ) working especially on the island of Superagüi. The LPF also did some work in São Paulo State with the Institute of Conservation Biology of the state university, but from 2005 until now the main partner in Paraná and São Paulo has been the Society for Wildlife Research and Environmental Education (SPVS).

Since 2003, SPVS has conducted an annual co-ordinated count of the species, with July 2018 recording a total population of 9,112 individuals, 81 per cent of which were in Paraná and the other 19 per cent in São Paulo. The only higher count was of 9,176 in 2015. Back in the mid-1990s, the total population was estimated to be as low as 2,500 individuals. The annual census mobilizes more than 50 volunteers, including students, local residents and other people aware of the cause, who join SPVS biologists during the count. The species exists only in a narrow strip of coastal plain, and every day Red-tailed Amazons fly inland from the collective roosts on a few low-lying islands to the forest on the mainland hills in search of food, and return to the roosts in the late afternoon.

Aerial view of coastal islands of Paraná, vital for the breeding and roosting of Red-tailed Amazons (Zig Koch/SPVS).

What has been achieved for Red-tailed Amazon deserves celebration, but potentially precarious populations such as this require vigilance, so that they do not suffer reversals. In the case of this species, the concentration of individuals in a threatened region of the Paraná coast still worries experts. Elenis Sipinski, directior of the Red-tailed Amazon Conservation Project, warned: "Almost half of the total population of the species is concentrated in the islands in front of the coastal plain of Paranaguá and Pontal do Paraná, very close to the area that the State Government intends to transform into a private port complex."

She estimates that the construction of the Port of Pontal do Paraná would affect at least 4,000 Red-tailed Amazons, as well as generate other environmental and social impacts in the region, such as the reduction of Atlantic Forest remnants near Mel Island, the second largest tourist destination in the state of Paraná. Native forest areas and the creation of new conservation units that connect these areas are essential for the survival of the species and should be treated by society as sanctuaries of biodiversity. How to achieve this will be the challenge for the project going forward.

New subspecies added to BOU's British list

Central Asian Lesser Whitethroat – subspecies halimodendri – has been admitted to the British list. The decision comes following the examination by the BOU's Records Committee (BOURC) of two records in the early 2000s: a first-calendar-year or older on North Ronaldsay, Orkney, on 16 October 2003 and a first-calendar-year at Aberdeen from 5-21 December 2004. Both birds were trapped, ringed and had DNA samples analysed.

Central Asian Lesser Whitethroat breeds in south-east Russia, Kazaskhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan to north-west Mongolia, and winters in south-west Asia (David Ferguson).

The two birds both exhibited plumage features consistent with the taxon, and were considered by BOURC as the analysis of their DNA suggested that, though both were halimodendri, each belonged to one of the two subclades currently classed within that subspecies. As a result, BOURC formally accepted them in case future research results in taxonomic revision.

In separate news, the first British record of Azores Gull has been revised. A near-adult on Barra, Outer Hebrides, on 10 September 2005 pre-dates the previously accepted first record of this subspecies (a second-calendar-year at Sennen, Cornwall, from July-November 2008; read more here), and consequently now represents the first documented occurrence of in Britain. Taxonomic revision in the future, including a pending paper on Larus michahellis atlantis, may render the subspecies eligible for full species status.

Second-winter Azores Gull, Sennen, Cornwall, 24 October 2008 (Steve Young)

Thames beluga delays tunnel creation

The long-staying Beluga Whale in the River Thames is holding up work on a £6-billion road tunnel, it has emerged.

Highways England planned on carrying out underground surveys as part of its plan to create a three-lane dual carriageway between Kent and Essex, but the continuing Arctic visitor has led officials to confirm that the time allocated for the studies has been extended.

The Beluga Whale, present for nearly three months, has been nicknamed 'Benny' by some (Kevin Elsby).

First seen at the end of September off Coalhouse Fort, the beluga created a media frenzy and was well-twitched by naturalists and members of the public alike. A Highways England spokesman said: "The protection of wildlife and their habitats is an important priority for us.

