Waldrappteamiconic ibis shot A bird that had been reared hand by researchers as part of a project to save a rare species of ibis was killed by poachers in Italy on 13 october.
and was the first bird in the project to fly back unaided to Germany in summer 2011.
The bird has been extinct in the wild in Europe for nearly 400 years. See go. nature. com/4buekb for more.
Face-to-face with the earliest ancestor of all placental mammalsafter an asteroid killed off the dinosaurs save for those that evolved into today's birds a small,
This ark maintained at a steady-197 degrees Celsius, holds the cells of 503 mammals, 170 birds, 70 reptiles and 12 amphibians and fish out of an estimated 10 million animal
Birds at live markets have been suspected as one source, but tens of thousands of tests in poultry and other animals elsewhere have failed so far to turn up significant levels of the virus. It is far from easy to devise effective ways to sample birds and animals for testing in a country with some 6 billion domestic birds
and 0. 5 billion pigs not to mention a vast population of wild birds, including many migratory species
. Although the risk factors for the spread of H7n9 are known not, voluminous research on its cousin,
the numbers of birds being transported, the distribution of live-bird markets and their supply routes, waterfowl numbers, land use and human population densities.
T. P. V. B. and M. G.,Universitã Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels.)The H7n9 virus has mutations that mean that it spreads from birds to humans more easily than does H5n1.
Proximity between bird and mammal populations could also give the virus opportunities for further adaptation to mammals,
and other birds has been reinforced by the new cases in Beijing and Henan province. These appeared out of the blue.
But with H7n9, it is only the appearance of new human cases that shows where the silent spread in birds
Chinese authorities have identified already H7n9 in birds in live bird markets in Shanghai and other cities.
But despite intensive surveillance of poultry, wild birds, pigs and other animals, the animal reservoirs remain largely unknown.
and home to some 6 billion poultry as well as many migratory and other wild birds that may have a role in spreading the virus. On Wednesday,
Despite the difficulties of detecting H7n9 in poultry and birds, Martin remains optimistic that so long as the virus does not start to spread among humans the potential number of human cases can be curtailed by taking urgent tough measures such as keeping poultry flocks away from wild birds
and people and restructuring its live bird markets. Â It's too soon to say how big a threat H7n9 poses
because we don't know how many animals of which species have it, how genetically diverse it is,
They are testing wild birds and thousands of domestic fowl; analysing the viruses they find; and trying to trace people who have been exposed to infected patients.
pigeons and ducks in live bird markets in Shanghai and Hangzhou making markets the leading suspected source.
Authorities have culled since tens of thousands of birds and closed down markets in Shanghai, Nanjing and Hangzhou.
The genetic sequences of the H7n9 viruses found in the birds are highly similar to those isolated from human patients,
because birds from one or a few sources would be transported to multiple markets, says Malik Peiris, a flu virologist at the University of Hong kong.
WHO/ECDC/Xinhua state mediabut the various bird species found to be infected may not be the original source,
and wholesalers the birds came from, Peiris says, and test birds up through the supply chain.
Researchers know that H7 flu viruses mainly infect wild birds such as ducks, geese, waders and gulls,
and that they occasionally jump into poultry flocks. Kwok-Yung Yuen, an infectious-disease expert at the University of Hong kong, notes the proximity of the reported human cases to the Yangtze river delta
home to many wild birds, and to Chongming Island near Shanghai, a renowned site for watching migratory birds."
"It s likely wild ducks and geese that are carrying it, he suggests. But this H7n9 virus has not yet been detected in wild birds in the area."
"There is very little specific information on the source of this particular virus strain, its ecology or reservoir,
Unlike its cousin H5n1 which has killed millions of birds and several hundred people in Asia and elsewhere since 2003 H7n9 does not cause serious bird disease,
greatly complicating efforts to control it, says Vincent Martin, interim head of the FAO s Emergency Prevention System for Transboundary Animal and Plant Pests and Diseases (EMPRES) in Rome.
It would be next to impossible to detect H7n9 through routine surveillance for sick poultry among China s 6 Â billion domestic birds."
