how songbirds sing

[hikerboy57]

in this months issue of amc outdoors:
http://www.outdoors.org/publications/outdoors/2013/wildwisdom/how-birds-sing.cfm

[Pedaling Fool]

Hey, did you'll see this about how some apps are killing birds :eek: http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/06/13/do_bird_song_apps_confuse_the_real_birds.html



Birding Apps: Great for Kids, Bad for Birds?

By Jason Bittel (http://www.slate.com/authors.jason_bittel.html)
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Posted Thursday, June 13, 2013, at 12:23 PM

Getting kids into nature is a tough sell today. Inside, we have computers, televisions, video games, and climate control. Outside, there are mosquitoes, sunburn, and poison ivy (http://bittelmethis.com/poison-ivy-poison-oak-poison-sumac-part-1/). Of course, these two worlds are not inherently incompatible, and smartphones are starting to provide a link between them. For instance, I have my phone loaded with apps that give me step-by-step directions for every knot known to man (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/what-knot-to-do/id345618285?mt=8), one that identifies ticks (http://www.tickencounter.org/tick_identification/mobile_app), another for constellations (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-night-sky/id475772902?mt=8), and the entire U.S. Army survival manual (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/army-survival-for-ipad-iphone/id343747489?mt=8).


So it makes total sense that the Audubon Society and other birding clubs would take advantage of this trend by developing apps that mimic (http://marketplace.audubon.org/videos/audubon-mobile-apps-bird-calls), identify (http://ibird.com/), and even record and process bird songs (http://grow.cals.wisc.edu/environment/smart-birding)—all the better to get kids and adults interested in the natural world, right?


Unfortunately, it seems these apps may be a little too good at what they do. In England, the Dorset Wildlife Trust has issued a warning against using bird apps on nature reserves (http://www.dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk/bird-apps-warning). Photographers have been known to use the apps to draw in elusive birds to get better shots.


One such bird is the European nightjar (Caprimulgus europaeus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Nightjar)). Following widespread habitat loss in the 1980s, nightjar populations plummeted across the United Kingdom and have only just begun to recover. The birds are camouflaged and nest on the ground, which makes them particularly vulnerable to disturbances—like unleashed dogs and fanatical birders. The nightjars winter in the African Cape and are typically nocturnal, but through May and June males emerge around dusk to wind-clap, sing, and generally catch the attention of all the single ladies.


However, officials from the Dorset Wildlife Trust worry that nightjars looking to get jiggy with it will be distracted by the artificial calls of an iPhone. This might make for good pictures, but every animal must strike a balance between gathering resources (eating, sleeping) and expending them (foraging, fornicating). It may seem overprotective to think a few birding apps will impact the population, but with a recovering species like the nightjar, every little bit counts.


“Repeatedly playing a recording of birdsong or calls to encourage a bird to respond in order to see it or photograph it can divert a territorial bird from other important duties, such as feeding its young,” said Tony Whitehead, public affairs officer for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, in the statement (http://www.dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk/bird-apps-warning). “It is selfish and shows no respect to the bird. People should never use playback to attract a species during its breeding season.”


To get a little perspective on the issue, I asked Audubon about its app and its potential for harm. Geoff LeBaron is director of the Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count (http://birds.audubon.org/christmas-bird-count), an annual citizen science project designed to monitor bird populations. In an email, LeBaron told me that “attractant noises” are actually illegal on federal and many state properties, and that they should never be used in national wildlife refuges or state parks. Nor should one use attractant noises on threatened species, endangered species, rare species, during breeding season, or around nesting birds.


Since that many caveats seemed to render the app unusable in the field, I asked if the Audubon app was meant to be more of a classroom accessory than a field guide. LeBaron replied, “The Audubon Guides are certainly for use in the field, but (as with printed field guides) are more for reference for birders to learn the vocalizations as well as plumages of birds. … in general, I think the intent was for education, not for the attracting of birds for closer view. That’s what binoculars are for!” So, maybe use the app with your headphones on.


Naturalist David Mizejewski (http://www.nwf.org/david-mizejewski.aspx) at the National Wildlife Federation seems to take a more relaxed approach. “At the NWF, we’re trying to get more people outdoors and we’re proponents of using technology to do that,” said Mizejewski. “From that point of view, at least in the absence of studies and data, [cautioning people against app use] might be a little bit aggressive and a little more strongly stated than is actually warranted.”


Mizejewski also pointed to numerous, already demonstrable threats that might be more deserving of our attention, like climate change, habitat loss, and invasive species.


In any event, how about we all just show some freaking discretion? Technology is fun, and in some ways it might even be capable of enhancing our nature experience (http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/01/08/drone_vs_moose_quadcopter_sneaks_up_on_wildlife_in _norway.html). But the minute you start cock-blocking the wildlife, it’s probably time to power down.