"We phased our testing work to ensure we didn't disturb Benny [the beluga]. He is very unlikely to have any impact on main construction as the tunnel entrances will be a fair distance from the Thames itself."

Tim Jones, Project Director for the Lower Thames Crossing, added: "One of the biggest challenges is air quality and managing the impact on the local community. We even have a whale swimming across the Thames". The tunnel – the biggest single road upgrade since the completion of the M25 – requires a detailed development consent order to be prepared, with the environment considered in the plans.

The whale has surprised many by staying as long as it has; reports continue to emerge via Port of London Authority from the river east of Gravesend, Kent, more than 11 weeks since its initial discovery along the same stretch of river on 25 September, although no photos have been taken since October.

Lifeline for Stresemann's Bristlefront

Previously feared extinct after months of searching in suitable habitat had drawn a blank, a single female Stresemann's Bristlefront was observed in Bahia, Brazil, on 12 and 14 December 2018.

The sightings, which were made in fragmented remnants of Atlantic Forest habitat, have renewed hope that there is still time to save this remarkable, ground-nesting songbird from extinction. With only one currently known individual, this may well be the world's rarest bird – although researchers are now equipped with renewed hope of finding more individuals in the near future.

A photograph of the female Stresemann's Bristlefront, taken on 12 December 2018, which re-confirms the species' existence (Fundação Biodiversitas).

American Bird Conservancy (ABC) and its partner organization in Brazil, Fundação Biodiversitas, have been on high alert about the species' population, which numbered as few as 15 in recent years. In a bid to assess the current population, Fundação Biodiversitas, supported by ABC, sent a team this autumn to scour the species' remaining habitat, which includes forest within and outside of the Mata do Passarinho, or 'Songbird Forest', reserve. After several unsuccessful searches, the female bristlefront was seen outside the reserve's boundaries by Alexander Zaidan of Fundação Biodiversitas and researcher Marcos Rezende Peres. The team also obtained a recording of the bird.

Notoriously difficult to detect, Stresemann's Bristlefront has gone missing previously. It had been unseen for more than 50 years when it was rediscovered in 1995, also in the Brazilian state of Bahia. In 2007, Fundação Biodiversitas, with support from ABC, Rainforest Trust, and other organizations, established the Mata do Passarinho Reserve to safeguard habitat for this and other rare species, such as Banded Cotinga. The reserve preserves an important fragment of Atlantic Forest – one of the most threatened biomes in the world, with less than 10 per cent of its original habitat remaining.

Many details of this bird's life history remain a mystery, but before these details can be studied, the species' drop toward extinction must be halted. For now, the best chance at saving this species is to protect its remaining habitat.

With a dangerously small population, even slight disturbances could have major impacts on this species, as recent events have illustrated. Over the last five years, this region of north-eastern Brazil has suffered an unprecedented drought so severe that it dried up the reserve's streams. In 2016, fires spread into the reserve, damaging important habitat. Reserve staff report that they saw bristlefronts after the fires, but additional searches in 2017 failed to detect the birds within or near the reserve.

Alexander Zaidan (left) and Marcos Rezende Peres in the field after finding the bristlefront.

"Although we are relieved that the Stresemann's Bristlefront continues to survive, the species' future remains precarious,” said Amy Upgren, Alliance for Zero Extinction (AZE) Program Officer at ABC. "Much more work needs to be done to locate additional individuals and protect additional habitat."

"Conservationists have recovered a number of bird species from tiny populations, including the Seychelles Magpie-Robin, Whooping Crane, and Lear's Macaw. We are hopeful that if we can find more birds and take significant action quickly, this bristlefront population can also grow," added Gláucia Drummond, Executive Director of Fundação Biodiversitas.

Daniel Lebbin, ABC Vice President of Threatened Species, added: "ABC and our partners across the hemisphere are working hard to conserve this and other bird species on the brink of extinction, and to make sure other species don't decline to such dangerously low population levels."

Searches are continuing in hopes of locating other bristlefronts. ABC and partners are also creating an emergency action plan to protect more habitat. However, given just a sole bird has been observed in months of searching, the outlook for Stresemann's Bristlefront still appears extremely bleak.