) A key component the haemagglutinin (H) protein on the surface of the virus already contains mutations known to shift its binding preference from bird cells to those of mammals.
it would imply that each person had picked separately up infections from birds. Only four sequences from four human cases are so far available,
Should the virus become established in birds or other animals regular human infections might then occur providing opportunities for the virus to adapt better to humans,
In the three human cases, the genes coding for the internal proteins seem to come from H9n2 viruses a class that is endemic in birds,
In other words, the new virus seems to stem from a reassortment of three virus strains that infect only birds.
which was a mix of viruses that infect birds, pigs and humans. Most of the genetic analyses are still being carried out confidentially within THE WHO's global flu-research networks.
A striking feature of the novel virus is that its H protein is structurally similar to that of viruses that don t cause severe sickness in birds,
Flu viruses that don t sicken birds can, however, cause severe disease in humans simply because we lack any immunity to them.
The fact that the virus does not seem to cause serious disease in birds has potential epidemiological and public-health implications,
But it might be almost impossible to control a virus in birds that generates few visible symptoms
China has reported not any recent H7 flu infections in birds, perhaps because such infections would not show up as serious disease,
is to track down which birds or animals the affected humans caught the virus from. H7 viruses are common in wild birds but much less so in poultry.
It therefore seems unlikely that three human cases in such a short space of time could result from contact with wild birds
says Peiris. Domestic fowl are the most likely alternative source of the virus . But given that H7n9 has mutations that enable it to infect mammals,
cocks an ear and taps on a data-logger strapped into the passenger seat. Since last week, Cooley, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, has been on the road mapping populations of periodical cicadas (Magicicada.
Koenig suggests that the answer may involve interactions with birds. He and Andrew Liebhold of the US Forest Service in Morgantown, West virginia, analysed 45 years of data from the North american Breeding Bird Survey (W. D. Koenig and A m. Liebhold Am.
Nat. 181,145-149; 2013) and found that bird populations tend to fall during the years in
which periodical cicadas emerge. Birds feed on cicadas, so Koenig expected to find the opposite pattern. He proposes that the masses of cicadas trigger long-term changes in the forest that end up causing bird populations to crash after 13 or 17 Â years.
The mechanism remains a mystery, but Koenig notes that one factor could be the flood of dead cicadas,
whose bodies are 10%nitrogen. The die off sends a pulse of fertilizer into the forest that temporarily enhances plant growth
but could later lead to unfavourable conditions for birds.""It s a pretty weird hypothesis, he admits.
Goulson's review also cites earlier studies suggesting that grain-eating birds such as partridges may be dying after eating as few as five seeds treated with neonicotinoids.
How the chicken lost its penisthe case of the missing bird penis is a longstanding mystery in evolutionary biology.
But the identification of a molecular mechanism that controls penis loss in birds goes some way to solving this conundrum.
The results suggest that genital growth in birds is controlled by a common programme that has been customized by evolutionary tweaks in Bmp signalling
female chickens and other birds may have selected males with smaller penises in part to escape forced copulation.
Over time, that preference would have reshaped the genitalia of male birds
Brazil reports sharp drop in greenhouse emissionsbrazil s greenhouse-gas emissions fell nearly 39%between 2005 and 2010,
so too do compared urban birds with their forest-dwelling cousins. The reason, researchers report today,
and light have altered the city birds biological clocks1. The finding helps to explain prior reports that urban songbirds adopt more nocturnal lifestyles2-4 data that prompted Davide Dominoni, an ecologist at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Radolfzell, Germany,
to investigate whether the birds activity patterns were merely behavioural responses to busy cities or were caused by an actual shift in the animals'body clocks.
The transmitters monitored the birds activity for three weeks. Dominoni found that whereas forest birds started their activity at dawn,
city birds began 29 minutes earlier, on average, and remained active for 6 minutes longer in the evening.
Keen to determine these differences were due to physiological changes, Dominoni collected blackbirds from both locations and placed them into light-and soundproof enclosures.
dim light so the birds had no idea what time of day it was, and their activity patterns were monitored.
The researchers found that the city birds in the enclosures had faster biological clocks than forest birds.
It took the city birds an average of 50 minutes less to go through a full 24-hour cycle of activity than it took forest birds.
And without the external stimuli of dawn and dusk, the urban birds behavioural rhythms weakened rapidly,
with their periods of activity and rest becoming more irregular than those of the forest birds.
if these city birds are not compensating by napping during the day or sleeping more deeply at night, is sleep deprivation reducing their cognitive abilities or shortening their life spans?
