A Lesser Nighthawk in Costa Rica – credit, Jerry Oldenettel – originally posted to Flickr, via CC 2.0.
The population of one of England’s most-elusive birds is flourishing again thanks to conservation efforts in the south of the country.
The nightjar, sometimes called the nighthawk, becomes active at twilight, and they’re famous for their chortling calls and fantastic camouflage.
Their numbers declined some 51% between the 1970s and 2000s after substantial forest loss.
The UK’s South Downs National Park stretches across the areas of Hampshire, West Sussex, and East Sussex, and it’s among the lowland heath and forests that nightjars have staged a remarkable population recovery.
A nightjar survey in the park last year counted more than 70 birds, which is believed to mark a doubling over the last 5 years. The animals migrate 4,000 miles north from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to reside in the UK between April and August. Meanwhile, forest and heathland restoration efforts have raised the number of good nesting habitats to 109 across Britain.
The birds nest on the ground, so conservation work has specifically focused on communication with visitors to places like South Downs. They’re encouraged to keep their dogs on leashes, stay on marked trails, and avoid bushwhacking so as not to disturb or destroy the sensitive nesting areas.
“It’s wonderful to hear the nightjars churring away as dusk falls and we’re looking forward to continuing this incredibly positive conservation work alongside local communities and our partners,” South Downs ranger Kirsty Murray told the BBC.
Murray called good nightjar habitat “as rare as rainforest” in Britain, and thought it was the best thing in the world that the animal was repopulating the park.The nightjar is an extremely versatile and successful species. They inhabit all continents but Antarctica, and can live at virtually any elevation within reason. They steer clear of extremely arid regions, and can migrate long or short distances. Elusive Nightjar Populations Doubled in 5 Years, a ‘Remarkable Comeback’ Conservationists Say:
For flowering plants, reproduction is a question of the birds and the bees. Attracting the right pollinator can be a matter of survival – and new research shows how flowers do it is more intriguing than anyone realised, and might even involve a little bit of magic.
In our new paper, published in Current Biology, we discuss how a single “magic” trait of some flowering plants simultaneously camouflages them from bees and makes them stand out brightly to birds.
How animals see
We humans typically have three types of light receptors in our eyes, which enable our rich sense of colours.
These are cells sensitive to blue, green or red light. From the input from these cells, the brain generates many colours including yellow via what is called colour opponent processing.
The way colour opponent processing works is that different sensed colours are processed by the brain in opposition. For example, we see some signals as red and some as green – but never a colour in between.
Bees see their world using cells that sense ultraviolet, blue and green light, while birds have a fourth type sensitive to red light as well.
Our colour perception illustrated with the spectral bar is different to bees that are sensitive to UV, blue and green, or birds with four colour photoreceptors including red sensitivity. Adrian Dyer & Klaus Lunau, CC BY
The problem flowering plants face
So what do these differences in colour vision have to do with plants, genetics and magic?
Flowers need to attract pollinators of the right size, so their pollen ends up on the correct part of an animal’s body so it’s efficiently flown to another flower to enable pollination.
Accordingly, birds tend to visit larger flowers. These flowers in turn need to provide large volumes of nectar for the hungry foragers.
But when large amounts of sweet-tasting nectar are on offer, there’s a risk bees will come along to feast on it – and in the process, collect valuable pollen. And this is a problem because bees are not the right size to efficiently transfer pollen between larger flowers.
Flowers “signal” to pollinators with bright colours and patterns – but these plants need a signal that will attract birds without drawing the attention of bees.
A walk through nature lets us see with our own eyes that most red flowers are visited by birds, rather than bees. So bird-pollinated flowers have successfully made the transition. Two different theories have been developed that may explain what we observe.
One theory is the bee avoidance hypotheses where bird pollinated flowers just use a colour that is hard for bees to see.
In evolutionary science, the term magic trait refers to an evolved solution where one genetic modification may yield fitness benefits in multiple ways.
Earlier this month, a team working on how this might apply to flowering plants showed that a gene that modulates UV-absorbing pigments in flower petals can indeed have multiple benefits. This is because of how bees and birds view colour signals differently.
Bee-pollinated flowers come in a diverse range of colours. Bees even pollinate some plants with red flowers. But these flowers tend to also reflect a lot of UV, which helps bees find them.
The magic gene has the effect of reducing the amount of UV light reflected from the petal, making flowers harder for bees to see. But (and this is where the magic comes in) reducing UV reflection from a petal of a red flower simultaneously makes it look redder for animals – such as birds – which are believed to have a colour opponent system.
Red flowers look similar for humans, but as flowers evolved for bird vision a genetic change down-regulates UV reflection, making flowers more colourful for birds and less visible to bees. Adrian Dyer & Klaus Lunau, CC BY
Birds that visit these bright red flowers gain rewards – and with experience, they learn to go repeatedly to the red flowers.
One small gene change for colour signalling in the UV yields multiple beneficial outcomes by avoiding bees and displaying enhanced colours to entice multiple visits from birds.
We lucky humans are fortunate that our red perception can also see the result of this clever little trick of nature to produce beautiful red flower colours. So on your next walk on a nice day, take a minute to view one of nature’s great experiments on finding a clever solution to a complex problem.
Centuries after they were made famous by Charles Darwin, and a century after they had become plagued by invasive rats and cats, the Galapagos Islands are well on their way to recovery.
Few events could better capture that recovery than the recent reappearance of the beautiful blue Galapagos rail, a bird which hadn’t been seen on Floreana island for 200 years.
After almost a decade of preparatory work, invasive rats, avian vampire flies, and domesticated cats were eradicated from the island thanks to the close coordination of several conservation groups from around the world working alongside the Galapagos National Park Directorate.
The cleansing of the island has, to the delight of conservationists and scientists working on the project, resulted in a dramatic return for many of the islands persecuted endemic species like lava lizards, Galapagos doves, geckos, and dark-billed cuckoos,
“But the most exciting finding was the re-discovery of the Galápagos Rail,” said Birgit Fessl, principal investigator of landbird conservation at the Charles Darwin Foundation, part of the team restoring Floreana. “This bird had not been recorded on Floreana for centuries—the only historical proof of its presence [was] a specimen collected by Darwin himself.”
The rail is a beauty: boasting a range of blue feathers that begin in midnight blue around the cap to cobalt and powder blue at the wings and wingtips, two vibrant red irises, and a chocolate brown patch on its back.
