Winged Sentinels tops list for NHBS Books of the Year

Posted on December 30, 2011 by

Each year the Natural History Book Store puts together a list of their highlights, and Winged Sentinels tops their 2011 list of “ten books (that) stand out as being uniquely interesting, original and informative, providing new angles on old topics … Continue reading →

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Community-based bird monitoring in the tropics

Posted on December 22, 2011 by
Bald ibis in Ethiopia

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Cagan’s new Biological Conservation paper highlights the importance of tackling major knowledge gaps on  birds in the tropics. Although most species are found in the tropics, little research or monitoring is done there. Yet the need for monitoring and research … Continue reading →

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Tropical mountain birds in Peru lag behind warming

Posted on December 12, 2011 by
The deep-blue flowerpiercer

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Birds’ ranges appear to be shifting in response to the changing climate. However, as we note in Winged Sentinels, tropical birds could face special constraints in their ability to track climate change in this way. A new study in PLoS … Continue reading →

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Snow geese and mismatch in a warming Arctic

Posted on November 29, 2011 by

The cold, harsh Arctic environment imposes major limits on life. But warming could also create problems and even affect the population dynamics of greater snow geese, Chen caurelescens atlantica, one of North America’s most northerly breeding geese. Greater snow geese, … Continue reading →

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Climate change and mountain vultures

Posted on November 18, 2011 by

In Africa, the response of some vulture populations suggests how climate change may directly affect birds in their mountain refuges. Many vulture populations are already declining in the face of a range of human threats, prominent among them poisoning via … Continue reading →

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New evidence of ramped-up range shifts

Posted on November 9, 2011 by

Recent articles in Nature and Science emphasise the rapid range shifts underway for birds, as well as mammals, fish, plants and other groups of living things. In Science, a study by I-Ching Chen and colleagues shows that organisms are shifting toward … Continue reading →

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The shrinking response to global warming

Posted on October 31, 2011 by
Barn swallows are among the species that have shown decreases in wing size or body size in recent decades.

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The influence of climate change on body size of birds and other living things was the topic of a major review article this month in Nature Climate Change, and concluded that this effect could have implications for biodiversity loss. The … Continue reading →

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