Others wonder whether birds biological clocks are altered permanently by city life.""I d be interested really in seeing an experiment where urban birds are transplanted to a rural environment,
and vice versa, says Daniel Mennill, an ornithologist at the University of Windsor in Ontario, Canada."
"Would the urban birds continue to wake up early? Would country birds change? We just don t know
Plastic wood is no green guaranteeishmael Tirado watches as his fellow construction workers rebuild the Steeplechase Pier, a central feature of New york s iconic Coney island boardwalk.
Millions of migratory birds overwinter here, and it is a precious spawning and feeding ground for more than 60 Â fish species including the critically endangered Chinese sturgeon (Acipenser sinensis).
At Dongtan,"this has had devastating consequences for many bird species, says Ma Zhijun, an ornithologist at Fudan University in Shanghai.
Crucially, they worry that a permanent barricade will cripple efforts to restore tidal habitats for birds.
For example, without the ebb and flow of tides, the sea bulrush (Scirpus mariqueter), a native intertidal grass bearing fruit and stalks that are key food sources for many birds
and will create more habitats for birds.""It s a better option if the alternative is to do nothing,
Domestic species encounter a large catalogue of wild-bird viruses, which swap genes to form versions that can spread to chickens and to humans.
Better surveillance of Chinese bird populations is needed to monitor the emergence of dangerous viruses such as H7n9,
Guan's team sampled wild birds and poultry markets around Shanghai in April, weeks after the H7n9 outbreak began there.
The researchers collected throat and intestinal swabs from 1, 341 birds, including chickens, ducks, geese, pigeons, partridges and quails, plus 1, 006 water and faecal samples from bird markets.
Birds protect Costa rica's coffee cropthe yellow warbler may not pull a perfect latte, but it turns out it's a friend to coffee drinkers all the same.
and other birds significantly reduce damage by a devastating coffee pest, the coffee berry borer beetle.
A study found that insectivorous birds cut infestations by the beetle Hypothenemus hampei by about half,
the more birds the farm had, and the lower its infestation rates were.""Based on this study, we know that native wildlife can provide you with a pretty significant benefit,
To learn whether birds can mitigate the problem, Karp and his colleagues covered coffee bushes on two Costa rican plantations with mesh fine enough to keep out birds.
They found that avian predators did indeed pick off a lot of beetles: in the rainy season peak time for beetle activity borer infestation almost doubled
when birds were excluded from foraging on coffee shrubs, rising from 4. 6%to 8. 5%.By analysing bird faeces for beetle DNA,
the team identified the yellow warbler (Setophaga petechia) and four other species as beetle eaters. Next, the researchers combined data about bird abundance, forest cover and beetle populations from six coffee plantations.
They found that beetle-eating birds were most common at sites with lots of stretches of forest nearby,
and that beetle infestations were slightly more severe at sites that were surrounded not by abundant forest.
He and his colleagues have previously found that birds help to protect the famous Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee crop from the borer beetle2,
and he is happy to see that Jamaican birds are not alone in their taste for the pest.
birds reduce the beetles dirty Work on one farm, hungry birds warded off beetles from coffee beans worth around 4%of the total value of the annual crop.
That may not sound like much, says Karp, but"in farming, every little bit helps, especially because often you re barely scraping by
including some birds and insects1, 2, 3. The changing climate is raising major concerns about food security in many countries,
No one could say that Greg du Toit did not earn his images of the birds
That s actually groundbreaking because although we know quite a lot about bird migration, we know almost nothing about insect migration.
It was found in poultry in the live-bird markets of southern China s Guangxi province in late January,
They subsequently dropped off sharply after the prompt, temporary closure of live-bird markets, which were identified quickly as the places where most human infections occurred.
H5n1, by contrast, is lethal to birds, making outbreaks easier to spot and control. And despite extensive sampling of farms, wholesale markets and other parts of the poultry supply chain, the only strong link to H7n9 found so far is live-bird markets.
The difficulty of surveillance and of sampling China s huge poultry industry it produces 6 billion birds annually means that this is unlikely to be the full picture
however. Such uncertainty is also hampering efforts to develop effective control measures that are less drastic than closing the markets,
Study revives bird origin for 1918 flu pandemicthe virus that caused the 1918 influenza pandemic probably sprang from North american domestic and wild birds, not from the mixing of human and swine viruses.