This ground-dwelling bird was at a high risk of predation by cats, while rats routinely preyed on its eggs. They survived on other islands, but on Floreana, they were believed to have been extirpated.
Being that the fame of the Galapagos stems in no small part from their famous isolation from one another, which led the biologist Charles Darwin to develop the theory of Natural Selection by examining closely-related species island by island, one wonders where the rails even came from.
“[The rails] reappeared and now it’s very common to find these birds just walking around the island. You can hear it, you can see it, it’s unbelievable,” Paola Sangolquí, a marine biologist at the Jocotoco Conservation Foundation, told the BBC.
Whether a tiny number clung to existence in the shadows of the volcanic island, no one can say for certain. It’s as if the restoration of the balance of nature on the island led to its spontaneous resurrection.
Elsewhere on Floreana, the native finches have been documented greatly expanding their songs. Young birds will sing louder and longer. Some are creating new song patterns never-before-documented, and it’s all believed to be a result of shedding the need for secrecy.
A bold young bird, singing loudly on a branch to attract a female, would make himself easy prey for a waiting cat or rat, and with their removal, more than a century of pent up melody seems to have been released upon the island airwaves.You can learn about the finches in greater detail by reading the BBC piece on the return to normalcy on Floreana. Missing for 200 Years, the Galapagos Rail Reappears Following Floreana Island Restoration
Language enables us to connect with each other and coordinate to achieve incredible feats. Our ability to communicate abstract concepts is often seen as a defining feature of our species, and one that separates us from the rest of life on Earth.
This is because while the ability to pair an arbitrary sound with a specific meaning is widespread in human language, it is rarely seen in other animal communication systems. Several recent studies have shown that birds, chimpanzees, dolphins, and elephants also do it. But how such a capacity emerges remains a mystery.
While language is characterised by the widespread use of sounds that have a learned association with the item they refer to, humans and animals also produce instinctive sounds. For example, a scream made in response to pain. Over 150 years ago, naturalist Charles Darwin suggested the use of these instinctive sounds in a new context could be an important step in the development of language-like communication.
In our new study, published today in Nature Ecology and Evolution, we describe the first example of an animal vocalisation that contains both instinctive and learned features – similar to the stepping stone Darwin envisioned.
A unique call towards a unique threat
Birds have a variety of enemies, but brood parasites are unique.
Brood parasites, such as cuckoos, are birds that reproduce by laying their egg in the nest of another species and manipulating the unsuspecting host to incubate their egg and raise their offspring. The first thing a baby cuckoo does after it hatches is heave the other baby birds out of the nest, claiming the effort of its unsuspecting foster parents all to itself.
The high cost of brood parasitism makes it an excellent study system to explore how evolution works in the wild.
For example, our past work has shown that in Australia, the superb fairy-wren has evolved a unique call it makes when it sees a cuckoo. When other fairy-wrens hear this alarm call, they quickly come in and attack the cuckoo.
During these earlier experiments, we couldn’t help but notice other species were responding to this call and making a very similar call themselves. What’s more, discussions with collaborators who were working in countries as far away as China, India and Sweden suggested the birds there were also making a very similar call – and also only towards cuckoos.
Birds from around the world use the same call
First, we explored online wildlife media databases to see if there were other examples of this call towards brood parasites. We found 21 species that produce this call towards their brood parasites, including cuckoos and parasitic finches. Some of these birds were closely related and lived nearby each other, but others shared a last common ancestor over 50 million years ago and live on different continents.
For example, this is a superb fairy-wren responding to a shining bronze-cuckoo in Australia.
Superb fairy-wren responding to a shining bronze-cuckoo.
William Feeney, CC BY169 KB(download)
And this is a tawny-flanked prinia responding to a cuckoo finch in Zambia.
Tawny-flanked prinia responding to a cuckoo finch.
William Feeney, CC BY160 KB(download)
As vocalisations exist to communicate information, we suspected this call either functioned to attract the attention of their own or other species.
To compare these possibilities, we used a known database of the world’s brood parasites and hosts. If this call exists to communicate information within a species, we expected the species that produce it should be more cooperative, because more birds are better at defending their nest.
We did not find this. Instead, we found that species that produce this call exist in areas with more brood parasites and hosts, suggesting it exists to enable cooperation across different species that are targeted by brood parasites.
Communicating across species to defend against a common threat
To test whether these calls were produced uniquely towards cuckoos in multiple species, we conducted experiments in Australia.
When we presented superb fairy-wrens or white-browed scrubwrens with a taxidermied cuckoo, they made this call and tried to attack it. By contrast, when they were presented with other taxidermied models, such as a predator, this call was very rarely produced.
When we presented the fairy-wrens and scrubwrens with recordings of the call, they responded strongly. This suggests both species produce the call almost exclusively towards cuckoos, and when they hear it they respond predictably.
If this call is something like a “universal word” for a brood parasite across birds, we should expect different species to respond equally to hearing it – even when it is produced by a species they have never seen before. We found exactly this: when we played calls from Australia to birds in China (and vice-versa) they responded the same.
This suggests different species from all around the world use this call because it provides specific information about the presence of a brood parasite.
Superb fairy-wrens attacking a taxidermied shining bronze-cuckoo. William Feeney, CC BY
Insights into the origins of language
Our study suggests that over 20 species of birds from all around the world that are separated by over 50 million years of evolution use the same call when they see their respective brood parasite species.
This is fascinating in and of itself. But while these birds know how to respond to the call, our past work has shown that birds that have never seen a cuckoo do not produce this call, but they do after watching others produce it when there is a cuckoo nearby.
In other words, while the response to the call is instinctive, producing the call itself is learned.
Whereas vocalisations are normally either instinctive or learned, this is the first example of an animal vocalisation across species that has both instinctive and learned components. This is important, because it appears to represent a midpoint between the types of vocalisations that are common in animal communication systems and human language.
So, Darwin may have been right about language all along.
More than 1.2 billion birds streamed south in one night during their Fall migration in late September—the largest single-night total ever recorded by the American live radar project.
Called BirdCast, a collaboration led by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the platform uses the same weather radar technology behind daily forecasts to track migrating birds.
On its live migration map, BirdCast tracked more than 1.2 billion birds streaming toward their wintering grounds after sunset on September 25—the largest single-night total recorded since the project began mapping live migrations in 2018.
