When the gavel fell last week at the auction of John James Audubon’s “The Birds of America” the price for the rare first edition was almost $8 million—the third highest sum ever paid at auction for a book. But what a book! Its phenomenal size and heft simply doesn’t come through in photos, but the 435 [...]
Scientists working in Haiti have obtained the first-ever photos of an endangered Black-capped Petrel chick—a little ball of gray fluff that was discovered at its nest inside a mountaintop cave. The finding helps answer questions about this secretive species’ life cycle. These crow-sized seabirds nest only in the Caribbean and feed as far away as [...]
As you’re making your lists and checking them twice, consider holiday gifts that give twice—thoughtful gifts that are fun to receive and also help birds by supporting conservation, research, and education here at the Cornell Lab. We’ve put together a varied list of gift suggestions—from apps on your phone to trips into the field—that will delight [...]
An art project memorializing five extinct species has been made into a feature-length film that will be shown in New York City on Friday, Dec. 2, 2011. The Lost Bird Project consists of five sleek bronze sculptures, each as tall as a person. Conceived and created by Todd McGrain, a sculptor and Cornell University art [...]
It’s not every day you get a chance to look back in time at a bird that probably no longer exists. But Cornell Lab of Ornithology scientists were able to do that with the spectacular Imperial Woodpecker of Mexico, when researcher Martjan Lammertink tracked down the only known film footage ever taken of this raven-sized [...]
Just a day after the news of Machi the Whimbrel’s shooting by hunters on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe (see previous post) comes the report that a second satellite-tracked bird also died in the same hunting area on the island. The second Whimbrel’s name was Goshen, a female that had been tracked since August 2010 [...]
A migrating Whimbrel named Machi has been shot on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, French West Indies. The bird (pictured at left) had likely landed to rest up after detouring around Tropical Storm Maria. Machi became one of thousands of shorebirds that are hunted for sport each fall—but she stood out from the flock because [...]
In a year that started with six of southeastern Arizona’s driest months on record, wildfires have burned nearly a million acres of mountain forests in the state. Though fire is an integral part of this western ecosystem, the burned areas are so large this year that the region’s incredible diversity of hummingbirds may be short [...]
The emergency effort led by Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust to save Spoon-billed Sandpipers got off to a rousing start with a flurry of hatching in the last few days. In all, 17 tiny sandpiper chicks have hatched, right on schedule as the team were transporting eggs from the field site where they have been [...]
