Free Republic

In a world where technology is advancing at a rapid pace, humans are not the only ones who enjoy the perks of modern-day gadgets. A rose-ringed parakeet, also known as the Indian ringneck parrot, has recently been making the rounds on social media for its love of YouTube videos featuring other parrots.

Large magpie's nest made of anti-bird spikes in Antwerp, Belgium. Credit: Auke-Florian Hiemstra/Naturalis Naturalist Auke-Florian Hiemstra has seen a lot of bird nests, but none were quite like the one he spotted in a photograph from a patient in a Belgian hospital. This nest, high in a sugar maple in the hospital’s courtyard, was massive—and looked like metal. “It just was this very big ball of metallic, nasty bird spikes,” Hiemstra says. On closer inspection, he realized a Eurasian Magpie (Pica pica) had built the two-foot-wide nest with materials that included some 1,500 spikes of the type cities often use...

After a week of storms and Saturday night's torrential rain and hail, residents across Oklahoma City woke up Sunday morning to hundreds of dead birds in the street. WildCare Oklahoma, a nonprofit animal rehabilitation center in Noble, received numerous calls about hundreds or more purple martins downed from the storm and hail, including near the shopping area north of I-40 in Oklahoma City. "Thanks to the public's support, we were able to save a small number of birds from the colony," said WildCare Oklahoma Executive Director Inger Giuffrida.

y Henri Astier BBC News, New Zealand On a bright Sunday morning the wildlife-lovers gather in Miramar, a scenic peninsula. They are on an exterminating mission. Predator-Free Miramar aims to protect birds in this area of Wellington, New Zealand's capital, by ridding it of rats - every last one of them. After donning hi-vis jackets, the volunteers are handed peanut butter - ideal bait for rodents - and poison. Each is assigned a patch where they will check coil traps and toxin-laced bait boxes. "Good luck fellows," says Dan Coup, who leads the group.

At Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery the living get as much attention as the dead. Groundskeepers maintain the 478-acre historic landmark as an arboretum and habitat for more than 200 breeding and migratory bird species. But many visiting wildlife lovers aren't interested in those native birds. They're at the entryway, their binoculars trained on the spire atop its Gothic Revival arches. They've come to see the parrots. The urban cemetery hosts dozens of long-tailed, dove-size parrots, lime green with gray accents on their foreheads and chests, called Monk Parakeets. (Parrots and parakeets are part of the same family.) These birds maintain barrel-size...

The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. If you have specific question about a plant/problem you are having, please remember to state the Growing Zone where you are located. This thread is a non-political respite. No matter what, you won’t be flamed, and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked. It is impossible to hijack...

BILLINGS, Mont. — A wind energy company was sentenced to probation and ordered to pay more than $8 million in fines and restitution after at least 150 eagles were killed over the past decade at its wind farms in eight states, federal prosecutors said Wednesday. NextEra Energy subsidiary ESI Energy pleaded guilty to three counts of violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act during a Tuesday court appearance in Cheyenne, Wyoming. It was charged in the deaths of eagles at three of its wind farms in Wyoming and New Mexico. In addition to those deaths, golden and bald eagles were killed...

Organizers of a New Zealand hunting contest are pawing their way out of controversy after canceling an event that would have seen children 14 and under compete to kill the most feral cats. The North Canterbury Hunting Competition is open to both kids and adults, and aims to manage invasive species and raise money for local causes — specifically, a school and pool in the rural village of Rotherham. Last year, more than 250 children killed 427 animals, mostly possums, hares and rabbits, according to The Guardian. Organizers added a new category this year, announcing in a since-deleted Friday Facebook...

Wildlife officials on Central Coast are concerned for the California condor population after an avian outbreak in ArizonaThe death of six California condors from avian flu in Arizona raised concerns for wildlife officials on the Central Coast. "The last thing we need is a population of 88 to be threatened by bird flu with no treatment or vaccine, so that's why we're taking these additional preparations,” said Kelly Sorenson. Sorenson, with Ventana Wildlife Society, leads a team that monitors and protects the condor population locally. In 2022, they reported a low population of the already critically endangered species. They...

A migratory killdeer bird built its nest in the middle of a utility company's parking lot in South Carolina, and officials are barred from relocating the nest by a federal law. Photo courtesy of the Berkeley Electric Cooperative/Facebook March 31 (UPI) -- A utility company in South Carolina found a migratory bird nesting in a parking lot -- and the bird can't be moved due to federal law from 1918. The Berkeley Electric Cooperative said an employee found a killdeer nest being tended by a mother bird in the company's parking lot, and officials soon found the nest could not...