“These numbers are almost inconceivable,” said Andrew Farnsworth, a visiting scientist at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and longtime BirdCast researcher. “They’re enormous… even for people that study migration regularly. The scale of how many organisms that this represents, is just mind blowing.”
The surge surpasses the previous milestone of one billion birds, first observed during the migration in October 2023. Both included well over one hundred species flying toward warmer weather, including songbirds and shorebirds.
Farnsworth said this seemingly rare night captured about 10% of the continent’s birds in flight at the same time. On an average fall night during peak migration, about 400 million birds are detected in flight at the same time above the United States, but on this night, the number was three times that.
“It’s really unbelievable,” he said.
While astonishing to both birders and scientists, Farnsworth said this event was not random. It resulted from a combination of ideal migrating conditions coinciding with the peak of fall migration.
The weather that night was perfect for travel, he explained in a media release. It featured calm winds—including tail winds that helped push the birds along their migratory paths across much of the center of the country and the Mississippi River valley.
Farnsworth said this record-breaking migration—documented by radar technology that was never intended to track birds—is a chance to not only to marvel at the immense magnitude of bird migration but also a chance to remind the public that the data is freely available and accessible in real time.
The technology at BirdCast.org allows anyone to view forecast maps that predict the number of birds migrating while live migration maps show migration happening in real time. Both tools let people know when birds are moving nearby, so they can take necessary precautions to protect them.
“BirdCast gives the ability for more people to engage in and participate in this incredible spectacle,” Farnsworth said, whose Cornell Lab partners with three US universities in the project: Purdue, Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and Massachusetts Amherst.
It’s also a timely reminder that you can help make birds’ journeys safer. Every year, more than one billion birds die in collisions with windows in the United States.
A male Montagu’s harrier in a wheat field – credit, Sumeetmoghe CC 4.0. BY-SA
Adrift amongst a sea of wheat on an English farm, 4 extremely rare birds have successfully fledged, and are almost ready to strike out on their own.
The successfully raised chicks are Montagu’s harriers, England’s rarest breeding bird, and the news the young ones were flying was herald as an “incredible” accomplishment.
For months, tall predator-proof wire fencing has surrounded the nest, sat in the middle of a private landowner’s field of milling wheat.
Conservationists from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) have worked hand in hand with landowers for years to ensure the harrier clings on.
For six years, no chicks have survived to fledge; an unsustainable trend as the population is incredibly small. Nesting on the ground in wheat fields puts the chicks at risk of predators like foxes, and machines like combine harvesters and crop sprayers.
Populations are much higher in Spain and France, but on Great Britain, each breeding pair has to be monitored from start to finish of the breeding season. In this case, a pair returning from their wintering grounds in sub-Saharan Africa were spotted moving into a field in an undisclosed part of the country.
Once it was confirmed via drone that they had nested, RSPB sprung into action, installing predator-proof fencing and monitoring cameras.
Channel 4 reported that the fences are marked out with flags so that combines can steer well clear of the nests and the chicks, which strangely don’t seem to give a tweet about the giant, noisy machines of death passing by.
As for the farmer, one might think they’d take issue with the lost crop, but quite the contrary.
“It’s fantastic to have these amazing birds on the farm and a just reward for the extensive conservation work we have been undertaking for decades,” the farmer who owns the land where this particular nest was located, told the RSPB.
In the dense, verdant forests of Arunachal Pradesh, India, a chance encounter sparked a conservation movement that would resonate far beyond its origins. Ramana Athreya, an astrophysicist with a passion for birdwatching, was traversing a narrow jungle trail near the Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary when a flash of vibrant color caught his eye. “I was simply passing through when, out of nowhere, a flash of brilliant color stole my attention,” he later recalled. There, gliding gracefully through the foliage, was a bird unlike any he had ever seen—its olive-grey plumage complemented by a striking black cap and vivid patches of yellow, red, and white on its wings. Before Athreya could fully absorb the sight, the bird vanished into the dense canopy, leaving him with a sense of wonder and an unquenchable curiosity to learn more.
An Unexpected Discovery
That fleeting moment set Athreya on a path of discovery. Over a decade later, in 2006, he returned to the area with renewed determination and was able to document the bird meticulously. Given the species' apparent rarity, Athreya and his team employed non-invasive methods, collecting feathers, photographs, and audio recordings of its soft, flute-like calls. This careful approach ensured the bird's safety while allowing for its formal identification as a new species—the Bugun Liocichla.(Liocichlabugunorum)
A Marvel in Miniature
Measuring approximately 20 to 22 centimeters, the Bugun Liocichla is a small yet captivating bird. Its olive-grey body is accentuated by a jet-black cap and radiant orange-yellow markings around the eyes, with wings adorned in a medley of bright colours. Beyond its visual appeal, the bird's melodious and flute-like song adds to its allure, making it a true gem of the Himalayan forests.
Impact on the Bugun Tribe and the Region
The discovery of the Bugun Liocichla holds significant historical importance, being the first bird species described from India in decades. More profoundly, it galvanized the local Bugun tribe to take proactive steps in conserving their natural heritage. Recognizing the bird as a symbol of their rich biodiversity, the Bugun community established community-managed reserves and initiated sustainable ecotourism projects. These efforts not only protected the bird's habitat but also provided economic benefits to the community, exemplifying a harmonious balance between conservation and livelihood. As a major step towards conservation, the Arunachal Pradesh government finally notified Braiduah Community Reserve under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. The reserve is situated adjacent to the Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary.
Parallels in Conservation Efforts
Athreya's dedication mirrors the passion of other notable conservationists. Sálim Ali, often hailed as the “Birdman of India,” conducted extensive bird surveys across the country and authored “The Book of Indian Birds,” a seminal work that has inspired generations of ornithologists. Similarly, Asad R. Rahmani's memoir, “Living with Birds,” narrates his lifelong commitment to studying and protecting India's avian species, reflecting the broader narrative of India's conservation movement. Internationally, Mya-Rose Craig's “Birdgirl” chronicles her global birdwatching adventures and environmental activism, emphasizing the universal appeal and urgency of bird conservation. These works collectively underscore the profound impact individuals can have on bird conservation, echoing the transformative journey sparked by Athreya's chance encounter with the Bugun Liocichla.
