Drop In Daddy Long Legs Is Devastating Bird Populations

Warm summers are dramatically reducing populations of daddy long legs, which in turn is having a severe impact on the bird populations which rely on them for food.

New research by a team of bird experts, including Newcastle University's Dr Mark Whittingham, spells out for the first time how climate change may affect upland bird species like the golden plover – perhaps pushing it towards local extinction by the end of the century.

Lees meer: Science Daily
              Birdwatch

Male Nightingales Explore by Day, Seduce by Night

Those who live near nightingale nests know all too well that the males often sing all night.

Yet the birds aren't considered nocturnal animals, as they feed, socialize, and do most of their singing during daylight hours.

"We were really curious why it was that some nightingales were singing in the middle of the night," said Valentin Amrhein of the University of Basel in Switzerland, lead author of a new study on the birds.

Lees meer: National Geographic News

Climate 'hitting Europe's birds'

Climate change is already having an impact on European bird species, according to British scientists.

Details of the study by an international team of researchers have been published in the journal Plos One.

Some birds are expected to do well as temperatures rise, but these are in the minority, the researchers write.

Lees meer: BBC News

Bizarre bird behavior predicted by game theory

A team of scientists, led by the University of Exeter, has used game theory to explain the bizarre behaviour of a group of ravens. Juvenile birds from a roost in North Wales have been observed adopting the unusual strategy of foraging for food in 'gangs'. New research, published in the journal PLoS One (on Wednesday 25 February 2009), explains how this curious behaviour can be predicted by adapting models more commonly used by economists to analyse financial trends.

This is the first time game theory has been used to successfully predict novel animal behaviour in the real world. The researchers believe this analysis could also shed light on the variation in feeding strategies in different populations in other species.

Lees meer: Biology News Net