Sex and genetics: Why birds are unfaithful to their partners
...ion that monogamy is rare in nature. Although most bird species are socially monogamous, broods often contain young that are not related to one of the parents tending the nest. This can be the result of two alternative reproductive behaviors. Extra-pair paternity occurs when females copulate with males ot...Geneticists tell ostrich farmers the secrets of sex
...heir meat, feathers and hide. Ostriches, like many bird species, show few external differences between the sexes. In the 1960's a surgical technique was developed to tell male and female birds apart, which involved a small operation under anaesthetic. However, this procedure can result in bleeding and inf...Duke ecologist's book offers hopeful view of Earth's plight
...as close as anyone will ever come to seeing either bird alive. We all lost that chance a century ago." Jackson, whose scientific research examines the environmental effects of global change, is particularly critical of the United States' rejection of the international Kyoto Accords to reduce greenhouse g...Oregon power companies offset carbon through investment in Ecuadors rainforest
...ey. With approximately 330 species, the reserve's bird species diversity is among the highest of any coas...ve in the Bilsa Reserve, and some of the migratory bird species that breed in Bilsa spend part of their lives in Oregon forests. The ongoing botanical inven...Field Museum plays key role in massive project to map Tree of Life
...uality," she adds. "Furthermore, the monitoring of bird populations is widely used to set conservation and management priorities." Partners include Australian Natural Wildlife Collection, The Field Museum, Louisiana State University, Museum Victoria (Melbourne), National Museum of Natural History/Smithso...Biodiversity conservation - no guarantee for shortcuts
...egy falls short, especially for representing other bird species in their centres of distribution." The study also stresses the need for larger conservation networks in conservation planning directed at species persistence....Six reporters named to receive 2002 AAAS Science Journalism Awards
...ure coverage of research that draws a line between bird songs and neurodegenerative disease, are among the entries named to win 2002 AAAS Science Journalism Awards. Sponsored by The Whitaker Foundation, the AAAS Science Journalism Awards program, informally known as the "AAAS pinnacle of excellence prize,...Science picksLeads, feeds and story seeds (December 2002)
...f that next kiss under the mistletoe! Even though bird droppings do not generate mistletoe plants, birds are an important part of mistletoe life. Birds find mistletoe a great place for nesting and many birds eat mistletoe berries, including grouse, mourning doves, bluebirds, evening grosbeaks, robins an...Increasing biodiversity is not always best
...ines. "On these same islands, however, many exotic bird species have become established, such that the total number of land bird species has remained relatively unchanged." (Exotic species are those that are native to one region ...Animals can be induced to cooperate if partners reciprocate and benefits accumulate
..."cooperate" by choosing a perch close to the other bird or "defect" by hopping on the perch farther from the other bird. Neither bird could see what the other was doing until they had chosen their perches. "Reciprocation" meant that a...Kiss mistletoe goodbye this season for better tree health
..., the parasitic plant grows from seed deposited in bird feces on tree limbs. Watson said mistletoe left unchecked can cause die-back of tree limbs and occasionally the death of the tree, especially in drought conditions. "Mistletoe grows into the wood of the tree, drawing water and minerals out," he said....Purdue research hints that birds could spread Ebola virus
...-- Ebola shares a closer relationship with several bird viruses than was previously thought, bolstering th...cal sciences in Purdue's School of Science. "While bird transmission of Ebola is by no means certain, the resemblance among all these viruses should encoura...Study employs backyard scientists to document global warming impact
...pears as an early arrival of spring and is seen at bird feeders, heard in the earlier croaking of frogs and sniffed in the first waft of lilacs. "Local weather is extremely variable from year to year, and animals and plants respond to many other factors besides temperature," Hall said. "To be able to d...Physics tip sheet #30 - January 9, 2003
...it in its brain. Researchers modeled a part of the bird brain that can generate diverse song elements. They found that a single arrangement of cells showed behavior complex enough to produce much of the variety in a sparrow's tune. Physical Review Focus: http://focus.aps.org/story/v11/st1 Journal artic...New study suggests missing link that explains how dinosaurs learned to fly
...f the wing beat cycle involvesforces that push the bird toward the inclined substrate, permitting animals ...ds inhabited all corners of the Earth. While most bird species were wiped out with the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, many scientists consider birds the o...Multiple factors affect flight power curves among species
...l in natural environment studies of issues such as bird migration and a bird's flight ecology. The data might also be useful in the development of more efficient robotic aerial vehicles, where factors such as thrust and forward velocity are paramount. Birds were used in the study because they rely primar...SRS research highlights from the Red-Cockaded Woodpecker Symposium
...blishing his nesting cavity. While excavating, the bird pecks away the bark of the tree to form resin wells above and below the nesting cavity: leaking resin, sticky and clear, deters the snakes that prey on woodpecker eggs and young. Conner's recent research suggests that the socially dominant breeding m...Michigan researcher helps resolve the conflict between exotic birds and eco-tourists
...ishing the results of her unique study of a wading bird colony in the Pantanal in the February issue of Conservation Biology, the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology. The article, co-authored with Peter C. Frederick (University of Florida), is titled "Stakeholders' Perceptions of a Wading Bird...Alaska oil and gas exploration good and bad for area life
...avens, etc.) have been observed. As a result, some bird and mammal species have been negatively impacted.Kennicutt said the committee attempted to predict future accumulations of effects based on realistic scenarios of oil and gas development over the next 25 years including: *The effect of declining reve...Crows alter their thieving behavior when dealing with kin or other birds
...nother crow, depending on whether or not the other bird is a relative. The Northwestern crow (Corvus caur...t such a behavior pattern has been observed in any bird species. The findings are published in the current issue of the journal Bird Behavior by Renee Robi...