Kleptoparasitism, in which a bird harasses another to steal its food, might introduce avian flu to the continent, currently the only one without the severe H5N1 strain

For the first time in decades, researchers have found a new bird species in the United States. Based on a specimen collected in 1963 on Midway Atoll, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, biologists have described a new species of seabird, Bryan’s shearwater

The post Bryan’s shearwater, new Hawaiian seabird species, discovered appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Data from studies monitoring the amount of plastic eaten by seabirds suggest that levels in the North Sea are well above targets established for the North East Atlantic Ocean by OSPAR (the Oslo and Paris Convention). For the most recent monitoring period, the target amount was exceeded in well over half the birds studied.

A new tool has been developed to map the sensitivity of seabirds to offshore wind farm development. The Seabird Mapping and Sensitivity Tool (SeaMaST), currently for use in English waters, combines information on the sensitivity of seabird species to wind turbines with data on the birds’ distribution. It provides maps that can be used for both the offshore wind farm industry and marine spatial planning.

Mediterranean Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) provide important habitats for the yelkouan shearwater, a species of conservation concern, new research concludes. The study examined the behaviour of the birds at sea and found that they used MPAs extensively as foraging grounds.

Over 160,000 seabirds are accidentally killed by global longline fisheries each year, according to a recent study. Better monitoring and standards are needed to reduce bycatch of seabirds in fisheries, including increased on-board monitoring of bycatches and mandatory best-practice measures, say the researchers.

Endangered Mediterranean seabirds are suffering from ingestion of plastic litter, a recent study has shown. Overall, 66% of 171 seabirds studied were found to have plastic fragments in their stomachs and the critically endangered Balearic shearwater was among the worst affected.

Virtually sea ice-free summers since 2005 have forced an important Arctic seabird species to change its foraging grounds and prey, new research shows. The body mass of the little auk — the most abundant seabird in the Atlantic Arctic — has shrunk by 4% in the past 20 years in one of its Russian breeding grounds, the study found. This change may be caused by its new foraging behaviour.

Conserving West African coastal waters is also important for conserving European seabirds, suggests new research. The study shows that both adult and juvenile northern gannets and Scopoli’s shearwaters migrate to coastal waters of West Africa for winter. However, they are at risk of death from unsustainable and illegal fishing activities in this region.

Oil spills can affect seabird populations for at least a decade after a major incident, a new study suggests. The authors studied the long-term effects of the Prestige oil spill on European shags and found that the numbers of chicks raised by breeding pairs were reduced in the ten years following the disaster.

By keeping out invasive cats, rats and other predators, a new fence on Kauai is helping a rare bird bounce back.

Printmakers across the country are raising awareness of our most endangered group of birds and their non-stop, eight-and-a-half day journey home from their Artic breeding grounds.

With 11 voyages and 300,000 recorded observations under his belt, population ecologist Eric Woehler has dedicated his life to building a dataset to help monitor and track bird populations in a changing world.

It's largely unknown what seabirds and marine mammals do when they are out in Australia's remote waters, but an ongoing project aboard at 94-metre floating laboratory is changing that.

When Antje Springman spotted something huddled outside her home, she thought it was one of her chickens. It turned out to be a Great Cormorant.

It is a tiny spit of land that lies in the Firth of Clyde two miles off the coast of Troon where colonies of seabirds have made their homes for centuries.

West Africa's waters are a hotspot for illegal fishing, says conservationist Justine Dossa. She is working to change fishing practices and tackle pollution

The Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative (KIUC) entered a plea agreement today in federal court in Honolulu to resolve violations of the Endangered Species Act and Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

Between 2002 and 2015, these 'streamer lines' helped reduce seabird by-catch in Alaskan fisheries by 78%.

You can learn a lot about ocean health from seabirds. For example, breeding failures among certain birds have been linked to the later collapse of some fisheries. Enriqueta Velarde of the Institute of Marine Sciences and Fisheries at the University of Veracruz in Xalapa, Mexico, joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about what these long-lived fliers can tell us about the ocean and its inhabitants. Also this week, Sarah and Cathal O’Madagain of the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris discuss pointing—a universal human gesture common to almost all children before age 1. They discuss why pointing matters, and how this simple gesture may underlie humans’ amazing ability to collaborate and coordinate. This week’s episode was edited by Podigy. Ads on the show: Kiwico.com Listen to previous podcasts. About the Science Podcast [Image: C. O’Madagain et al., Science Advances 2019; Music: Jeffrey Cook]