Since 1946, despite floods, cyclones and remote terrain, the birds have carried vital intelligence round Odisha state. Now the authorities want to clip their wings … With social media and smartphones offering instant communications, the postcard and the telegram are virtually obsolete. But in India’s eastern state of Odisha, police are working hard to preserve an even older practice – carrier pigeons. Used to carry messages between stations in remote regions and keep in touch with police units on the move, the police pigeons of Odisha also proved to be the only dependable method of communication during devastating floods in...

Ahighly contagious strain of bird flu has been detected in three grizzly bears in Montana, the first time the disease has been found in grizzlies. The three bears tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in fall 2022, and were found to be suffering from neurological issues, including disorientation and partial blindness, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) said in a January 17 statement... ...Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data shows that as of January 11, over 57 million poultry across the U.S. were infected by HPAI, most of which have died or been culled, while nearly...

VIDEOI have had a lifelong morbid fear of birds. Why? Because I am convinced birds have a hatred for all humanity. These video clips reveal the indiscriminate bird attacks upon everybody from innocent children to Hassidic Jews to even famous Italian male models. My fear of birds was only heightened by a bird we had in our yard which was full of fruit trees when I was a kid. Whenever I would try to pick avocados or mangos or lemons or papayas the damn bird would always attack me. Worst of all the attacks was at the lime tree where...

SARASOTA, Fla. (WWSB) -Florida Fish and Wildlife officers have arrested a Collier County man for five misdemeanor charges related to violations against endangered or threatened species. Officials say the incident occurred on Jan 9, on Marco Island. Officers say Renardo Stewart accelerated and ran a golf cart through a flock of black skimmers resting on the beach. Marco Island Police Department detained Stewart and he admitted to driving the golf cart through the flock of birds. The black skimmer is protected by the Federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act. It is also protected as State Threatened by Florida’s Endangered and Threatened...

A rare red-footed booby was spotted at the Santa Cruz Wharf. The tropical bird rarely migrated this far, leaving many in awe that it is here on the Central Coast. “We only expect to see them in places like Hawaii and Baja California is probably as close as they normally live," said Ryan Carle, ecologist with Oikonos Ecosystem Knowledge. "This is about as far of the tropical range they get." It's not clear why it is here. "We can't ask it questions of why it showed up here, but sometimes birds get sides led for whatever reason,” said Kevin Condon,...

It was a sunny morning when about 200 people trudged up a hill in southern Argentina's Patagonia region with a singular mission: free two Andean condors that had been born in captivity. While members of the Mapuche, the largest Indigenous group in the area, played traditional instruments, and a group of children threw condor feathers into the air to symbolize their good wishes for the newly liberated birds, an eerie silence engulfed the mountain in Sierra Paileman in Rio Negro province as researchers opened the cages where the two specimens of the world’s largest flying bird were kept. **SNIP** The...

PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. – Among the green landscape of CB Smith Park in Pembroke Pines was something that stuck out just a bit on Thursday. Actually, quite a lot. Park goers were shocked to see two pigeons whose feathers had been dyed pink. “They are now just a bright target for predator animals,” said Susan Oddo with Palm Beach Parrot and Bird Rescue. The bizarre sight is no laughing matter according to Oddo. Her rescue has taken in another bird with dyed feathers that was also captured in the area of Pembroke Pines. “These are animals that are raised in...

As I write this, I can hear a cardinal trilling in the backyard. I don’t have to look out the open window to confirm the source of the sounds that come through it; I’ve come to recognize the songs and their singers. I know it’s the mourning dove whose cooing wakes me in the morning and the sparrow whose repetitive chirps complete the sunrise chorus. Watching birds perched on a branch or visiting a feeder imparts a certain connection to nature that little else does, and, for me at least, listening to their melodies alleviates stress. Birds are also the...

“Genyornis was two meters tall and 200 kilos. We don’t know exactly what it would have looked like because it’s been dead for a while and there are few skeletal remains available. It was certainly a flightless bird with some characteristics shared with ostriches, like the big chest and small wings, but it would have looked more like a big goose or duck,” The evidence that humans were eating these large eggs comes from burnt eggshells found among the remains of ancient cultures. Scientists studying these sites find two different types of eggshells, one of which comes from emus and...

Massive flocks of the red-billed quelea bird — a notorious African crop pest — have decimated grain harvests across farms in western Zimbabwe in recent weeks, causing fears of a local food shortage in the near future, the online newspaper New Zimbabwe reported Monday. “Farmers in Umguza and Bubi farming areas in Matebeleland North province are struggling to contain a massive outbreak of quelea birds which are feasting on their crops, mainly small grains,” the publication reported on May 16. “As a result of the invasion, the farmers, say they are now spending most of their time clanging metal objects...