Join the Midwest Aerial Insectivore Discussion Group

This Discussion Group is on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1581381955435390/
If you are interested in  swallows, swifts, nightjars, flycatchers and their conservation - take a look!

Bird conservation news - Partners In Flight

The Partners in Flight blog can be found at https://www.partnersinflight.org/blog/


One recent article there is particularly important:  https://www.partnersinflight.org/scientists-document-widespread-declines-urgent-need-for-conservation-of-landbirds-in-u-s-and-canada/

Birds news around the world today

In case you'd like to read about some bird-related work, issues, news from various places around the globe:

BirdLife Cyprus news:

http://us12.campaign-archive1.com/?u=2d1fbb9f4f36d1c44c985f950&id=e42d7db64e&e=43f3c11825

Oriental Bird Club news:

 http://orientalbirdclub.org/

 The Norwegian Ornithological Society 

 http://www.birdlife.no/organisasjonen/english.php

BirdLife South Africa news:

http://www.birdlife.org.za/

How songbirds teach themselves songs:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/04/170404104719.htm

Pink-footed Goose - A bird likely to be increasingly found in eastern North America - Midwestern records coming in the next few years?

 http://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/pink-footed-goose

Pink-footed Goose - ph. Wikim. Commons - Dave Dunford

another obit for Chan Robbins

This is from the current (April 2017) Birding Community E-Bulletin, co-authored by Paul Baicich and Wayne Peterson:

CHANDLER ROBBINS: RIP

 

Sadly, the renowned ornithologist, author, educator, and public servant, Chandler S. Robbins, passed away on 20 March. Chan, as he was known to everyone, was 98 years old.

 

He graduated from Harvard with a degree in physics and began teaching math and science in Vermont. Robbins joined the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1945 as a junior biologist at Patuxent Research Refuge in Maryland, where he engaged in early research on the effects of DDT and had his papers edited by his USFWS colleague, Rachel Carson. Also, Chan was the bander who first banded the Laysan Albatross named Wisdom in 1956. He re-banded her, the world's oldest known banded bird, in 2002. (See last month's E-bulletin for an update on Wisdom:  http://tinyurl.com/E-bMar17 )

 

For many birders in the 1960s, their introduction to birding and to Robbins was through his role as lead author of A Guide to Field Identification: Birds of North America. (See Book Notes above.) In 1966, this book - simply called "the Golden Guide" by many - was a breakthrough field guide with profound features. It covered all of the continental U.S. and Canada; all illustrations were in color; birds were presented in a variety of postures and often in some habitat; text and images were on facing pages; continental range maps accompanied the text; measurements were of live birds, and those puzzling sonograms were first introduced to an eager popular audience.

 

In the same year that the Golden Guide appeared, Chan launched one of the most important citizen science tools that we have today, the North American Breeding Bird Survey. The creation of the BBS was not universally and instantly appreciated, however. He actually received a disciplinary letter in his work file for its premature launch!

 

In 1981, he co-authored the memorable paper familiar to an entire generation of ecologists: "Effects of forest fragmentation on avifauna of the eastern deciduous forest."  This article led to a national effort to identify and prioritize large, still-unbroken tracts of forest while there was still time. In 2012, Chan declared that this was the work of which he was most proud.

 

After his 60 years of full-time work as an avian biologist at the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center (he didn't retire until 2005), Chan became "Scientist Emeritus" at Patuxent where he actually continued to work. One could often find him at his office at the far end of the library, at the Gabrielson building, working on the next paper, the next study, always keeping connected, and always making a difference. Chan Robbins was at the same time a giant in the field of bird study and also a gracious, quietly creative, and unassuming colleague.  The world has lost another of The Great Ones.