A Legacy of Hope and a Call to Action
Currently listed as Critically Endangered, with an estimated population of only 14 to 20 individuals, the Bugun Liocichla's survival hangs in the balance. Its precarious status underscores the urgent need for continued conservation efforts. Yet, its story serves as a beacon of hope, illustrating how serendipitous discoveries can lead to meaningful change. As Athreya aptly noted, “Sometimes, all it takes is a single moment in the wild to show us the beauty we must fight to protect.”
The story of this remarkable bird is a call to action for everyone: cherish the wonders of nature, work together with communities, and ensure that such treasures endure for generations to come.
References:
Discovery and Conservation of the Bugun Liocichla:
• Ramana Athreya - Sanctuary Nature Foundation: Details Athreya's discovery of the BugunLiocichla and subsequent conservation efforts.
• From a new bird to a new community reserve: India's tribe sets example - Mongabay: Discusses the Bugun tribe's establishment of community reserves following the bird's discovery.
Columbina cyanopis, or the blue-eyed dove, in the Rolinha do Planalto Natural Reserve – credit, Hector Bottai CC BY-SA 4.0.
A UK zoo is celebrating after helping to hatch three of the world’s rarest birds in what could be a breakthrough moment in saving the critically-endangered species from extinction.
The trio of blue-eyed ground dove chicks were successfully hand-reared in Brazil, boosting the survival odds of one of the most endangered birds on the planet, only 11 of which are thought to remain in the wild.
An international team, including British experts from the Chester Zoo, managed to rear the birds in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, the only place they are found.
The team, also featuring Brazilian and American conservationists, say their arrival could provide a vital lifeline for the ultra-rare species by boosting their insurance population.
The blue-eyed ground dove was a species shrouded in mystery, with no confirmed records for more than 70 years, until its rediscovery in 2015.
“It’s a real privilege for Chester Zoo to be involved in the work to help conserve the blue-eyed ground dove,” said Andrew Owen, Chester Zoo’s head of birds.
“This unique species is on the brink of extinction and without the dedication and passion of all the conservationists involved, including Chester Zoo’s bird staff, this bird may be lost forever.”
“This year saw the successful hand-rearing of three blue-eyed ground doves – building on the successes of 2023 and 2024 and doubling the conservation-breeding insurance population.”
The effort to build on those successes started earlier this year, when a team of Brazilian and international bird conservationists were tasked with selecting and incubating a small number of wild-laid eggs. The resulting hatchlings would help to create an insurance population in human care.
Andrew traveled to Brazil to provide technical support while Victoria Kaldis, lead keeper for birds at Chester Zoo, also flew over to assist with the hand-rearing of the chicks. The effort was led by Minas Gerais’ Parque das Aves and SAVE Brasil, with additional support coming from the Toledo and Bronx zoos in the United States.
“Seeing these chicks is exciting. Each hatching represents a real chance to reverse the fate of this species,” said Paloma Bosso, technical director of Parque das Aves. “It is a joy and also a great responsibility.”
“With the arrival of these three new individuals, Parque das Aves is now home to six blue-eyed ground doves. All are being carefully monitored and are part of a coordinated reproductive management plan.”
The blue-eyed ground dove is Critically-Endangered according to the the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List.
It once had a wide distribution in the Cerrado biome (the Brazilian savanna), but due to habitat loss driven by farming and timber plantations, it has radically declined.
Currently, the only known population is found in Botumirim in the state of Minas Gerais and a 2025 census confirmed the species remains exceedingly rare.“The blue-eyed ground dove depends on the efforts of many people and institutions, so that its song can be heard in the Cerrado for many years to come,” said Ben Phalan, head of conservation at Parque das Aves. UK Zoo Helps Hatch Three of World's Rarest Birds–Blue-Eyed Doves–with Only 11 Left in Wild
Mistle thrush feeds orphaned blackbird juvenile Credit: Andrew Fusek-Peters via SWNS
Birds of a feather usually flock together, but a lucky blackbird was ‘adopted’ by a mistle thrush mama who took the juvenile ‘under her wing’ in a rare case of inter-species feeding.
Photographer Andrew Fusek-Peters captured the rare phenomenon in adorable close-up photos that show the female adult thrush diligently feeding her own chicks before offering a worm to a baby blackbird.
Andrew watched as the fluffy fledgling ruffled its feathers, waiting its turn before gobbling down the worm from the thrush’s beak.
“It’s such a rare thing to see, let alone photograph,” said the 59-year-old who shot the photos in a field in North Shropshire, England, earlier this month.
“It is known to happen but it almost never photographed—and I’ve not known of a mistle thrush and a blackbird doing this before.”
He believed it was likely the blackbird chick was abandoned by its mother or its mother died leaving it an orphan.
“When the chick opens its mouth, it triggers a maternal response in nearby female birds,” he told SWNS news agency.
Female Mistle thrush with worm Credit- Andrew Fusek-Peters via SWNS
“The blackbird was sitting with its beak open, and the mistle thrush was close by.
“It fed its own chick first and then the blackbird.”
He searched the internet but couldn’t find an example of this situation ever having been captured on camera before.
“I thought it was a very dark thrush baby at first, then I realized it’s actually a blackbird.
“I was only five yards away. I could get quite close because they aren’t bothered by humans.
The world’s oldest known bird has returned to her home island to hatch yet another chick, at nearly 74 years old.
Named Wisdom, the Laysan albatross has been spotted this month caring for her youngster on Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in the Pacific Ocean.
Like others of her species, Wisdom returns to the same nesting site each year to reunite with her mate and if able, lay one egg.
For decades, park officials in the Hawaiian Archipelago observed Wisdom doing this with the same partner (named Akeakamai), but that bird has not been seen for several years, which caused Wisdom to begin courtship dances with other males last year.
The spry septuagenarian is estimated to have produced 50-60 eggs in her lifetime, successfully fledging as many as 30 chicks, according to the expert staff at the refuge 1,300 miles northwest of Honolulu.
Albatross parents share the responsibility of feeding their young by taking turns hunting while the other stays at the nest to watch over the chick.
“So when Wisdom returns to the nest (it’s) her partner’s turn to go hunt for squid, fish and crustaceans,” said a statement from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service–Pacific Region.
Biologists first identified and banded Wisdom in 1956 after she laid an egg. They determined her estimated age from that event 69 years ago, because the large seabirds aren’t known to breed before age five.