Worobey and his colleagues analysed more than 80,000 gene sequences from flu viruses isolated from humans, birds, horses,
Birds have been implicated in the deadly strain s origins before. A 2005 genetic analysis of the 1918 pandemic virus pulled from a victim s preserved tissue concluded that it most closely matched viruses of avian origin2.
but there is evidence that the influenza virus evolves at different rates in different hosts faster in birds than in horses, for example.
and determine whether that new habitat is attracting birds. The experiment could benefit the almost 400 bird species that live in the delta,
says Osvel Hinojosa Huerta, an ecologist with Pronatura Noroeste, a conservation group with offices in San luis R Â o Colorado, Mexico.
The male red-billed buffalo weaver is the only species of bird we know of that exhibits orgasm-like behavior according to Tim Birkhead a professor in Sheffield University's Department of Animal and Plant sciences.
Birkhead spent years trying to observe the birds getting down culminating in a study published in 2001.
but when Birkhead and his colleagues manually stimulated a buffalo weaver's mock member the bird had seemed
As Birkhead described to me via email the bird shudders its wings and clenches its feet as it ejaculates--who knows
what it was like to chase around mating birds: I'd run after them sweating profusely with my binoculars steaming up.
while bird eggs can come in all sorts of colors and patterns chicken eggs are almost always white or brown.
-but the changed genes simply have been passed down from bird to bird-essentially creating a new breed.
and migrating birds fish and turtles are going to be confused very. Just when this will happen how long it will take and
what is going to happen to all those birds fish and other animals that migrate vast distances using their own internal magnetic compass?
On the evening of 24 september 1915 therefore some 400 chlorine gas emplacements were established among The british front line around Loos. The gas was released by turning a cock on each cylinder.
From that big frozen bird. The recommended oil temperature for a deep fryer is 350°well above the boiling point of water.
Within a few minutes the moisture in the bird dissapates so the oil isn't splashing excessively.
I always do a final check with a meat thermometer to in sure the bird is done.
If you really cook your bird at that temp I feel your methods might have run afoul.
Remember the turkey is just a dead bird nothing more. FAMILY and FRIEND ARE EVERYTHING! ENJOY!
and rubs and the same burner to cook the bird in the same amount of per-pound time.
Usually bugs birds or intrepid kittens do that job. Now we can add crocodiles to that list.
although not as well understood as for insects mammals birds and even in snakes. The recent study published in the Journal of Zoology shows that for crocodiles almost a quarter of the fruits consumed were of the âÂ#Âoefleshyã¢Â# kind.
and from there may spread to crops as fertilizer get carried around by birds and eventually make it to people.
Ribbon-tailed birds of paradise produce outlandish plumage to attract a mate. Darwin was bothered by such traits
what female like so they breed more with birds that have that tail. Thus women are controlling the evolution of the species based on their preferences.@
Birds for instance could use it as a place to nest. And after a few decades the plastic will decompose.
what-be a habitat for birds or...I mean for that kind of build time machine & human) wouldn't it just be far more effective to oh
In nature animals which use the field could be confused mightily-birds bees and some fish all use the field for navigation.
Birds may be able to cope because studies have shown they have backup systems that rely on stars
So they help their brightly colored dominant brothers seduce hens in a process called rather coyly cooperative courtship.
so they're a good replacement for mammal or bird meat. They eat less food reduce our need for pesticides
The Bt endotoxin is considered safe for humans other mammals fish birds and the environment because of its selectivity.
and diversity of fish and bird populations trap silt and expand the riparian border. I'm curious
Raptors became birds...these guys cows...othey got the short end of the evolutionary stick-lolcarter.
Nilton Renno a professor at the University of Michigan and an atmospheric convection expert believes Michaud's calculations assume that AVES cover the entire surface area of Earth.
While the theory behind AVES is solid scaling them up to the size AVETEC requires could go awry Renno says.
He believes that his AVES have the potential to be a major electrical energy producer and one that will be cost-effective.
Building AVES will reduce our reliance on fossil fuels he says and that will reduce emissions in turn.
