endangered species

California Clapper Rail Study by the USGS

Book researcher, freelance writer, and photographer Ingrid Taylar was on hand in January 2009, when a US Geological Survey team from the Western Ecological Research Center arrived to band and radio-tag the remaining thousand or so California Clapper Rails in the Bay Area. Here's her story. read more »

RELATED
Topics & Themes:  science

Hakalau Forest National Refuge - With Jack Jeffrey

Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge was created in 1985 to protect endangered birds and their rainforest habitat. Only about 25% of old-growth forests remain on the Big Island of Hawaii, and people like Jack Jeffrey have been working to protect and restore them. 60-70% of the plants in Hawaii... read more »

RELATED
Topics & Themes:  ecology

California Clapper Rails on San Francisco Bay

Once abundant around San Francisco Bay, the California Clapper Rail is today endangered. In the 19th Century, unregulated hunting plundered the species. In the 20th Century, rampant development reduced saltmarsh habitat by 85%. But in the 21st Century, the California Clapper Rail has allies!... read more »

RELATED
Topics & Themes:  science

The Endangered Spoon-billed Sandpiper - With Gerrit Vyn

Gerrit Vyn of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology recorded the Spoon-billed Sandpiper in the far northeast of Russia, where as few as 100 remaining pairs breed each summer. This sandpiper depends on key coastal wetlands near the Yellow Sea to fuel the long-distance migration to its wintering areas.... read more »

RELATED
Topics & Themes:  human interaction, migration, nesting

Condors in the Pacific Northwest

In 1805, members of the Lewis and Clark expedition, while exploring north of the Columbia River, came upon a California Condor. David Douglas, the English naturalist, collecting the flora and fauna of the Columbia River country in the mid-1820s, found the great birds abundant along the lower... read more »

RELATED
Topics & Themes:  history

People Caring for IBAs - With Patrick Comins

Patrick Comins, Director of Bird Conservation for Audubon Connecticut, explains why Long Beach and its adjoining salt marsh near the town of Stratford are so important for birds. Nearly 300 species of birds, including Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs like these, have been recorded at Great Meadows,... read more »

RELATED
Topics & Themes:  environmental champion

In Celebration of Earth Day

The populations of some birds have declined dramatically ... more than 80% in the past 40 years. Here are a few: the Northern Bobwhite, the Evening Grosbeak, the Northern Pintail, and the Boreal Chickadee. Common Terns ... like this one ... migrate along both coasts and through the interior to... read more »

RELATED

Operation Migration

Unlike many other birds that have an inherent sense of direction and destination, young Whooping Cranes have to learn their migration route from the adults. Enter Operation Migration and ultralight aircraft to lead them on their journey! Fortunately, the young cranes need to be shown the way only... read more »

RELATED
Topics & Themes:  migration

Short-tailed Albatross Chick Survives Tsunami

In January 2011, a pair of Short-tailed Albatrosses produced their first chick on Midway Atoll. Never before had this endangered bird bred outside of Japan. But in March, while the parents were foraging at sea, the tsunami that struck Japan also reached Midway, washing the chick off its nest.... read more »

RELATED
Topics & Themes:  nesting

Northern Spotted Owl

A Northern Spotted Owl hoots from deep within a Northwest forest. We know the Spotted Owl best as an unwitting symbol of an ongoing political and economic struggle. We've seen its dark eyes peering from the pages of a newspaper. A Spotted Owl stands about a foot-and-a-half tall. It's adapted to... read more »

RELATED

Pages