Wisdom with her chick – Photo Credit: Jon Brack/Friends of Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge
A photograph and interpretive line drawing show the Baminornis zhenghensis fossil – credit: Min Wang
According to a truly field-altering fossilized bird found in China, birds already existed in the Late Jurassic period, approximately 160 million years ago.
The new discovery suggests that rather than a linear evolutionary path from dinosaur to bird, these two orders evolved somewhat simultaneously.
An artistic representation of the newly discovered species, Baminornis zhenghensis, with the preserved bones highlighted – credit: Zhao Chuang.
Baminornis zhenghensis is the world’s oldest species of avid. A holotype fossil was recently found in East China’s Fujian Province and described in the journal Nature. The pelvis, trunk, forelimbs, and part of the hindlimb are all intact.
“Baminornis is a landmark discovery and ranks among the most important bird fossils unearthed since the discovery of Archaeopteryx in the early 1860s,” Stephen Brusatte, a paleontologist from the University of Edinburgh who was not involved in the study but wrote a commentary accompanying it, tells Xinhua.
“This is a groundbreaking discovery. It overturns the previous situation that Archaeopteryx was the only bird found in the Jurassic Period,” Zhonghe Zhou, a paleontologist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and co-author of the study, tells the Chinese news agency Xinhua.
China’s wealth of cultural and historical treasures is almost matched in importance by its role as one of the world’s great crucibles of paleontological discoveries. Dinosaurs and prehistoric animals from every age, of every size, and of every description have been found there.
Archaeopteryx, the missing link that connected dinosaurs to birds, was first discovered in Germany, but several other iterations of paleo-avids, including a “Cretaceous cormorant,” a prehistoric wader, and the gliding Microraptor have been found in China.
Baminornis displays a number of characteristic bird features, the most important among them being a short tail—a critical innovation in bird flight.
“Previously, the oldest record of short-tailed birds is from the Early Cretaceous,” Wang Min, a paleontologist author of the study from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, explains in a statement. Baminornis is now the “oldest short-tailed bird yet discovered, pushing back the appearance of this derived bird feature by nearly 20 million years.”
The short tail shifted the center of gravity forward, allowing for greater aerodynamism. This stands in direct contrast to Archaeopteryx which had a long feathered tail.
Pelvic and pectoral girdles strengthen Baminornis’s bird-like biology, but a pair of clearly dinosaur-shaped hands betray its origin.
Wang believes that to have two different animals that were developing avian features, living in a relatively close period, but with such different physical shapes, suggests that millions of years of avid evolution had already taken place before Baminornis walked the Earth. Scientists Discover Oldest Bird Fossils, Rewrite History of Avian Evolution
A public-private partnership in Mexico just announced that the current population of thick-billed parrots is approximately 2,500 individuals—at least 10% higher than that recorded 12 years ago.
The number was determined in a recent population survey in a protected area in the state of Chihuahua, where once upon a time this charismatic species roamed north into the United States.
The thick-billed parrot is an emblematic species of the temperate forests of the Sierra Madre Occidental and once occurred in both Arizona and New Mexico.
Since 1995, this species, listed in danger of extinction by the Mexican government, has been the subject of numerous studies and actions for protection and management, while the mountain forests on which it depends have been the focus of extensive reforestation.
These efforts, led by the National Commission of Protected Natural Areas (CONANP) and the civil organization Organización Vida Silvestre (OVIS), along with the participation of local communities and other organizations in the US and Mexico, are yielding encouraging results as demonstrated by the increase in population, a statement from OVIS details.
“This emerging success story reflects the importance of collaboration between society and government and a vision of healthy ecosystems and sustainable communities, which is in line with the policies and practices that CONANP will strengthen in the following years,” said the head of CONANP, Pedro Álvarez-Icaza.
Credit: Ernesto Enkerlin / OVIS
The census data suggests that the population of thick-billed parrots will continue to increase as sustainable forestry management practices are consolidated by the communities of the region.
Sergio Jiménez, executive director of OVIS, thanked the support of the various institutions involved.
“This multi-institutional effort led by Ernesto Enkerlin Hoeflich, scientific director of OVIS, is bearing fruit after three decades, which gives us hope for other species at risk and points to the need for cooperation, persistence, and long-term planning to produce results and effective conservation.”
A major effort to restore populations of this parrot were undertaken in the 1980s among the sky islands of Arizona. These dramatic, short, and squat mountain chains amid the scorching lowlands were perceived as perfect havens for the reintroduction, but the problem was that predatory species like the American goshawk had already returned in large numbers to these hills, and their take of the parrots proved to be unsustainable.
In October 2020, it was announced that a higher elevation would be sought amid the sky islands to form the basis for a new reintroduction attempt, including the Chiricahua mountains.
Two of the world’s most endangered parrots have been united as part of a breeding program to help save the beautiful species from extinction.
The pair of red-fronted macaws have arrived at Twycross Zoo in Leicester, England, with the hope they will “fall in love” and breed—adding to the total number of fewer than 300 remaining in the wild.
Native to Bolivia, the macaws are one of the most endangered species of parrot on the planet, currently listed as “critically endangered” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List.
The bird donations from the Welsh Mountain Zoo and Edinburgh Zoo were arranged as part of a European conservation program that called it an “important milestone” in their global effort.
Assistant bird curator Rhys McKie was previously working at Edinburgh Zoo when one of the macaws was hatched there last year.
“It’s always an exciting day when a new animal arrives at the zoo but being reunited was a really special moment.
“When he hatched it was the first time in over 15 years that the species had been successfully bred at the zoo.
“So, to now give him a home at Twycross Zoo where he will continue the conservation journey and hopefully breed more of this rare species, is very momentous for me.”
The species stands out for their bright red forehead of feathers and long blue-green tail.
By Frank Wouters (originally posted to Flickr as papegaai, CC-by-2)
In the wild, these parrots can only be found in a small semi-desert, mountainous region of Bolivia, making them unique amongst macaws.
In this arid climate, the birds feed on desert plants like cactus and are one of the main seed dispersers for the plant.
“I’m looking forward to our visitors getting the chance to see them together—and our other stunning parrot species—in our parrot habitat.”
LOS ANGELES - Parenting can be tough, even for the young and energetic, but one elderly albatross is about to go through it all again -- at the ripe old (and apparently record-setting) age of 74.
Wisdom, a Laysan Albatross, is one of millions of the huge seabirds that return to Midway Atoll, near Hawaii, every year to nest.
