{"id":5725,"date":"2013-06-24T09:51:35","date_gmt":"2013-06-24T13:51:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theness.com\/neurologicablog\/?p=5725"},"modified":"2013-06-24T14:52:41","modified_gmt":"2013-06-24T18:52:41","slug":"bird-conservation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theness.com\/neurologicablog\/bird-conservation\/","title":{"rendered":"Bird Conservation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I am on vacation this week, so my post today is going to be brief and somewhat self-indulgent (probably redundant when referring to blogs generally). I am a casual birder. It started as a hobby I could do with my daughters, and it has turned out to be an excellent activity – it’s fun, it gets them outside when perhaps they would prefer to play Minecraft, and there is actually a ton of science you can teach in the context of casual birding.<\/p>\n

The picture here is of a pileated woodpecker which I took yesterday morning. It’s a bit grainy because of the distance and the low light – it was early in the morning – but I like the way the sun caught its red crest.<\/p>\n

The pileated is the largest extant woodpecker. This is assuming that the ivory-billed woodpecker is really extinct, something which is somewhat controversial. You can tell this guy is not an ivory-billed because of the white chin and lack of broad white stripe on the wings.<\/p>\n

I am currently visiting in Cumberland Maryland. We have pileateds in Connecticut where I live, and I have seen them on occasion, but not near my house. They will come to suet feeders, and I’m hoping one day a pileated will move into my neighborhood and visit my feeder.<\/p>\n

By the way, Woody Woodpecker is a pileated.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Here is a picture I took this morning of a red-bellied woodpecker. These are also beautiful birds. The name has always bothered me, however. It’s most dramatic feature is a bright orange\/red stripe along its head. It has a subtle red blush on its otherwise white belly, and somehow that is what it is named after. I suspect this is because there is already a red-headed woodpecker.<\/p>\n

The red-bellied is a frequent visitor to my suet feeder, along with the downy and hairy woodpeckers.<\/p>\n

Finally, here is a picture of a snail kite. This I took last year while on vacation in Florida. The snail kite is a locally endangered species<\/a> in Florida with only 400 breeding pairs.<\/p>\n

Snail kites feed on apple snails, which get their name from the fact that they are the size of apples. I saw them where I took the picture of the snail kite. When I learned that they feed on snails, I imagined small snails – but these guys are huge. Definitely a nice meal for a raptor.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Apparently the apple snail populations are decreasing in the everglades due to water management, and this is why the snail kite population is threatened.<\/p>\n

I bring this up to segue into the topic of the title of this post – a recent report on bird species globally<\/a>. There is some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that many bird species are increasingly heading toward extinction. Because of interest in birding, there is a great deal of data concerning bird populations, and this documents decline in many species. The primary threats are from agriculture, logging, and invasive species. Further, decline in bird species is a marker for threatened ecosystems generally. They are the canary in the coal mine.<\/p>\n

The good news is that various bird species also provide evidence that conservation efforts can work. There are many success stories.<\/p>\n

Appreciation for the beauty and diversity of birds is a great entry into the importance of conservation, in addition to being a great way to learn about biology, evolution, ecosystems, categorization, and other aspects of science in general.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am on vacation this week, so my post today is going to be brief and somewhat self-indulgent (probably redundant when referring to blogs generally). I am a casual birder. It started as a hobby I could do with my daughters, and it has turned out to be an excellent activity – it’s fun, it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5726,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[658],"class_list":["post-5725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-science","tag-birding"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t