Author: Sarah Courchesne
AFO meetings | Annual members meeting (virtual) on May 22, 2023
Please join us for AFO’s 2023 Business Meeting on Monday, May 22nd at 3pm Eastern Time on Zoom. We will provide an update on our Communications and Marketing Specialist position along with voting on nominations to Council positions (See Agenda below). Check out our website for names and biographies of our nominees. Directly following the […] Read More
Guest feature | Use of acoustic monitoring to estimate occupancy of the Antioquia Brushfinch (Atlapetes blancae), a critically endangered species, in San Pedro de los Milagros, Antioquia
The Antioquia Brushfinch (Atlapetes blancae) is a range restricted bird limited to a plateau in the Central Andes of Colombia, just 45 minutes from the city of Medellín, Colombia. This species was described in 2007 by a British ornithologist based on three museum specimens collected in 1971 by the brothers of a Christian organization committed […] Read More
OC bimonthly news brief March-April 2023
The Ornithological Council is pleased to provide this bimonthly report covering activities in March and April 2023. The Ornithological Council’s mission is to: Our work focuses on animal welfare issues, permits, research funding, and other policies that affect ornithologists and ornithological societies. We greatly appreciate your support. Please contact Laura Bies with questions or concerns […] Read More
Birds of East Africa (Second Edition)
This is the second edition of this highly successful field guide. The first edition appeared in 2002 and was entitled Field Guide to the Birds of East Africa. There has also been a shift in publisher from T & AD Poyser to Helm Field Guides in the Bloomsbury Publishing stable. The guide covers Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. This hits rather a ‘sweet spot’ in terms of geographical coverage, with the other relevant major field guides covering either smaller or larger areas... Read More
Guest feature | What’s on the menu? Exploring diet across two European Hawfinch populations
Understanding the diet of a species can help us see how they interact within the ecosystem in which they live. Having knowledge of what an organism is eating can tell us a lot about the survival, reproduction success, and overall fitness of that organism. Focusing on birds more specifically, having a high level of knowledge […] Read More
Guest feature | When small is big – Habitat requirements of three Owlet species and their conservation in Central India
Imagine discovering an Owl so small that it was called an Owlet which later became extinct for over a century! That’s precisely what happened with the Forest Owlet, a small owl species found in Central India. In 1872, a specimen was collected by F. R. Blewitt and subsequently described by Hume in 1873. However, the […] Read More
Field Guide to the Birds of the Dominican Republic and Haiti
Hispaniola, the second largest island in the West Indies, provides habitat to 318 species of resident and migratory birds. This high species richness is related to the island’s diverse ecosystems and a complex geological history resulting from the merging of different land masses approximately 9 million years ago, as well as climatic changes in the Pleistocene that facilitated speciation. These events played a role in the evolution of 34 endemic species including six endemic genera... Read More
Guest feature | Video nest monitoring to aid recovery of island birds
The conservation of birds on oceanic islands is particularly challenging. These species may have inherently small population sizes, inhabit limited ranges, and be vulnerable to changes in the predator community. As explorers and settlers inevitably arrived, they altered habitats and introduced new predatory species. These changes led to drastic reductions, and occasional extinctions, in island […] Read More