Wildlife experts say for decades she was doing this with the same partner -- the birds are known to be monogamous -- and has laid over 50 eggs in her lifetime.
But her partner has not been seen for years, and Wisdom has recently begun to flirt with other males.
On this year's visit, she has produced an egg that her new partner is helping her to incubate.
"We are optimistic that the egg will hatch," said Jonathan Plissner, supervisory wildlife biologist at Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge.
Photographs and video provided by the US Fish and Wildlife Service show the proud parents-to-be apparently chattering to their egg before the male sits on it.
Wisdom was identified and tagged when she laid her first egg at the refuge in 1956, when she would have been at least five years old -- the point Laysan Albatrosses reach sexual maturity.
That means by the end of the month, Wisdom will be at least 74 years old, and could be several years beyond that, making her the oldest known wild bird in the world.
Laysan Albatrosses can have a wingspan of up to 80 inches (203 centimeters) and travel upward of 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) to forage for food.
The average lifespan of birds varies greatly by species. Small birds often live just two to three years, while seabirds -- including albatrosses and penguins -- sometimes make it to 40 or 50. Parrots, alone among birds, can outlive humans, with one cockatoo allegedly making it well past 100.
There are more than a dozen species of albatross, found across the Southern Hemisphere as well as in the North Pacific Ocean.The birds have long featured in stories of life at sea, notably in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," in which a sailor brings misfortune on his ship by killing one of the birds, whose corpse is then hung around his neck. World's oldest known wild bird is expecting again, aged 74
Building on substantial evidence of crow consciousness, a German university has proven some crows can learn to recognize ‘zero’ as a counting unit. While that sounds ridiculous, zero is not nothing, rather it’s one of the most complex mathematical concepts devised—that something can and should represent nothing, not only as the base value, but as a placeholder. The work comes from the University of Tübingen in Germany, where professor Andreas Nieder works with carrion crows to perform intelligence tests. “The conception of “nothing” as number “zero” is celebrated as one of the greatest achievements in mathematics,” wrote Nieder in his paper. “We show that crows can grasp the empty set as a null numerical quantity that is mentally represented next to number one.” Exactly how this breakthrough was made is straightforward and did not involve birds watching Sesame Street. The crows were shown two sets of dots on a screen and were taught to indicate if the two screens had the same values. There could be between zero and four dots. Exactly as with 1, 2, 3, and 4—when the screens showed no dots, neurons in the crow’s brain demonstrated it was understanding this was a numeric value, but that it was a numeric value that contained nothing. Sometimes the crows made mistakes, often by thinking zero was in fact one, but it was rare they thought zero represented more than two. Counting Crows: It took human civilization at least until the 20th century BCE to firmly establish the empty or base value. At some point between the Akkadians and Old Babylonians, there was a symbol to represent a number was missing from a column, for example the 0 in 1,025 doesn’t mean the number is 26, it just means there are no hundreds in this number. As early as 1,770 the Egyptians were making hieroglyphs with the base value “nfr” from which began counting and distances. The ponderous Greeks never managed to capture the concept into their counting, language, or philosophy, meaning that as well as occasionally being smarter than a first grader, these “Counting Crows” were smarter in some ways than the Classical Greeks. Nieder contributed greatly to the current theory of animal consciousness, which is that it’s possible this highest level of thought isn’t necessarily bound to the presence of the cerebral cortex, a cranial region found only in primates, apes, and hominids. In an older experiment he trained two crows to peck at panels following a flash of blue light or red light, but Nieder made the task more difficult by changing the rules constantly, which required the crows to zoom out and look at the task as a whole, rather than simply assigning physical motions to a reward. He would change which light was assigned to which panel, and he would sometimes change the rules before the flash, and sometimes after the flash, constantly interrupting the birds’ base instructions. “These results suggest that the neural foundations that allow sensory consciousness arose either before the emergence of mammals or independently in at least the avian lineage and do not necessarily require a cerebral cortex,” wrote Nieder and the other authors in their corresponding paper published in Science.Scientists Studying Crows Get Big Surprise –They’re So Smart They Understand the Concept of Zero
Straw-headed bulbul – credit Michael MK Khor CC 2.0. Flickr
From the sprawling urban city-state of Singapore comes the unlikely story of a critically endangered songbird and a dedicated group of environmentalists helping it thrive as the population collapses overseas.
The straw-headed bulbul is a victim of its beautiful song, which has seen it extirpated from the wilds of Thailand, Myanmar, and Java as poachers capture it for the illegal songbird trade.
But as early as 1990, conservationists, birdwatchers, and government workers in Singapore have taken action on this species’ behalf.
“Whenever I hear its resonant, bubbly song, the forest seems to erupt with life,” conservationist Ho Hua Chew told Smithsonian Magazine.
Because of men like Ho, the peripheral wetlands of Singapore, the offshore island of Pulau Ubin, and the large green spaces in the city state’s interior together play host to 600 straw-headed bulbuls.
Nature Society Singapore, of which Ho was a member, was the first to push for nature protections on Pulau Ubin, the site of an old granite quarry, where nevertheless a concentrated population of these birds could be found.
This resulted in a Nature Area designation for the island in 1993, achieved through advocacy and outreach among millions of Singaporeans.
Smithsonian lists this as an early victory in the history of environmentalism on the cramped peninsular city-state.
After populations had fallen 50% over three generations, the bird was listed as “Endangered” on Singapore’s own Red Data Book, which tracks populations of every plant and animal in the country, the straw-headed bulbul was added to the Endangered Species (Import and Export) Act of 2006, a move which reversed the trend, even while populations were collapsing around Southeast Asia.
Today, there is a Straw-Headed Bulbul Working Group, co-led by the National Parks Board and the Nature Society Singapore, which ensures this beautiful warbling bird remains in tip-top condition.