[rocketsocks]

Too funny, the article says..."The minute you start cock-blocking wildlife, it's time to power down" LOL, never thought of myself as a cock-blocker for using a bird call....now that's funny!:D

[rocketsocks]

My how things have changed

[Pedaling Fool]

Too funny, the article says..."The minute you start cock-blocking wildlife, it's time to power down" LOL, never thought of myself as a cock-blocker for using a bird call....now that's funny!:DHow old are you:confused:;)

I got stuck on this: "Blue Tits" It took me so long to get back into reading/comprehending mode and stop thinking about tits. Can't believe I'm pushing 50 :D

http://inkfish.fieldofscience.com/2013/06/your-bird-feeder-could-be-bad-for-birds.html


Your Bird Feeder Could Be Bad for Birds



A free meal might seem like just the thing for your bird friends in winter, especially if that meal takes place in front of your picture window. But your feeder could be harming some bird species more than it's helping them. Even if it's a squirrel-proof seed tube or a pinecone rolled in peanut butter, there's still no such thing as a free lunch.


"We are really only in the early stages of understanding exactly what effects bird feeding is having on our wild bird populations," says Kate Plummer, an ecologist at the British Trust for Ornithology. Britons love to feed the birds. The BTO says (http://www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/gbw/gardens-wildlife/garden-birds/feeding/fat-based-foods) that about half of everyone in the United Kingdom does it.

To find out how extra food during the winter months might affect wild birds, Plummer and her colleagues used populations of blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) that had never set eyes on a bird feeder. The birds lived at nine different sites in the woods. Researchers set up feeders to provide six bird groups with food (either straight fat, or fat plus vitamin E) while the other three got nothing. Over the course of three years, they rotated which bird populations were fed so they could better compare the results.

The scientists weren't interested in how extra food affected the birds eating it—they wanted to know what happened in the next generation. In nest boxes the following spring, they found that birds that had eaten at feeders hatched smaller chicks (http://www.nature.com/srep/2013/130620/srep02002/full/srep02002.html). Ultimately, fewer of these chicks grew up and left the nest.


Plummer says there are a few possible explanations. The fatty diet, for one, may have made birds nutritionally unbalanced by the time it came to egg-laying season. An earlier study that fed blue tits peanuts instead of straight fat found that it was beneficial to the next generation (though there were other differences between the studies too).

Feeders might also allow weaker birds to survive the winter, eventually hatching scrawnier chicks and bringing the whole population's average down. Or extra food in winter might encourage birds to invest resources in egg-laying, only to find come spring that their nests aren't in a great spot for food after all. The real answer may be a combination of factors, Plummer says.

Two other recent studies of woodland tits found (http://www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/gbw/gardens-wildlife/garden-birds/feeding/fat-based-foods) that supplementing their food over the winter led to fewer chicks raised in the spring. But a similar study in woodpeckers found just the opposite. Bird feeders might be helpful for some species and harmful for others, possibly due to their different nutritional needs.

There may also be "winners and losers of bird feeding," Plummer says, that depend on the combination of species sharing a feeder. Dominant species might outcompete other birds, for example. Birds at feeders might also share diseases while they're pecking at the same seeds.

"People shouldn't stop bird feeding," Plummer says, at least not yet. It's too early to assume that feeding birds is always harmful. So go ahead and fatten up your feathered friends this winter. That is, as long as you can live with the possibility that the scene through your picture window isn't doing them any favors.

[Tuckahoe]

And then theres this...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2350267/Rare-bird-white-throated-needletail-killed-wind-turbine-crowd-twitchers.html

Rare bird last seen in Britain 22 years ago killed by wind turbine in front of crowd of twitchers who turned up to catch a glimpse

The white-throated needletail is usually only seen in Asia and Australasia
Forty birdwatchers dashed to the Hebrides to catch a glimpse of this one
But as they watched it was knocked 'stone dead' after impact with turbine

[atmilkman]

Dang, I feed the birds everyday. Clean and change the water in the bird bath too. They absolutely love that. They have gotten to where they're waiting on me. Then when I do it's a race and sometimes a fight to get the clean water.

[Pedaling Fool]

I used to have some doves take daily baths in bird bath, then a Hawk put a stop to that


http://i1128.photobucket.com/albums/m484/76gunner/Doves/015.jpg

http://i1128.photobucket.com/albums/m484/76gunner/Doves/011.jpg

I have robins every spring invade my yard and I have to clean out the bird bath two to three times per day, normally only do it once a day


http://i1128.photobucket.com/albums/m484/76gunner/Local%20Birds/009.jpg






http://i1128.photobucket.com/albums/m484/76gunner/Local%20Birds/015.jpg


But my favorite birds are the Turkey Vultures, they clean any carcasses I have, like chicken and turkey...


http://i1128.photobucket.com/albums/m484/76gunner/e66b6820-2793-4fd2-b066-610a4b265b74_zps40ad1306.jpg

[Hornet]

I really enjoyed that article and it was good enough to understand.

[marshbirder]

The American Birding Association has a code of ethics for birders that addresses using recordings.

http://www.aba.org/about/ethics.html

Code of Birding Ethics

1. Promote the welfare of birds and their environment.
1(a) Support the protection of important bird habitat.
1(b) To avoid stressing birds or exposing them to danger, exercise restraint and caution during observation, photography, sound recording, or filming.
Limit the use of recordings and other methods of attracting birds, and never use such methods in heavily birded areas, or for attracting any species that is Threatened, Endangered, or of Special Concern, or is rare in your local area



One of the reasons I love birding so much is because it's like a treasure hunt. I dislike using calls to get birds out, but I do it on occasion.