Earth Blog

Why did the chicken cross the road? He was going to give you the answer but he didn’t think you were listening.

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Georgia are studying “avian expressiveness” and they think all those squawking birds may be trying to tell us something.

"Many poultry professionals swear they can walk into a grow-out house and tell whether a flock is happy or stressed just by listening to the birds vocalize," Wayne Daley, a  principal research scientist from the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) told Rick Robinson from the school’s Research Horizons magazine. "The trouble is, it has proved hard for these pros to pinpoint for us exactly what it is that they're hearing."

Considering all the advancements in science and technology it is amazing that there are some mysteries left in the world.

Biologists from the award-winning Point Reyes Bird Observatory (PRBO) Conservation Science have unraveled the exact route the Golden-crowned Sparrows that winter in California take to their Alaskan breeding grounds in the spring. A better understanding of their exact route will help protect and conserve the ecosystems where the sparrows live.  The entire study is available online at PLoS ONE.

In November of 2008 Californians voted on Proposition 2 and it passed with 63% of voters supporting the measure which “prohibits the confinement of farm animals in a manner that does not allow them to turn around freely, lie down, stand up, and fully extend their limbs.” To put it comically the animals need to be able to play “Hokey-Pokey” - “You put your left wing in, you take your left wing out, you put your left wing in and you shake it all about! You do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around...”

The California statute applies to egg-laying hens, calves raised for veal, and pregnant pigs. Failure to comply with the law would result in fines and/or jail time. It does not eliminate cages completely for hens- just tiny battery cages, or make free-range mandatory.  The law will not go into full effect until January of 2015

On January 8th we wrote about Operation Migration’s (OM) Class of 2011 and their unfortunate grounding in Alabama.  After an OM blog update on the bird’s well-being in response to curious and concerned emails another update quickly followed happily reporting the FAA’s granting of the temporary waiver they would need to continue the human-led migration. The waiver will be valid through the end of March and then, “The FAA will work with Operation Migration to develop a more comprehensive, long-term solution.”

However, the weather was not as cooperative as the FAA.  The migration crew hoped to be in the air on Friday, January 13th but high winds and bad conditions kept the crew on the ground in Alabama. 

Have you ever watched baby birds receive food from a human on a nature video?  The human doing the feeding will often use a puppet to simulate the feeding process as it would be in the wild for a baby bird. Even birds that begin their life in a nest with parents will be fed with a puppet so they will recognize the process when they are eventually returned. In most cases orphaned birds will need to be taught much more than simply how to eat. Some birds, like endangered and orphaned Whooping cranes, will also be shown how to migrate for the winter by a pilot dressed like a bird and operating an ultralight plane that also looks like an adult bird.