If it were not for the incredible momentum that the work to conserve this bird has had over the years, its future would be alarmingly uncertain. Today, Ho believes that as the Working Group ensures the genetic diversity among the birds is in good shape, and the populations are increasing, the Singaporean straw-headed bulbuls may one day be the only population to draw from to restore populations elsewhere. How Singapore Became an Unexpected Stronghold for a Critically Endangered Bird:
Submitted by Costakis Constantinou: In a heartwarming video, a 67-year-old actor from Cyprus became determined to use his CPR expertise to save a tiny, helpless sparrow. The avian creature was found unconsciousness following an “unfortunate pool mishap”. In the background of the video, you can hear a chorus of teasing and snickering, with voices urging him to dispose of the seemingly lifeless bird—but Costakis Constantinou remained undeterred. “Nobody thought this was possible or even worth trying,he however, stayed focus and patiently continued,” his son Rolandos told GNN. With unwavering determination, he persistently, applied his life-saving skills until, against all odds, the sparrow gradually regained consciousness, fluttering back to life. “I can say with confidence that he was very, very happy, relieved, and satisfied when the little sparrow open its eyes and flied away.” When Rolandos rewatched the video again (see below), he got emotional and telephoned his dad to tell him how proud he was. “In the past he saved two people from heart attack by applying CPR. For some reason my father is at the right place the right time.” “I wanted to surprise him by sending over his video,” said Rolandos in an email. “I’m so proud of him.”Watch the moment his patience was rewarded…Man Ignores Naysayers to Revive Tiny Sparrow with CPR – Watch the Moment his Patience is Rewarded:
Zebra finches are highly social birds and will press a lever in order to hear a recording of another Zebra finch singing. (Photo by Carlos Rodríguez-Saltos)
By Carol Clark: Oxytocin, the so-called “love hormone,” plays a key role in the process of how a young zebra finch learns to sing by imitating its elders, suggests a new study by neuroscientists at Emory University. Scientific Reports published the findings, which add to the understanding of the neurochemistry of social learning. “We found that the oxytocin system is involved from an early age in male zebra finches learning song,” says Natalie Pilgeram, first author of the study and an Emory PhD candidate in psychology. “It’s basic science that may lead to insights into the process of vocal learning across the animal kingdom, including humans.” “Our results suggest that the neurochemistry of early social bonds, particularly during language learning, may be relevant in studies of autism,” adds Donna Maney, a professor of neuroscience in Emory’s Department of Psychology and senior author of the study. Young male zebra finches learn to sing by listening to an adult male tutor that they choose to pay close attention to, normally their biological father or a “foster” father who nurtures them. This social process holds some similarities for how children learn to speak, making the birds a laboratory model for the neural underpinnings of social vocal learning. In the current paper, the researchers show how oxytocin, a hormone essential to social bonding, influences young finches exposed only to the songs of unfamiliar males. In experiments, blocking the young birds’ oxytocin receptors while they listened to a male biased the birds against that male’s song. Instead they preferred to listen to and eventually learn the song of a male they heard when their oxytocin receptors were allowed to function normally. The paper builds on previous work by the Maney lab regarding the hormonal and genetic influences on social behavior. Her lab is working with researchers at the Marcus Autism Center in Atlanta to maximize any potential translational impact of its research findings. Finding their voice: Zebra finches are highly social birds. In the wild they nest together in large colonies. Only adult males sing, primarily to court females. From the time they hatch, the males begin listening for song, and memorizing particular songs, even before they can actually sing one. “Up until around day 50, they are making little cheeps and warbles, what we call ‘subsong,’” Pilgeram explains. “It’s similar to human infants who begin to babble at around six months without actually talking.” During this sensitive listening phase, a male zebra finch pays closest attention to the song of its father, even though it can hear other adult males nearby. In a laboratory environment, research shows that if a biological father is removed from a cage before a male hatches and then substituted with a “foster father” that they can interact with, the young male will prefer the song of the foster father over other males it can hear. The young males demonstrate this preference by pressing levers that allow them to hear playback of different songs. Learning from their environment: “The young birds have got to learn all that they can from their environment,” Pilgeram says. “Just as during human development, the birds pay the closest attention to their immediate caregivers, on whom they rely for everything.” Around day 50, the young male finches enter puberty and what is called the “plastic song phase.” During this time, they practice their song motor skills and actively try to produce song. Although they begin to shift their attention away from their fathers and show a preference for hearing songs of other males, each young male still practices dad’s tune. By day 100, most male zebra finches are fully singing their father’s song. They have reached adulthood and their tune has “crystalized” into the song that they will sing for the rest of their lives. In previous research, the Maney lab found that the stronger the preference a male zebra finch shows for its father’s song during the early listening phase, the more closely its crystalized adult song will mimic that of the father. The role of oxytocin: For the current paper, the researchers wanted to test whether the oxytocin system played a role in that preference. The research centered on male juvenile zebra finches hatched in the lab. At day four, the fathers were removed from each of the youngsters’ cages so they were raised only by their mothers. The cages were enclosed in chambers that prevented the young birds from hearing song from other birds housed nearby. Beginning at day 27 in a young bird’s life, it was exposed to a series of tutoring sessions by two different adult male tutors that it had never heard. The tutor’s cage was placed next to the cage of the young bird, or pupil. When it was exposed to one of the tutors, the pupil was given a substance that blocked its oxytocin receptors from activating. When the young bird was exposed to the other tutor it received a control substance that allowed its oxytocin receptors to function normally. After completing a series of tutoring sessions, the pupils were presented with two different levers they could press in their cages. Pressing one lever was more likely to play the song they heard when their oxytocin receptors were blocked. The other lever was more likely to play the song they heard with normally functioning oxytocin. The results showed that early in their development, the juveniles favored the song that they heard when their oxytocin was not blocked. Building on past findings: “We also found that when their oxytocin was not blocked, the birds’ developmental milestones fit the same data curve as in our previous research,” Maney says. “They showed an early preference for the song of one tutor, then switched to preferring the other song during puberty.” The preference flattened out as they began singing the song of their chosen tutor, she adds. And the stronger the preference that they showed for the chosen tutor’s song during the early listening phase, the more closely their own adult song resembled that of the chosen tutor. The researchers also noted behavioral differences in the way the pupils and tutors interacted. With normally functioning oxytocin, a pupil pecked more often at the wall of its cage facing the tutor and more often preened in a fashion known to be associated with focused listening in the birds, compared to when its oxytocin was blocked. “Our results suggest that the oxytocin system is involved in how an animal decides where to focus its attention very early in its life,” Pilgeram says. Co-authors of the study include Carlos Rodríguez-Saltos, who received his doctorate from Emory and is now at Illinois State University; postdoctoral fellow Nicole Baran; research technicians Matthew Davis and Erik Iverson; and Emory undergraduates Sumin Lee, Emily Kim and Aditya Bhise. The work was funded by the National Science Foundation and the Silvio O. Conte Center for Oxytocin and Social Cognition. eScienceCommons: 'Love hormone' guides young songbirds in choice of.
