Woodland birds

Hawfinches (Coccothraustes coccothraustes) used to be regularly seen each winter in places with plenty of mature trees such as Studley Royal, Fountains Abbey, Woolley Woods, Bretton Country Park or Roche Abbey. A particularly good place was Duncombe Park, Helmsley where hawfinches used to be seen feeding on berries on the Yew Walk near the house. But hawfinches seem to have all but disappeared from these places with the trees around the chapel at Clumber Park, north Nottinghamshire and the nearby Rufford Country Park the nearest (fairly) reliable places to see them.

The mosquito-borne disease avian malaria (Plasmodium spp.) has impacted both captive populations and wild individuals of native New Zealand bird species. However, whether or not it is a cause of concern to their wild populations is still unclear. In Hawaii, the disease has been a major factor in the population declines of some native forest bird species, often limiting their elevational distribution due to an inverse relationship between force of infection and elevation. While studies have investigated latitudinal patterns of infection in New Zealand, elevational patterns are unexplored.

A disease that is killing greenfinches (Carduelis chloris) and chaffinches (Fringilla coelebs) in the UK has now spread to Europe, scientists report. A paper in the journal Ecohealth confirms that the disease has been found in Finland, Norway and Sweden and is at risk of moving further afield. The disease, called trichomonosis, is caused by a parasite and was first seen in finches in the UK in 2005. Since then, the country's greenfinches have declined by 35% and chaffinch populations have fallen by 7%.

Eine Meldung aus dem Landkreis bereitet den Ornithologen Sorge. Eine Gronauerin meldete den Vogelkundlern vor wenigen Tagen, dass sie zahlreiche tote Grünfinken (Carduelis chloris) in ihrem Garten gefunden habe. Sind die Vögel möglicherweise Opfer des Usutu-Virus geworden, vor dem der Naturschutzbund Deutschland (Nabu) derzeit warnt? „Oder sie hatten die Gelbknopf-Krankheit“, mutmaßt Dieter Goy, Ornithologe aus Sarstedt. Ein Hinweis darauf, so Goy, sei Schleim am Schnabel. Der Gronauer Storchenexperte Manfred Weinhold, nimmt sich des Grünfinken-Falles an.

In Sachsen-Anhalt sind 18 regelmäßig im Land brütende Vogelarten derzeit vom Aussterben bedroht. Dazu gehören unter anderem die Moorente, die Sumpfohreule, die Uferschnepfe und der Steinkauz, wie das Landesamt für Umweltschutz in Halle mitteilte. Von einigen Arten gebe es nur noch ein Brutpaar im Land – wie etwa vom Schreiadler. Beim Auerhuhn gebe es derzeit kein einziges Pärchen mehr. Vogelexperten sind alarmiert, doch die Lösungen sind begrenzt. "Das ist eine Katastrophe", sagte Christoph Kaatz von der Vogelschutzwarte Storchenhof Loburg.

Embraced by kings and freedom fighters alike, Myanmar’s peacocks have long been a national symbol of pride and resistance – but they are becoming ever harder to spot in the wild. Decades ago the birds, with their bright green plumage and famously ostentatious male tail feathers, were ubiquitous. For Myanmar, the declining peacock population is more than just a conservation tragedy – it’s a blow to the national psyche. The bird occupies a lofty place in the country’s culture. For decades it was the official symbol of Myanmar’s last kings, the Konbaung dynasty.

North America has more than a billion fewer birds than it did 40 years ago, with the snowy owl and the chimney swift just two of the better-known species in dramatic decline across the continent, a recent survey has found. The total number of continental landbirds stands at about 10 billion, down from about 11.5 billion in 1970. The study’s authors – a range of academic, activist and government bodies in Canada and the United States – list 86 of North America’s roughly 450 breeding species as vulnerable, with some populations expected to be halved in a matter of decades.

A new study documents the dramatic decline of most native forest birds on Kauai Island, with the implication that several species face extinction in coming decades if current rates of decline continue. On Kauai Island, researchers have conducted forest bird surveys at high elevation sites over the last 30 years to understand population changes over time.

A new analysis of the population status and trends of all landbirds in the continental U.S. and Canada documents widespread declines among 448 bird species — a troubling indicator of the health of these species and their ecosystems. According to the new Partners in Flight Landbird Conservation Plan, released August 15, nearly 20 percent of U.S. and Canadian landbird species are on a path toward endangerment and extinction in the absence of conservation action. Partners in Flight is a network of more than 150 partnering organizations throughout the Western Hemisphere.