A regular roundup of important news on birds and their habitats. Check back often for updates.
8/2/06
Last Remaining Habitat of Rare Hummingbird to Be Preserved
The American Bird Conservancy announced that its Peruvian affiliate purchased a conservation easement that will protect the sole remaining habitat of the rare marvelous spatuletail hummingbird. The bird is one of the more unusual in the world. The male of the species has a tail twice as long as its body with large spoon-shaped feathers at the end.
The birding group purchased the easement with a grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation of San Francisco. The land, on steep mountain slopes in the Andes, will remain in control of the local inhabitants. But the easement insures that developers will not be able to use the land for logging or agricultural uses.
Burrowing Owls Are the Scourge of Land Developers in Florida
The burrowing owl is listed as a species of special concern in the state of Florida. This means that owl burrows may not be disturbed during the six-month nesting period. But in other times, the owls’ burrows can be destroyed by developers so long as there are no owls inside. Over the past year, on 94 occasions the state has given developers approval to destroy uninhabited owl burrows.
State wildlife experts believe that the owls easily create other burrows when necessary, often in highly congested areas. The state’s population of burrowing owls, which numbers up to 10,000, is thought to have remained stable in recent years.
Two developers in Miami recently purchased a lot to build a $30 million office complex. But after closing the deal, they discovered owl burrows on the land. They are now suing the previous owners for $10 million claiming that they were sold the land without being told about the owl burrows. The suit claims that the previous owners removed signs posted by state wildlife officers to protect the owl burrows. State records show that the previous owners knew about the owl burrows because they had applied for a permit to destroy them.
The Mother of All Developments
In the 1920s the St. Joe Paper Company bought up 1 million acres of land in the Florida Panhandle. The company planted pine trees which were used to make paper at a plant in Port St. Joe. Now the mill has closed and St. Joe has dropped the word paper from its corporate name. But the company continues to be the largest landowner in the state of Florida.
St. Joe now has ambitious plans to develop this vast region which is about the size of the state of Massachusetts. The company plans 48 developments, ranging in size from 7 to 7,000 acres. In total, only about one twentieth of its land holdings will be developed, at least at this time. The company says it wants to retain the rural nature of the area.
Environmental groups are concerned that the large-scale development will threaten a great number of threatened or endangered animals and birds. But the Florida Audubon Society and other organizations believe they can work with St. Joe to preserve critical habitats.
St. Joe has contributed large amounts of money to political candidates at the local, state, and federal level. With the help of federal and state regulators, St. Joe was able to obtain a Regional General Permit with the Army Corps of Engineers which gives the company considerable lattitude to build where it wants despite the presence of wetlands. But to circumvent the regular permitting procedures, the company had to set aside 10,000 acres of high-value wetlands for permanent protection and to mitigate wetland destruction with up to four times as many acres of new wetlands in undeveloped areas.
Federal Judge Gives Benefit of the Doubt to the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker
For many years the ivory-billed woodpecker has been thought to be extinct. But in 2004 a kayaker claimed to have spotted the bird in an Arkansas swamp. Since that time, concerted efforts to find the bird have come up empty-handed.
But a federal judge has halted a $320 million irrigation project because the construction might harm the bird’s habitat, if in fact any of the woodpeckers still exist. The judge ruled in the case, filed by the National Wildlife Federation against the Army Corps of Engineers, that sufficient studies were not done to examine the impact of the project on the habitat of the endangered bird. The environmental groups assert that draining water from the swamps for the irrigation project could kill the trees that the woodpeckers prefer for their homes.
In making the ruling Judge William R. Wilson wrote, “When an endangered species is allegedly jeopardized, the balance of hardships and public interest tips in favor of the protected species.”
Efforts Under Way to Prevent the Extinction of the Northern Bald Ibis
The northern bald ibis is one of the rarest birds in the world. The bird was once plentiful in northern Africa, the Middle East, and in Europe. The northern bald ibis was so revered in ancient Egypt that scribes assigned it a separate designated hieroglyph.
Now only about 13 of the rare birds remain in a rural area of southeastern Syria. The only other known habitat is in Morocco.
Scientists are mounting an effort to tag the birds in Syria with tracking devices so they can learn where they breed and build their nests. It is hoped that this information will allow scientists to determine why the birds are having such difficulty in replenishing their numbers. If problems are discovered perhaps steps can be taken to make the habitat more condusive to breeding.
Dangerous Levels of Mercury Toxins Found in Songbirds
David C. Evers, executive director of the Biodiversity Research Institute in Gorham, Maine, has found high levels of mercury in songbirds in New York State. Evers found elevated levels of the toxic chemical in all 178 birds he tested in 2005. Mercury poisoning can result in low levels of reproduction in birds.
High levels of mercury have been found in fish and seabirds for many years. But the spread of mercury into species that don’t eat fish and don’t live near the water is alarming to many scientists. Dr. Evers believes that mercury contamination may be partly responsible for the 45 percent reduction in the population of wood thrushes in the northeastern United States.
It is believed that much of the mercury contamination is produced by coal-burning power plants. Smokestack emissions drift eastward and fall to earth in rainwater. The toxin is absorbed by insects and worms that are eaten by the songbirds.
Dr. Evers is conducting a more extensive study this summer of mercury levels in songbirds throughout the Northeast.
Birders United Action Alert: Contact your state legislator and urge him or her to support efforts to curb mercury emissions from coal-burning power plants.
School Officials in Indiana Preserve Chimney Swift Habitat
School officials in Elkhart, Indiana, have decided to preserve an old smokestack from a school building that will be demolished. The demolition of the old school is being conducted to make a parking lot for a nearby high school.
But the smokestack at the old school was home to a flock of chimney swifts. The birds fly during most of the daylight hours but return home and cling to the inside of the chimney at night. Rather than destroy the nesting habitat of the chimney swifts, school officials decided to work around the smokestack so that the birds would not lose their home.
Birders Seek to Protect the Habitat of the Hawaiian Stilt
The owners of a marina in Hawaii are seeking a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers which would allow them to dredge a local channel that accesses the marina and dump the material on two small islands. The marina is seeking a 10-year permit which would allow it to dredge and fill as much as it pleases over the period.
But birders and other environmental groups strongly oppose the plan. One of the two islands is an uninhabited area which is home to a number of rare bird species including the Hawaiian stilt. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that only 1,200 of the birds remain.
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