Zebra finches are highly social birds and will press a lever in order to hear a recording of another Zebra finch singing. (Photo by Carlos Rodríguez-Saltos)
By Carol Clark: Oxytocin, the so-called “love hormone,” plays a key role in the process of how a young zebra finch learns to sing by imitating its elders, suggests a new study by neuroscientists at Emory University. Scientific Reports published the findings, which add to the understanding of the neurochemistry of social learning. “We found that the oxytocin system is involved from an early age in male zebra finches learning song,” says Natalie Pilgeram, first author of the study and an Emory PhD candidate in psychology. “It’s basic science that may lead to insights into the process of vocal learning across the animal kingdom, including humans.” “Our results suggest that the neurochemistry of early social bonds, particularly during language learning, may be relevant in studies of autism,” adds Donna Maney, a professor of neuroscience in Emory’s Department of Psychology and senior author of the study. Young male zebra finches learn to sing by listening to an adult male tutor that they choose to pay close attention to, normally their biological father or a “foster” father who nurtures them. This social process holds some similarities for how children learn to speak, making the birds a laboratory model for the neural underpinnings of social vocal learning. In the current paper, the researchers show how oxytocin, a hormone essential to social bonding, influences young finches exposed only to the songs of unfamiliar males. In experiments, blocking the young birds’ oxytocin receptors while they listened to a male biased the birds against that male’s song. Instead they preferred to listen to and eventually learn the song of a male they heard when their oxytocin receptors were allowed to function normally. The paper builds on previous work by the Maney lab regarding the hormonal and genetic influences on social behavior. Her lab is working with researchers at the Marcus Autism Center in Atlanta to maximize any potential translational impact of its research findings. Finding their voice: Zebra finches are highly social birds. In the wild they nest together in large colonies. Only adult males sing, primarily to court females. From the time they hatch, the males begin listening for song, and memorizing particular songs, even before they can actually sing one. “Up until around day 50, they are making little cheeps and warbles, what we call ‘subsong,’” Pilgeram explains. “It’s similar to human infants who begin to babble at around six months without actually talking.” During this sensitive listening phase, a male zebra finch pays closest attention to the song of its father, even though it can hear other adult males nearby. In a laboratory environment, research shows that if a biological father is removed from a cage before a male hatches and then substituted with a “foster father” that they can interact with, the young male will prefer the song of the foster father over other males it can hear. The young males demonstrate this preference by pressing levers that allow them to hear playback of different songs. Learning from their environment: “The young birds have got to learn all that they can from their environment,” Pilgeram says. “Just as during human development, the birds pay the closest attention to their immediate caregivers, on whom they rely for everything.” Around day 50, the young male finches enter puberty and what is called the “plastic song phase.” During this time, they practice their song motor skills and actively try to produce song. Although they begin to shift their attention away from their fathers and show a preference for hearing songs of other males, each young male still practices dad’s tune. By day 100, most male zebra finches are fully singing their father’s song. They have reached adulthood and their tune has “crystalized” into the song that they will sing for the rest of their lives. In previous research, the Maney lab found that the stronger the preference a male zebra finch shows for its father’s song during the early listening phase, the more closely its crystalized adult song will mimic that of the father. The role of oxytocin: For the current paper, the researchers wanted to test whether the oxytocin system played a role in that preference. The research centered on male juvenile zebra finches hatched in the lab. At day four, the fathers were removed from each of the youngsters’ cages so they were raised only by their mothers. The cages were enclosed in chambers that prevented the young birds from hearing song from other birds housed nearby. Beginning at day 27 in a young bird’s life, it was exposed to a series of tutoring sessions by two different adult male tutors that it had never heard. The tutor’s cage was placed next to the cage of the young bird, or pupil. When it was exposed to one of the tutors, the pupil was given a substance that blocked its oxytocin receptors from activating. When the young bird was exposed to the other tutor it received a control substance that allowed its oxytocin receptors to function normally. After completing a series of tutoring sessions, the pupils were presented with two different levers they could press in their cages. Pressing one lever was more likely to play the song they heard when their oxytocin receptors were blocked. The other lever was more likely to play the song they heard with normally functioning oxytocin. The results showed that early in their development, the juveniles favored the song that they heard when their oxytocin was not blocked. Building on past findings: “We also found that when their oxytocin was not blocked, the birds’ developmental milestones fit the same data curve as in our previous research,” Maney says. “They showed an early preference for the song of one tutor, then switched to preferring the other song during puberty.” The preference flattened out as they began singing the song of their chosen tutor, she adds. And the stronger the preference that they showed for the chosen tutor’s song during the early listening phase, the more closely their own adult song resembled that of the chosen tutor. The researchers also noted behavioral differences in the way the pupils and tutors interacted. With normally functioning oxytocin, a pupil pecked more often at the wall of its cage facing the tutor and more often preened in a fashion known to be associated with focused listening in the birds, compared to when its oxytocin was blocked. “Our results suggest that the oxytocin system is involved in how an animal decides where to focus its attention very early in its life,” Pilgeram says. Co-authors of the study include Carlos Rodríguez-Saltos, who received his doctorate from Emory and is now at Illinois State University; postdoctoral fellow Nicole Baran; research technicians Matthew Davis and Erik Iverson; and Emory undergraduates Sumin Lee, Emily Kim and Aditya Bhise. The work was funded by the National Science Foundation and the Silvio O. Conte Center for Oxytocin and Social Cognition. Source: eScienceCommons
Most red flowers are visited by birds, rather than bees. 
BirdCast
A male Montagu’s harrier in a wheat field – credit, 
Mistle thrush feeds orphaned blackbird juvenile Credit: Andrew Fusek-Peters via SWNS
Thick-billed parrots – Credit: OVIS / Ernesto Enkerlin Hoeflich
Twycross Zoo’s new red-fronted macaws – SWNS
By Frank Wouters (originally posted to Flickr as papegaai, 
Submitted by Costakis Constantinou: In a heartwarming video, a 67-year-old actor from Cyprus became determined to use his CPR expertise to save a tiny, helpless sparrow. The avian creature was found unconsciousness following an “unfortunate pool mishap”. In the background of the video, you can hear a chorus of teasing and snickering, with voices urging him to dispose of the seemingly lifeless bird—but 