How Birds Lose Their Penisesa team of researchers at the University of Florida has solved the mystery of what some call one of the most puzzling events in evolution:
the reduction and loss of the penis in most male birds. About 10000 species of birds have reduced
or absent external genitalia as adults. Many have normal penises as embryos but as they develop their penises stop growing
Despite that male birds still manage to fertilize female birds through internal insemination just like humans.
To study how male birds lose their penises the UF researchers examined the embryonic development of birds with penises (ducks and emus) and birds without penises (chicks) among other creatures.
In other birds like ducks and emus that gene stays switched off allowing their penises to grow fully.
In some birds they grow a little too fully: certain species of water fowl like ducks have such large phalluses they can exceed the length of the body.
Our discovery shows that reduction of the penis during bird evolution occurred by activation of a normal mechanism that attenuates development programmed cell death in a new location the tip of the emerging penis says Martin Cohn a professor at UF
Birds have figured clearly out how to make do given that they've have had no trouble replenishing the flock.
In some birds they grow a little too fully: certain species of water fowl like ducks have such large phalluses they can exceed the length of the body...
The photo of the cock is quite fitting considering the subject of the story. -wise uphahahaaaa@penis-less cock.
LOL! I think I have an obvious hypothesis for what function this would serve birds.
Ducks retained penises but duck genitalia are optimized mechanically to allow conception only from consensual sex.
Birds rear their young as parents. Proper mating behavior and display screens for potential as a parenting partner to a female.
For a bird species to last it was either adapt in the way ducks did...
Literally every insectivorous animal in the northeast--songbirds carnivorous birds (hawks owls) opossums foxes cats shrews snakes spiders and even dogs--will gorge on cicadas.
Multimedia Video Studying Birds With a Drone s Help. Video: Drones: A Booming Business? Connect With Us on Twitter Follow@NYTNATIONAL for breaking news and headlines.
Flowers blooming birds migrating and deciduous trees re-leafing are all examples of phenology measures.
I have observed many more birds this year. The early spring meant fewer birds went hungry. My backyard sounds like a jungle.
We also had lots of weeds this year and last. So the question is was the early spring a problem for nature or for people?
Now the sound of birds has been replaced by a constant sizzling and the smell of scorched feathers...
Although we can admire a stick insect that seems to flawlessly imitate a leafy twig in every detail down to the marks of faux bird droppings on its wings
How many chances does a new bird get to build a nest in a tree starting with big twigs to wooving in smaller branches to light soft downy material.
At what point does the bird understand that the walls of the nest is high enough.
or Birds with varying beak lengths that vary from island to island contingent on available food source.
But the moth is still a moth-the bird is still a bird. The fossil record does not support enough transitional species to date.
Beaded Buff Laced Polish Frizzle Bantam Hen. If you have never been to a poultry show you've probably never even imagined chickens as diverse and stunning as the ones in Staples'portraits.
What happens it turns out is you learn just what the thin line is that divides human beings from birds.
and dinosaurs have been mention on a few other articles the writers thought this related. loltoronto photographer Pete Paterson has been photographing fowl for years. much better too. you can see his work at www. petepaterson. comi helped out on one of his shoots. the birds are feisty. wtf???
and wrap an estimated nine billion birds annually. Unsurprisingly work in poultry plants is dirty and dangerous.
and dexterity to debone a bird in four seconds flat on par with a human butcher. 1) Queue Gutted whole chickens sit on metal cones as they travel along a conveyor belt
Inside two pairs of stereo cameras scan the bird one pair per side. A computer instantly renders the images into a 3-D map of the bird.
It also identifies useful markers such as the humerus and the coracoid bones. 3) Calculate (Not shown in illustration) In a production model that the Georgia Tech researchers plan to build two robotic arms work on opposite sides of the conveyor belt one arm for each side of the bird.
Equipped with a 3-D map of the incoming chicken the robots calculate a cutting trajectory accurate to within three millimeters.
and continue down the bird's backside along the shoulder blade all in two seconds. 5) Repeat Nine billion times a year.
The big challenge is teaching the robot to adjust its behavior in real time to account for all the variation in different birds says Ai-Ping Hu senior research engineer at the Georgia Tech Research Institute.
Calculations per Second to Render a Map of the Bird: 1000seconds it Takes to Calculate a Cut:
0. 5seconds to Debone an Individual Bird: 2ã¢Â#ÂESTIMATED Cost of Each Robot Butcher:
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