BirdNote Daily

The call of the Common Loon brings to mind a summer visit to northern lakes. A "yodel" call is given by a male on his breeding territory. With his neck outstretched, the male waves his head from side to side, sending his eerie calls across forests and open water. The yodel entices females and asserts a claim of territory. Nothing common about this bird!

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In the smallest South American country, Uruguay, in-between its two largest ones, Brazil and Argentina, lives Joaquín Aldabe, a biologist and ecologist. He works with Manomet as a Ranching and Conservation Specialist on the East Coast of Uruguay, near the coastal lagoon, Laguna de Castillos. It’s a place where migratory birds such as the American Golden Plover visit cattle pastures. Joaquín, the ranchers and other agricultural workers are finding ways to use these pastures sustainably. 

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Tykee James is a Senior Government Affairs Representative at The Wilderness Society in DC. Gridlock in Washington can be a real challenge to protecting birds, but a bill called Recovering America's Wildlife Act is giving Tykee hope. The bill would provide $1.4 billion a year in funding for state and tribal conservation efforts. Tykee says that’s important to protect habitats and species that reach across state borders.

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Some ducks don't sound like ducks at all. Some, like the Harlequin, squeak. Harlequins are unique in other ways, too. Quick and agile in rushing white water, they dive to the bottom of mountain streams for food, and use fast-flowing rivers for breeding. If you're lucky enough to spot a Harlequin Duck, you may guess how it got its name. Dressed in vivid multi-colored patches, Harlequin is the jester of traditional Italian comedy.

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The Green Heron forages on the banks of small bodies of fresh water. Relying on its plumage for camouflage, it perches motionless — body horizontal and stretched forward — waiting for small fish to come close. This heron may use "bait" while hunting for fish. It drops a feather, a live insect, or a twig on the water's surface. Then it hunkers down and waits for unsuspecting prey to venture within reach. Clever heron!

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Found in Australian forests, male Superb Lyrebirds can mimic calls well enough to convince the bird they’re imitating that the lyrebird is one of their own! While males sing to attract mates, females imitate the calls of predators, which could help frighten other birds off their territories.

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The White-vented Storm-Petrel is a small black and white seabird found off the coasts of Chile and Peru. Storm-petrels spend their entire lives at sea, except when nesting. Scientists had long been mystified about just where this species nests. A search lasting eight years led them to a site 50 miles inland in the Atacama desert, a place often compared to the surface of Mars. They employed dogs specially trained to sniff out seabirds. The dogs helped locate White-vented Storm-Petrel nests tucked into mineral deposits deep in the desert. 

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Woodpeckers - including this Northern Flicker - are master carpenters of the bird world. They're called "keystone" species for their crucial role in creating habitat suited to other woodland wildlife. Abandoned woodpecker nest-holes become nests or roosts for small owls, cavity-nesting ducks, swifts, bluebirds, swallows, wrens, and other birds, as well as many small mammals. 

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The Gulf of Fonseca is shared between El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Ecologist Salvadora Morales studies best management practices in shrimp farming and salt production to benefit shorebirds in her native Nicaragua and other parts of the Gulf. The Wilson’s Plover, many of which breed in the southern U.S., comes to the shrimp farms of the Gulf to rest and refuel. But this is also a great place to have a shrimp farm. Salvadora and her team help make sure that the plovers are able to find places to rest within the shrimp farms. 

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The Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge was once where some of the country’s dirtiest weapons were produced, like mustard and sarin gas and napalm. The discovery of roosting Bald Eagles in the 1980s helped change the course of this prairie landscape. It started a process of remediation that has transformed the space into a refuge for over 300 species of wildlife.

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